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CNN Showbiz This Weekend
'Psychosexual Funk' Used in R&B Artist Maxwell's Third Album; 'Band of Brothers' a New HBO Mini Series; Mark Wahlberg Wears Leather Pants in 'Rock Star'
Aired September 08, 2001 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL TUSH, HOST: Hello. I am at Bill Tush and we are Woodstock, New York. Why, you ask? Well it is not a rock concert, I can tell you that. It is the Woodstock Film Festival happening September 20- 23. And this is the second year in a row. It when filmmakers and fans gather in this quaint little village, get a room at a bed and breakfast and just watch movies for few days.
We are going to talk to some of the propel who put the film festival together and also meet some of the filmmakers that have movies they will be showing here.
And while we gather ourselves together to do that, Sherri Sylvester has been a busy little lady. She has already gone to the movies to catch what is opening this fall. So she had a film festival all her own.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are just the titles of the 130 plus pictures opening between now and Christmas. The studios are subscribing to a daily delivery of new releases. You could read the fine print, or simply classify these features as if they were sections of your newspaper. They will all be competing for headlines.
JEFF JENSON, "ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY": We're going to see the Oscar race really starting to heat up, a series of movies come out, especially in the acting award categories.
SYLVESTER: Brad Pitt and Robert Redford team for "Spy Game." It's Redford and James Gandolfini in "The Last Castle." Kevin Spacey leads an all-Oscar cast in "The Shipping News." He's an alien opposite Jeff Bridges in "K-Pax." In "A Beautiful Mind," Russell Crowe and Ron Howard tell the story of a mathematician with schizophrenia.
RUSSELL CROWE, ACTOR: He succumbed to the disease and about three decades later he managed to outthink it, and in '94 he was presented with the Nobel prize for economics.
SYLVESTER: Nicholas Cage honors the Navajo code breakers of World War II in "Windtalkers." Hilary Swank goes back to the French Revolution for "The Affair Of The Necklace." Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruise remake a Spanish hit, "Vanilla Sky," with director Cameron Crowe.
TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: I like the way he calls it. It's not a remake, but it is a cover of a great song.
SYLVESTER: Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton cover the crime beat with "Bandits." Gene Hackman is stealing gold in David Mamet's "Heist." Denzel Washington is a corrupt cop in "Training Day." It's back to the future in "The One" -- Jet Li is a time-traveling killer.
The underworld of the past is explored by Leonardo Dicaprio in Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York."
HEATHER GRAHAM, ACTRESS: I did a movie with Johnny Depp called "From Hell" that the Hughes brothers directed that is a really scary movie about Jack the Ripper.
SYLVESTER: New twists on classic stories include "The Musketeer," and "The Count Of Monte Cristo."
SYLVESTER: "The Lord Of The Rings" leads the book review for December. Meanwhile, bestsellers abound. Dave Barry's "Big Trouble" and Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis" boast big stars. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" has built-in buzz.
JOHN HURT: The sets were incredible, and I had my two children there and they were completely knocked out.
SYLVESTER: From the folks who brought you "Toy Story" comes "Monsters Incorporated." "Max Keeble's Big Move" is family fare as well. On the flip side, family terror is the topic of "Don't Say a Word," "The Glass House," and "Domestic Disturbance."
On the sports page, Will Smith as "Ali" and the inner-city players of "Hard Ball" "Shallow Hal" only sees Gwyneth Paltrow's inner beauty, not her fat suit. Chris Kattan is "Corky Romano." Steve Martin offers a shot of "Novocaine." And Ben Stiller's comic turns include the male model spoof "Zoolander." With more than one film for every day left in the year, there should be something for everybody.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUSH: A very personal project for Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg comes to HBO. The World War II story "band of Brothers."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUSH: this is Bearsville Theater. They transform it into a movie theater for the film festival and opening night film called "Novocaine." This is Paul Mones who produced that film. It stars Steve Martin, Laura Dern, and Helen Bonham Carter.
I watched it and I liked it a lot. Is it a dark comedy? What do you call it? PAUL MONES, PRODUCER, "NOVOCAINE": I call it sort of walking the fine line between genres. I just want to say that I produced it with another partner named Daniel Rosenberg. What I liked about it when I first read the original script was that it wasn't a specific dark comedy nor obviously broad comedy. And it had mysteries -- I mean elements of a mystery in there and, like I say, walks the fine line of lot of genres, which appeals to me.
