SEAN PENN IN BAGHDAD Sean Penn visited a Baghdad children's hospital Friday, saying he came to Iraq for a better understanding of the crisis with the United States. Penn said only that he was ``very glad I'm here'' when he arrived at the Al-Mansour Children's Hospital. He refused to talk further with reporters or allow them to join his tour of the hospital, saying he needed privacy with the sick children. In a statement issued here and in Washington. D.C., Penn said that ``as a father, an actor, a filmmaker and a patriot'' his visit to Iraq ``is for me a natural extension of my obligation ... to find my own voice on matters of conscience.'' Penn said he was happy that he had a chance ``to pursue a deeper understanding of the conflict'' and hoped that ``all Americans will embrace information available to them outside conventional channel.'' Penn's three-day visit to Iraq was organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy, which has offices in Washington and San Francisco.
SEAN PENN WRITES TO BUSH An Open Letter to the President of the United States of America
Mr. Bush:
Good morning sir. Like you, I am a father and an American. Like you, I consider myself a patriot. Like you, I was horrified by the events of this past year, concerned for my family and my country. However, I do not believe in a simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil. I believe this is a big world full of men, women, and children who struggle to eat, to love, to work, to protect their families, their beliefs, and their dreams. My father, like yours, was decorated for service in World War II. He raised me with a deep belief in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as they should apply to all Americans who would sacrifice to maintain them and to all human beings as a matter of principle.
Many of your actions to date and those proposed seem to violate every defining principle of this country over which you preside: intolerance of debate ("with us or against us"), marginalization of your critics, the promoting of fear through unsubstantiated rhetoric, manipulation of a quick comfort media, and position of your administration's deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim. You lead, it seems, through a blood-lined sense of entitlement. Take a close look at your most vehement media supporters. See the fear in their eyes as their loud voices of support ring out with that historically disastrous undercurrent of rage and panic masked as "straight tough talk." How far have we come from understanding what it is to kill one man, one woman, or one child, much less the "collateral damage" of many hundreds of thousands. Your use of the words, "this is a new kind of war" is often accompanied by an odd smile. It concerns me that what yo u are asking of us is to abandon all previous lessons of history in favor of following you blindly into the future. It worries me because with all your best intentions, an enormous economic surplus has been squandered. Your administration has virtually dismissed the most fundamental environmental concerns and therefore, by implication, one gets the message that, as you seem to be willing to sacrifice the children of the world, would you also be willing to sacrifice ours. I know this cannot be your aim so, I beg you Mr. President, listen to Gershwin, read chapters of Stegner, of Saroyan, the speeches of Martin Luther King. Remind yourself of America. Remember the Iraqi children, our children, and your own.
There can be no justification for the actions of Al Qaeda. Nor acceptance of the criminal viciousness of the tyrant, Saddam Hussein. Yet, that bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing, is a pattern that only a great country like ours can stop. However, principles cannot be recklessly or greedily abandoned in the guise of preserving them.
Avoiding war while accomplishing national security is no simple task. But you will recall that we Americans had a little missile problem down in Cuba once. Mr. Kennedy's restraint (and that of the nuclear submarine captain, Arkhipov) is to be aspired to. Weapons of mass destruction are clearly a threat to the entire world in any hands. But as Americans, we must ask ourselves, since the potential for Mr. Hussein to possess them threatens not only our country, (and in fact, his technology to launch is likely not yet at that high a level of sophistication) therefore, many in his own region would have the greatest cause for concern. Why then, is the United States, as led by your administration, in the small minority of the world nations predisposed toward a preemptive military assault on Iraq?
Simply put, sir, let us re-introduce inspection teams, inhibiting offensive capability. We buy time, maintain our principles here and abroad and demand of ourselves the ingenuity to be the strongest diplomatic muscle on the planet, perhaps in the history of the planet. The answers will come. You are a man of faith, but your saber is rattling the faith of many Americans in you.
