By NATASHA STOYNOFF
Toronto Sun
"There are maybe 12 women, one every hundred years or so, born with that kind of body," Goldberg states admiringly of her curvy co-star in The Associate, "So when Bebe dropped her clothes, I was like, `Yeah! All right!'"
Such supportive sisterhood with her female "associates," including Dianne Wiest, seems thematically fitting. The film, opening Friday, follows the current rage in the First Wives Club vein -- women bonding together in the power play between the sexes.
"It's a film about what we do to ourselves," says Goldberg, "by allowing others to limit us."
Goldberg plays Laurel, an ace financial analyst who can't get ahead in the business world of Boys Club bosses (Eli Wallach), a conniving male co-worker (Tim Daly), and a catty, bosom-baring rival (Neuwirth). To climb up the corporate Wall Street ladder, she fabricates the existence of a Remington Steele-like partner to give her clout. In an homage to Marlon Brando, Goldberg scurries through a few scenes looking like a pony-tailed, chipmunk-cheeked Godfather -- a transformation that took 3 1/2 hours, seven layers of make-up and a fat suit -- to bring the imaginary workmate to life.
"I figured, if I get to be a powerful white guy with magnetism," says Goldberg, "why not Brando?"
Based on the French farce, L'Associe, Goldberg began blasting the script of stereotypes when she read the first draft three years ago. Originally written for a male Jim Carrey-like lead, 16 re-writes later it's been snipped of "lots of old-fashioned ideas."
Like...men, for instance.
"I don't believe this idea that every woman in a movie has to have a romantic interest -- life is too short!" says Goldberg, who convinced screenwriter Nick Thiel (V.I. Warshawski) to concentrate instead on the blossoming friendship between Laurel and her executive assistant (Wiest).
"(Writers) insert this `thing' as though you're Doris Day having to show that all you really want all along is to have lots of babies and stay home," Goldberg says, shaking her head.
"I've gotten as many men as I want in movies and now I try to take them out as often as I can. It's important to show relationships between men and women that aren't sexual and show a woman can survive on her own," she says. "Besides, 90% of the time women watch those scenes, they think, `Nobody (has sex) like that, I'll never look like that, this isn't real."
To inject some realism, Goldberg and Thiel interviewed Wall Street women who divulged real-life job nightmares.
"I asked one VP what was the worst thing she had to go through to get to the top," says Thiel, "she said,`taking clients to strip clubs. You sit there, it's humiliating, but your clients want to go. Now that I'm president, I send my boys to do it.'"
Most women are still complaining about not being taken seriously in meetings," says Thiel, "and others taking credit for their work. And they are very resentful of women who believe their power is that they are attractive, and try to influence men that way."
Emmy and Tony award-winning actress Neuwirth, who struts in high heels and low necklines as a stockbroker flaunting her sex appeal, hopes to show "there are women who may live their lives this way, but it's not right. This message is for those women, and for those who perpetuate this kind of business world."
Hacking her way through the Hollywood audition jungle, Neuwirth considers herself lucky to have escaped any casting couch tug-of-wars. "People find it hard to believe, but somehow fate has kept me clear of these people," says Neuwirth.
Strong, realistic female roles on the big screen, however, remain elusive.
"Women are usually beautiful victims or monsters...or `smart' girls who have no life," complains Neuwirth, best known for her role in Cheers. "And they are written only as the foil for the guy. I can't tell you how many times I'll be reading a script, thinking, `This is really, really good,' and then you get to the woman's part, and you think, `Did the writer go brain dead? This doesn't sound like a woman talking! More like a really bad TV version of a stereotype of a woman..."
Usually typecast as the perpetual good-guy, Wings actor Daly is quick to point out the stereotyping "is a universal theme -- it's not just women." Daly says he felt "proud" when audiences booed and hissed his character at a preview screening, giving him a chance to break from his boy-scout persona. "That's what this movie is about -- how people are perceived. In some ways everybody has gone through this experience." So please, urge the producers, don't call this a chick flick.
"Whether you're a man or a woman, whether you're black or white, there has been a time in your life when you have not been seen as the person you really are," says co-producer Adam Leipzig.
Breaking through the "glass ceiling" that holds you down, adds Goldberg, is a matter of mind.
"That phrase is like the N-word they used to call us," says Goldberg.
"All it's meant to do is stop you in your tracks. As we look around and see more women involved in businesses traditionally thought of as male bastions, that ceiling is already broken. Everybody is just playing catch up now."
THE ASSOCIATE FILE
WHY GOLDBERG DOESN'T NEED A MAN ON SCREEN: "Listen, my love life has been splashed all over the newspapers...there's no question what a sexy woman I am."
WHY NEUWIRTH WAS HAPPY TO SEDUCE GOLDBERG: "Cause I think Marlon Brando is one of the sexiest men I've ever seen."
WHY DALY MINDED KISSING GOLDBERG: "Because it was like kissing a Marlon Brando who reeked of rubber."
HOW THIEL CHECKED HIS FEMALE DIALOGUE FOR AUTHENTICITY: "I ran lines from each draft over with my wife."