TUSH: Woodstock, we were talking about earlier, you are a Hollywood producer, but you move up here because you want to get away from that scene on a daily basis and what happens? All of a sudden you go into a restaurant and who is sitting there? Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, who else?
MONES: Many others.
TUSH: This has become like a little Hollywood up here?
MONES: Yeah.
TUSH: Pretty wild.
MONES: I guess it has always been an art community. It has always a huge music in and out because of the recording studios here. But all of a sudden it has been discovered by Hollywood and people are building houses and buying real estate.
TUSH: And there goes the neighborhood.
MONES: It is like walking into Thrifty in L.A.
TUSH: Paul Mones, the film is "Novocaine." It will be playing here on the same stage that Bob Dillon played on.
MONES: That's right.
TUSH: All right. Another producer you have heard of, Steven Spielberg, has teamed up with Tom Hanks to produce a thing called "Band of Brothers." A series that is going to be on HBO. And it is about a company of soldiers doing World War II, a personal close thing to both Speilberg and Hanks. Good to see you.
MONES: A pleasure.
TUSH: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): War was hell and it froze over during the Battle of the Bulge for Easy Company, elite paratroopers from the 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
Easy Company's harrowing experiences from D-Day to World War II's end are chronicled in "Band of Brothers," a 10-part HBO mini series executive produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. STEVEN SPIELBERG, CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "BAND OF BROTHERS": These guys got terribly wounded, you know, Easy Company was decimated in term of casualties, but so many of them went to hospital and then returned to the front line and then fought in the Ardennes and fought at Market Garden.
VERCAMMEN: Spielberg and Hanks heavily mined two sources for "Band of Brothers," unearthing content from Stephen Ambrose's acclaimed book and digging up cinematic texture from their collaboration on "Saving Private Ryan."
TOM HANKS, CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "BAND OF BROTHERS": If there is anything that I was disappointed at in "Saving Private Ryan," is that we really got only got about three days of June of 1944. And to be able to start in July 1942 and go all the way to August, and even beyond in some ways, that, to me, was a thing that was going to be completely different about what we were doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BAND OF BROTHERS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I lost a man today -- Hall, a John Hall, a New Yorker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: "Band of Brothers" is about real people, and the central figure is calm and revered Lieutenant Dick Winters, played by Damian Lewis, an actor Spielberg discovered on the English stage.
DAMIAN LEWIS, ACTOR: I'm thinking, Jesus, I've got to go home and think about my American accent. I've got to make my performance interesting just so people don't switch off by episode three.
VERCAMMEN: Perhaps the only name actor in the mini series -- David Schwimmer, as an exacting lieutenant vying to whip Easy's paratroopers into shape.
DAVID SCHWIMMER, ACTOR: They were united in their fear and hatred of him, and whether they liked it or not, he did his job. So in my eyes, he's a hero.
VERCAMMEN: Most of "Band of Brothers" was filmed in England on elaborate sets at the location base for "Saving Private Ryan." Hanks isn't afraid to say they spent $120 million on the series.
HANKS: This isn't top secret. Who cares? This is the facts, it's only the truth, and that never comes back to hurt you.
VERCAMMEN: Hanks would argue every cent was well spent on "Band of Brothers" in this era of reality shows, a mind-bending tale of survivors.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "BAND OF BROTHERS")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You're the only officer that made it?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: So far. Still waiting for orders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERCAMMEN: Paul Vercammen, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUSH: Still to come, Mark Walberg is a rock star and Maxwell, he is an R&B star.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUSH: This is an interesting building. It was the Colony Hotel built in 1927. Now it is home to Colony Cafe and Colony Art Center. And let's say hello to the people that founded the Woodstock Film Festival. Meira Blaustein and and Laurent Rejto two years ago you started this?
MEIRA BLAUSTEIN, CO-FOUNDER, WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL: Yes.
TUSH: And here you are, second year and rolling. How many films do you have this year?