I do understand what a tremendously daunting task it must be to stand in your shoes at this moment. As a father of two young children who will live their lives in the world as it will be affected by critical choices today, I have no choice but to believe that you can ultimately stand as a great president. History has offered you such a destiny. So again, sir, I beg you, help save America before yours is a legacy of shame and horror. Don't destroy our children's future. We will support you. You must support us, your fellow Americans, and indeed, mankind.
Defend us from fundamentalism abroad but don't turn a blind eye to the fundamentalism of a diminished citizenry through loss of civil liberties, of dangerously heightened presidential autonomy through acts of Congress, and of this country's mistaken and pervasive belief that its "manifest destiny" is to police the world. We know that Americans are frightened and angry. However, sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an unprecedented preemptive attack on a separate sovereign nation, may well prove itself a most temporary medicine. On the other hand, should you mine and have faith in the best of this country to support your leadership in representing a strong, thoughtful, and educated United States, you may well triumph for the long haul. Lead us there, Mr. President, and we will stand with you.
Sincerely, Sean Penn San Francisco, California
SEAN PENN IN ITALY Sean Penn and Robin Wright were in Milan on 21 May at Italian TV show called Telegatti, where Sean Penn awarded Sofia Loren. Aloso Liz Taylor took part in the event.
SEAN PENN AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL Sean Penn together his wife, Robin Wright was in Cannes at the Film Festival on 15 May to present his last work "The Pledge"After the Festival Sean Penn flew to Madrid to present his film as well.
THE PLEDGE, SEAN PENN'S NEW MOVIE "The Pledge" stars offered their allegiance to helmer Sean Penn at the Egyptian Theatre premiere of the Warner Bros. crime thriller Tuesday night (9, January). "He's the godfather of all the actors out there. He's an inspiration," gushed Benicio Del Toro. "He's so good at his job any actor out there will work for him for free." "Exploratory" is how Robin Wright Penn would describe her husband's directing style. "Because he's an actor he knows what you go through, and he's excited to see the new and the different." The helmer himself enjoyed the fact he made a film that he thought was not the Hollywood norm. "I like the idea of a good old-fashioned, yet not done before in America, no-good-deed-goes-unpunished yarn," Penn said. "To me what's dark or bleak or depressing in film is bad acting, the contrived plots, the same old same old. I like arrogance, confidence and opinions." Among those partying in the Sunset Room were stars Jack Nicholson with Lara Flynn Boyle, Aaron Eckhart, Vanessa Redgrave, Mickey Rourke; and guests Jacqueline Bisset, Stephen Dorff, Robert Evans, Everlast, Cuba Gooding Jr., Dennis Hopper, Carol Kane, Martin Landau, Sharon Lawrence, Dylan McDermott, Winona Ryder, Pauly Shore, Tom Sizemore, Kevin Sorbo and Peta Wilson.
THE LATE HENRY MOSS In a major coup for Bay Area theater, Sam Shepard will direct Sean Penn in the star-studded local premiere of his new play. Not much is known about Shepard's new play, except that it returns to the territory of "True West" and "Curse of the Starving Class" in that it revolves around two brothers and a larger-than-life father. Set in the mythic terrain of Shepard's American West, the play plunges into family secrets and uncovers the truth behind Henry Moss's mysterious death. The play will also feature Woody Harrelson, Cheech Marin and Nick Nolte.
SEAN PENN NOMINATED AT ACADEMY AWARDS The nominees for Best Actor in the 72nd Annual Academy Awards, announced Tuesday, Feb.15, 2000 in Beverly Hills, Calif., are, left to right: Denzel Washington, "The Hurricane"; Richard Farnsworth, "The Straight Story"; Russell Crowe, "The Insider"; Kevin Spacey, "American Beauty", and Sean Penn, "Sweet and Lowdown."
SEAN PENN NEW FILM Sean Penn is busy at moment acting in a new movie called The Weight Of The Water, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, among the other actors there are Elizabeth Hurley, Josh Lucas and Catherine McCormack.
NO SEAN PENN IN VENICE Sean Penn didn't go to Venice Film Festival to present his new movie Sweet and Lowdown, where he plays the part of a musician, Emmett Ray. The movie and Sean Penn's performance in particular, impressed positively all italian critics. In America the movie will be released on 10 December.
SEAN PENN AS HIMSELF Sean Penn plays himself in the movie Being John Malkovich, that was presented at Venice Film Festival too.
SEAN PENN AND MEG RYAN TOGETHER Sean Penn is going to act together with Meg Ryan in the movie "This man, this woman". The screeplayer is written by Federich Raphael and it's about a difficult relationship between a husband and his wife. The couple will do their best to save their marriage.
AN IRISH HERO FOR SEAN PENN Next Sean Penn's film is about an Irish king Brian Boru. Sean Penn is going to direct this film. Robin Wright Penn will also have a role.
SEAN PENN IN BERLIN Sean Penn went to Berlin Film Festival together with Nick Nolte to present "The Thin Red Line". The film won the Gold Bear Award.
CAGE WRITES OFF PENN Nicolas Cage hasn't taken kindly the comments of his buddy --make that ex-buddy--Sean Penn made in recent Newsweek and New York Times interviews, and the answer is apparently to end the friendship. "The door to our friendship is now closed," Cage told reporters in Los Angeles last month during a press junket for his current film, 8mm. "In this business, you get enough negativity from the press without having your friends dump on you in public." In a December Newsweek article previewing his then-upcoming The Thin Red Line and Hurlyburly, Penn used his old Fast Times at Ridgemont High bud as an example of what he hates to see: a talented actor doing bad movies. "I saw [Cage's] Snake Eyes last night," Penn told Newsweek. "It's not just that movie, it's most movies. As damaged as I am, as reckless as I've been, I never murdered my own 'voice.' I think actors shit on their profession all the time. They can't do a pure movie again, because they carry so much baggage." Also in December, Penn told The New York Times magazine, "Nic Cage is not an actor. He could be again, but now he's more like a...performer." It was the Newsweek jab, Cage says--coming a day after Penn visited him and his wife, Patricia Arquette, on the set of their upcoming Bring Out the Dead--that most annoyed him. "He pretended to be our best friend. We all went out for drinks and supper and he kept calling us his family, and then, the next day, he stabs me in the back." A Penn spokesperson said she hadn't heard anything about the matter and didn't offer any comment. A Cage flack, meanwhile, said she heard about her client's remarks, but had nothing to say about them.
'DEAD MAN' GOT PRETTY LIVELY "I remember Tim stopped the day early once," Sarandon tells Mirabella. "He said, 'I can't watch this. It's gotten into something else.' There was a big discussion of whether it was too sexual. Sean said, 'Yes, it is, but that's what it is.' " Sarandon — who played a nun in the flick — confesses that she and Penn had impure thoughts. "Sexual tension is all about connection, about two people seeing each other in a way nobody else does. And Sean and I were definitely connected," says Sarandon. The feeling is mutual. Says Penn: "I like everything about her from the top down."
SEAN PENN IS FED UP WITH ENTERTAINING MOVIES "If you want entertainment, you get a couple of hookers and an eightball," he says on this Sunday's edition of Bravo's Inside the Actor's Studio (8 pm/ET). "People very happily and proudly say there's room for entertainment strictly for its own sake, [but] I disagree with that. Film is just too powerful a medium to be just that. There's gotta be some kind of human sharing in it and some kind of journey and risk-taking so it's exciting not only for the audience but also for the participants." "The thing that was most inspiring to me was what I knew of the kind of excellence and commitment that DeNiro brought to the work — the respect he had for the work and the commitment."