BLAUSTEIN: We have well over 100 films. It is amazing how quickly it has grown. Last year we had 80 films, this year we had to stop at about 130. So that's really great.
LAURENT REJTO, CO-FOUNDER, WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL: Woodstock being an artist colony is able to show some appreciation which some other towns aren't. So when the filmmakers come here and the musicians come here they feel a kinship with the people in the town and in the community which is something they really appreciate as opposed to maybe a business dealing at another film festival. Here it is about the aesthetics and what are you trying to say.
TUSH: We talked a little bit earlier to Paul Mones and he said he likes it is because it is an independent thing and everybody is not out making deals like they do in at Cannes and all of these other places.
REJTO: Right and you can leave your cell phone at home too because they don't work here.
TUSH: They don't, that is right. Nobody knows that. You can't use cell phones in Woodstock because they don't have any of the antennas up on the mountains, right?
BLAUSTEIN: And they never will.
TUSH: No, you don't change this town. I am surprised the films aren't (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
Anyway, we are going to go and meet some more folks and we are going to go to a movie now called "Rock Star," with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He battled the high seas for "The Perfect Storm," but playing the title character in "Rock Star" required Mark Wahlberg to weather leather pants.
MARK WAHLBERG, ACTOR: You put on the tightest possible pants you can, cram them as far up your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) as you can. Excuse my language, but that's what you got to do,
JENNIFER ANISTON, ACTRESS: They weren't allowed to wear underwear and it was the summer as well, and it was hot. I mean, it was pretty funny.
SYLVESTER: As Wahlberg's leading lady, Jennifer Aniston got a kick out of watching these rock wannabes fuss over the makeup, hair and costumes of the '80s.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ROCK STAR")
WAHLBERG: First of all, the lapels are supposed to be blue. There's no green in the embroidery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SYLVESTER: He is a loser leading a cover band until he gets the call to replace the idol he imitates. Wahlberg, who spent years trying to forget his days as rapper Marky Mark, took a crash course in rock'n'roll.
WAHLBERG: I went to the Poison/Rat concert. I went to as many concerts as I could and watched every tape that I could get my hands on, and just stole as much as I could from all of these guys. But they were really helpful. You know, they were into the idea, and they kind of were chuckling at the idea of a rapper playing a rocker.
SYLVESTER: Aniston's husband, Brad Pitt, had already done similar research. He was originally the star, but the scheduling never worked out. Aniston came on board later, looking into the lives of the wives of musicians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ROCK STAR")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Wives and girlfriend, well, they're not allowed on the bus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANISTON: I have respect for anybody who can actually maintain a relationship in that world. I think it's pretty, pretty wild. And I feel that if I missed out on anything in my life, any wild experiences, I kind of had my fill.
SYLVESTER: Real musicians were mixed into the cast, along with actors. Wahlberg wasn't required to sing on the soundtrack, but did take lessons.
WAHLBERG: I wanted to sing live during all the concerts anyway, no matter how bad I sounded, and they ended up using a lot of my vocals.
SYLVESTER: Brad Pitt bought his wife guitar lessons for her birthday, but neither she nor Wahlberg are ready to go down that rocky road.
ANISTON: Going on tour is just so much different than going home, getting up, going to work, going up, getting up and going -- you know, it's a sort of very normal 9:00 to 5:00 job I have.
WAHLBERG: It is a very, very dangerous lifestyle, very dangerous. Not all the guys are living on the edge, but most of them are. I was glad I got to experience it for six months and walk away.
SYLVESTER: Both say they left their leather pants behind.
Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
TUSH: Certainly one of the most popular songs of 1980s, "Love Shack Baby," the B-52s, Kate Pierson from the B-52s.
KATE PIERSON, SINGER: Hi.
TUSH: But, Kate performs as a solo act, but will be performing at a party opening night, the big Woodstock Film Festival opening night party, will you be performing solo, with some friends, though. So, I guess it is kind of solo, but it is not the B-52s.
PIERSON: Not the B-52s. I have been doing some solo recording and writing songs for a solo record and Sara Lee has a new album out. And she played bass with the B-52s for a long time and she plays with lots of other bands and Gail Ann Dorsey, who is going to play...
TUSH: And she is over there.