SEAN' INTERVIEW ON THE WEB Matt Maddox informs us that he heard an interview with Sean on National Public Radio. "It was on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Luckily you can hear their past interviews on the web. Theinterview with Sean can be heard here: http://whyy.org/cgi-bin/FAshowretrieve.cgi?2536 The interview with Sean is in the scond half of the show"
SEAN AND WOODY PATCH IT UP It looks like Sean Penn is returning to New York to finish the film he started last fall with Woody Allen directing. Ordinarily, this would not be such a big deal. But Penn apparently soured on Allen's as-yet-untitled movie, in which the actor stars as a 1930s jazz trumpeter, amid reports that he was calling in sick and possibly facing a lawsuit as a result. Now they say that Penn is honoring his commitment to finish the film and has agreed to come back to New York so he can complete the reshoots that Allen needs. "This doesn't mean they've buried the hatchet," says one source close to the production. "But the film is going to be finished, and they're scheduled to do it very shortly." Reps for all involved declined comment.
SEAN PENN IN PARIS Sean Penn is the owner together with Micheal Hucknall, the singer of Simply Red, of a new restaurant, Man Ray, in Paris. Man Ray is situated at Champs-Elysèes, almost in front of Planet Hollywood. At the party together with Sean and Micheal there were among the guests Johnny Hallyday, Micheal Keaton, Stella McCartney, Kate Moss and the leader of U2, Bono.
PENN'S JET-SET COMPLAINTS Sean Penn's "everyman" image is taking a beating. The volatile star fired off a angry missive to several top execs at 20th Century Fox, including big cheese Rupert Murdoch, after his request for a private jet to fly to a Houston screening of The Thin Red Line was denied. "As I have two movies [including Hurlyburly], two children, and—as each woman is at least two people—two wives, my schedule is rather hectic," Penn writes in the Jan. 6 letter, which first appeared in Daily Variety. "I therefore requested that Mr. Murdoch's gigantic corporation might be so generous (with all the money they've earned exploiting the pain and suffering of myself and my peers in their tabloids) as to supply me with a private jet to travel to Houston," continues the letter, which USA Today says "has tongues wagging all over town." "The response was a clear NO," Penn says. Penn, who was recently portrayed in a cover story in the New York Times magazine as a regular guy who eats at Denny's and stays in motels, says he was given two reasons for not getting the plane: the $40,000 price tag and company policy. But, he fires back. "I, we, at my tiny little San Francisco office…priced the cost of such a jet ourselves. In fact it came to $16,000, which we had offered would be divided by two, as Fine Line had already committed to pay half (I would do an interview on behalf of Hurlyburly while I was there)." Penn claims that a commercial ticket would have cost around $2,000, and explains, in colorful terms, that "the final cost differential to Mr. Murdoch's pool-heating expenses: A WHOPPING $6,000 which, against the price cut I offered in my deal to act in this movie, seemed equivalent to the fair market price of one hair on Mr. Murdoch's formidable ass." The poison Penn letter, which was also sent to the actor's manager and "God Almighty," concludes: "Has anyone at 20th Century Fox considered that it might not be my policy to do seven-figure favors for multinational corporate interests as I did when I took the salary you paid me on The Thin Red Line? Bottom line is…our policies collide. Good luck with the picture. P.S. I know you guys don't remember what the inside of a commercial airline terminal looks like, but if you send me a picture of your jets, I'll send you a picture of the door at the Red Carpet Room. Wish I could've been in Houston. It's a beautiful movie and I'd like to have helped spread the word. P.P.S. If my name is unfamiliar to you, you can check your computers under Movie Buff. I believe they consider me to be someone with a career. Penn never went to Houston, and USA Today reports his wife, Robin Wright Penn, has declined to do publicity with Fox news outlets for her upcoming film, Message in a Bottle, which stars Kevin Costner and Paul Newman. Execs at Fox tell the paper that the studio doesn't own a private jet, and said in a statement, "Sean Penn's work and personal commitment to the movie speaks for itself," which the paper interprets as a dig since the star didn't do as much publicity as some of the other actors. A source at the studio pointed out to Variety that the Houston screening was set up by director Terrence Malick, and the press was not invited. Penn's letter is in marked contrast to an interview he gave for an upcoming article in USA Today, in which he said, "It matters to me that I wake up feeling authentic, even if I have to fly American Airlines first class instead of the Warner [Bros.] jet."
SEAN PENN QUITS...AGAIN Sean Penn has had it with movie acting. No more, he says. Never again. Finally, the actor has decided, he's quitting the business. Again. "This is it," Penn says in Sunday's The New York Times Magazine. "I'm not going to act in movies again." Penn, who has "quit" the acting business before, made his latest announcement at about 2 a.m. on Halloween in a rented Oldsmobile, somewhere on Interstate 80 in Ohio, according to the magazine. The actor, whose credits include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Falcon and the Snowman and Dead Man Walking, has roles in two recent releases, The Thin Red Line and Hurlyburly. The latter has been panned by critics. "Sean Penn is simply phenomenal...in a film far beneath his talent," the New York Post comments, in a fairly typical review of the picture. This reportedly has Penn frustrated with the movie business. Also, he claims, the films he's most proud of--including 1986's At Close Range--opened to small audiences and "were just not seen." Instead of acting, he tells the magazine, he'd rather write and direct. "Just watch me," he says. "I'll fight the fight as a director. It's a better fight." But as news of Penn's latest vow to quit acting spread through Hollywood, friends respond in the Times article with a strong outpouring of...doubt. "He won't quit," Jack Nicholson says. "He's not going to give up acting," adds Warren Beatty. "What Sean means is that he would like to give up the thought of making the brand of picture that opens big on a Friday night." Then again, the sometimes-pugilist Penn may not necessarily love his craft. Currently at work in New York, playing a jazz guitarist in a Woody Allen movie, he can't wait to get it over with. "I like Woody, but I am desperate to finish this project," he says. "You have to ask yourself, 'Are you stopping your life to do your work?' You try really hard and the audience is so limited. That's a very disappointing thing."
HOLIDAY TIPS FROM PENN A disgruntled worker from a building on W. 57th called the Daily News to complain about Sean Penn. Seems the volatile star was in residence at the building from July until last week while filming Woody Allen's latest project. According to the employee, the actor "didn't do jack [expletive] for the staff here!" "I have nothing against Sean Penn," the caller tells the paper. "He was a good tenant. Nobody complained about him. But it bugs me and annoys me that here's a guy who could tip, and doesn't.… A $5 tip to a slob on the door means a lot." Penn's rep was taken aback by the report, telling the News that the actor is "one of the more generous clients I have."
THE THIN RED LINE The Thin Red Line opens in New York and Los Angeles on Christmas Day and goes nationwide in January. "The first thing that got me interested in movies was because of his (Terrence Malick) movies," said Penn, who, like other actors, gave up a large salary for the chance to work with Malick. "There's a poetry to them that was very dramatic and affecting and exciting." Penn recalled that several years ago, while he was on a cross-country driving trip, he met Malick in Texas. "I as much as told him if he ever made a movie again, let me know where to go and give me a dollar, and I'll do it," Penn said.
NO MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL FOR SEAN PENN Sean Penn is not going to act in Bono's film The Million Dollar Hotel. In fact Mel Gibson accepted the main role.
PENN NO PAL TO WOODY? Sean Penn, who's already creating Oscar buzz with his role in Terrence Malick's upcoming World War II drama The Thin Red Line, is apparently not having fun on Woody Allen's new movie. High-level sources on the set of the filmmaker's untitled fall '98 project tell the New York Daily News that the actor has been facing off with the producers of the film, in which he plays a jazz musician in the '30s. The spies say that Penn has been a no-show during some of the November filming. "Sean's been playing sick because he's P.O.'d at the way Woody works," a source tells the paper. "There's a lot of bad blood between him and [longtime Allen producer] Jean Doumanian." The paper says the producers threatened Penn with legal action if he continued to call in sick. "They basically said, 'We'll cancel the rest of the shoot and sue you for the cost of the whole movie,'" the insider continues. Penn is now showing up, but the set is tension-filled, reports the News. The film is now reportedly more than a month behind schedule, and this week Allen unexpectedly canceled Monday and Tuesday's shoots. Penn's publicist tells the paper that her client has been sick recently, while Allen and Doumanian had no comment.