PIERSON: She is here. And she is working on a solo record.
TUSH: The film festival is September 20 through the 23. Tickets are available. Come up and have a great little weekend.
PIERSON: It is going to be amazing.
TUSH: You can you see Kate perform. And come to the Cahoots party and boo Keith. They are doing a he-said, she-said kind of thing with the film festival. They have got some films that are geared towards women and then there is Keith Carradine. Do you know who directed "Kahoots?"
PIERSON: Let me consult my notes here. TUSH: A guy from the "A-Team" who played "Face" on the "A-Team." Now he is behind the cameras. Kate, do the honors and introduce Gail to us and she is going to play a little bit for us. And this is a sample of what you will see if you come to the film festival.
PIERSON: This is song from a famous film.
TUSH: Right, one of my favorites.
PIERSON: "Alfie"
TUSH: And this is Gail...
PIERSON: Gail Ann Dorsey singing "Alfie."
TUSH: Take it away. And we will be back.
(music)
TUSH: Coming up, he is a sex machine with all the chicks -- Maxwell.
(MUSIC)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUSH: We are back our preview of the Woodstock Film Festival happening September 20 through September 23. We met Kate and Gail, who will be playing opening night ceremonies. Closing night ceremonies, Jimmy Eppert and the Retro Rockets. We were telling everybody about how this is a big music colony up in Woodstock, as everybody knows. You have a recording studio here?
JIMMY EPPERT, RETROROCKETS: I do have recording studio here.
TUSH: So you don't even have to leave town, do you?
EPPERT: I do, though.
TUSH: Well, you have got to tour, right?
EPPERT: You got to do what you got to do.
TUSH: Well, you are going to play for us in a minute, and what we are going to do now is meet a guy my the name of Maxwell who has got another R&B album out, very hot with ladies, I understand and not only that, but his biggest claim to fame is, he went to school with our audio man, Roy's brother. So that put him on the map right there. What can I tell you?
Here is Maxwell, and then back with Jimmy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC) LAURIN SYDNEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With his emotionally charged grooves and soulful seductive sounds, Maxwell has a number one record and legions of loyal fans.
MAXWELL, R&B ARTIST: Girls are like sweet, and guys are like, "yo, thanks, last night was cool because we put you in," and stuff like that happens. It's a real vibe with the people who dig what I do.
SYDNEY: And people do dig what he does. "Now," his third album, debuted on top of Billboard's albums chart. His music is described as "Psychosexual Funk." The afro-sporting sex symbol doesn't want to touch the often made comparisons to Prince and Marvin Gaye.
MAXWELL: My ego's cool with it, trust, but I think I got so much living to do, so much experiences to have. I think I need a couple more records.
SYDNEY: It was a mix of musical influences that helped shape Maxwell's sound. He was born in Brooklyn of West Indian and Puerto Rican heritage.
MAXWELL: It just kind of broadened things up for me, having that at the house, and Run DMC is playing outside, and my mom was into country music, and it just kind of made me see that, you know, the variables don't have to add up like people think they should.
SYDNEY: A little bit older and a lot wiser, Maxwell claims his attitude towards love is evolving, as is his music.
MAXWELL: I know that it would be more lucrative for me to kind of like make the music work for a younger energy, and because that's kind of what the times are about right now, you know. But I'm living now, here. This is where my head's at, and this is what the music is going to be about. It's nice to be in a realistic place right now with love.
SYDNEY: And for those listeners who need some help getting into a realistic place with love, Maxwell's happy to help.
MAXWELL: There's nothing more special than that moment and that time, and, when you know that you can set the mood right with something, and that mood, that I'm part of the mood setter -- I mean, that's nice. That's nice.
Laurin Sydney, CNN Entertainment News, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUSH: That is Show Biz for this weekend from Woodstock for the Woodstock Film Festival. And I also want to mention Ethan Hawke has a film that he has in the festival called "Chelsea Walls." He does not star in it, he directed it.
And Jimmy Eppert, doing a solo for us here, without the Retrorockets. You will close out our show. Thank you and thanks to everybody here at Woodstock. It is it all yours, buddy.
EPPERT: You are going to edit this, right?
Now you are.
TUSH: OK.
(MUSIC)
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