SEX LIVES OF THE STARS The bedroom escapades of 28 of the best known celebrities in the world have been recounted to a sex therapist and are acted out in two steamy Internet and videotape programs based on actual occurrences. The programs, Sex Lives of the Stars,' are brought to the Web and local video stores by Internet Entertainment Group (IEG), the company that has achieved fame for unmasking the sexploits as such personalities as Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee and Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The first volume of Sex Lives of the Stars features the sexcapades of television personalities Vanna White, Larry King and Jerry Seinfeld; movie and television stars Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Hugh Grant and Charlie Sheen and basketball's Michael Jordan. A second volume being released simultaneously cover Sylvester Stallone, TV actors Matt LeBlanc and David Hasselhoff, and singers Englebert Humperdinck and Tom Jones, among others.
PENN'S EYE ON THE 'BALL' FOR LINE Sean Penn is close to committing to Fine Line Features prison drama Monsters Ball as his next directing assignment. The actor has warmed to Ball, the psychological journey of a prison guard working on Death Row. Penn may also co-star in the film, although nothing has been decided. Fine Line president Mark Ordesky confirmed that he was in “full negotiations” with Penn and his Clyde Is Hungry Films banner. “We want to build this movie around Sean’s (participation),” Ordesky said. The exec has targeted a late March/early April start for the pic. In Ball, which was penned by Milo Addica and Will Rokos, a white corrections officer manages to break the cycle of familial abuse and racism through his relationship with the widow of a black man — a man whom he helped to execute. The phrase Monsters Ball is an old English expression about a condemned prisoner’s last night alive. With Ball, Penn revisits Death Row territory for which he won plaudits as condemned killer Matthew Poncelet in Tim Robbins’ 1995 drama Dead Man Walking. Immortal Films’ Eric Cahan is attached to produce the pic, alongside Clyde Is Hungry. Cahan previously produced Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin’s political doc The Last Party, starring Robert Downey Jr. Fine Line VP Paul Federbush and senior veep Rachel Horovitz brought the script into the company, after Immortal optioned it from the writers in June. Immortal is the feature production division of music label Immortal Entertainment, founded by Happy Walters. Penn’s reps confirmed he was in negotiations to direct Ball, but offered no further comment. Last week, Clyde signed a first-look deal with October Films. Sources said that October execs were aware that Penn was keen to direct Monsters before turning his attention to developing any new pics for them. Clyde, which is headed by producer Michael Fitzgerald and VP of production and development Patricia Morrison, is headquartered in San Francisco but is relocating its Los Angeles operations to October’s offices. Penn, who is filming a Woody Allen pic in New York, has several films in the can. He stars with Kristin Scott Thomas in October’s romantic psychodrama Up at the Villa, from filmmaking duo Philip and Belinda Haas. He also has a lead role in Phoenix Pictures’ The Thin Red Line, from director Terrence Malick. Fox 2000 is releasing the film on Dec. 25, a date that it shares with Hurlyburly.
SEAN PENN HUNG AT CENTER OF HURLYBURLY On November 19 Sean Penn was feted by a gaggle of famous pals atdowntown's hot spot Moomba after a special screening of his film, Hurlyburly. Descending upon the place were such notables as Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, Robert De Niro and Tommy Motola (they arrived together, but upon leaving, De Niro was too impatient to wait for Tommy's limo, so he jumped into a cab), Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, Denis Leary, Babyface, Eddie Vedder, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey and Patricia Arquette. Sean took many compliments for his astonishing work in the screen version of David Rabe's play. (All we will say about the movie at this point is that Penn gives the performance of his career!) Meg Ryan and Chazz Palminteri, who star with Penn in Hurlyburly, also showed. After that, Sean Penn hung out until 4 a.m. at Rande Gerber's Whiskey Park with Eddie Vedder, Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette and Jim Carrey. Sporting a shaved head, Carrey went unrecognized until he un-Masked his 1,000-watt grin. Penn celebrated after the Actors Studio surprised him Monday with the same lifetime-achievement award it's given Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro.
UP AT THE VILLA Up at the Villa will be released in October in the U.S. Canada, Britain, Spain and Latin America. Set among the expatriate community in Florence in 1938, the film revolves around a British widow (Thomas) who forms a relationship with an American man (Penn) after confiding her guilty secret to him.
PENN STATION Back to Madonna: She and ex-husband Sean Penn have obviously put the past behind them. After the GQ thing, they drank and dined Wednesday night (October 22) at Moomba. Also forming asupernova at the Village club were Sting, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, The Artist and his three bodyguards, Gretchen Mol, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Corgan and Quentin Tarantino. Penn came from the launch party for the new Chase LensCard at Lot 61. Mingling around were Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Naomi Campbell, Diane von Furstenberg, Paul Sorvino, Stephen Dorff, Sean Penn, Ingrid Casares and Kevin Costner, who slid in after shooting his baseball movie, For the Love of the Game. Next stop for Penn was the premiere party for Abel Ferrara's new movie, New Rose Hotel, at Marylou's. There, Tarantino held hands and played footsie with a young dark-haired belle, Jessica Brenner. Ferrara held forth in the back seat, describing the movie's star, Christopher Walken, as Clark Gable in the body of Boris Karloff, before sticking two pieces of chicken sate and a beer in his pocket and ducking out the backdoor. Penn never made it across town, where John Leguizamo, Serena Altschul, David Blaine, Jane Pratt, Katie Ford, Spalding Gray and Karen Duffy sat through a screening of American History X, the upcoming movie starring Edward Norton. Later, they trouped over to Jet 19, where Chris Cuomo and Michael Mailer hosted an after-party.
SEAN PENN GOT DRUNK Sean Penn got drunk in Florence after a dinner that he had in a restaurant. It seemed that the actor drank too much Chianti wine and two bodyguards took him back to the hotel where Penn was staying during the shootings of Up at the Villa.
SEAN PENN AWARDED Sean Penn awarded as best actor at the Venice Film Festival for the movie Hurlyburly.
SEAN PENN'S FATHER DIES Leo Penn, an Emmy-winning TV director, succumbed to cancer on Saturday, 5th September. He was 77. Leo Penn was a prolific TV helmer, responsible for more than 400 hours of primetime programming, including episodes of Ben Casey, I Spy, St. Elsewhere, Kojak, and Trapper John, M.D.. He took home an Emmy for a two-part episode of Columbo. During the '50s and '60s, Penn, who started out in front of the camera in , Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Of Mice and Men, The Iceman Cometh and School for Scandal, was placed on the Hollywood blacklist for supporting actors sympathetic to Hollywood trade union members. His career eventually recovered, but he decided he wanted to be behind the camera, where he remained save for an occasional role. Penn and his wife, Eileen Ryan, appeared together in the 1995 film The Crossing Guard, which Sean wrote and directed, and also appeared onstage last year in Remembrance, which Sean's production company exec produced.
SEAN PENN AT VENICE FESTIVAL Sean Penn will be at Venice Festival on 11th September to present the film Hurlyburly where he acts together with his wife Robin Wright Penn.
LA SALLE JOINS BRANDO, PENN FOR PANTHERS PIC Sean Penn and Marlon Brando will produce a feature on the life of former Black Panthers defense minister Geronimo Pratt and have brought in ER star Eriq La Salle to direct it. David Johnson (The Drop Squad) will write the screenplay, which La Salle hopes to put into production next April while he is on hiatus from the fifth season of TV's top-rated show. Penn and Brando will endeavor to set it up when they get a script and a cast, of which they'll definitely be a part. "Sean called and said he was a big fan of Rebound, that he and Marlon were involved in a Geronimo Pratt project and could I come to Marlon's house and talk about it," said La Salle. "They describe the project, and say, 'We are at your disposal, we'll act in this project as much or as little as you want us, and we'll help you get a first-rate cast.' ... I'd like to think I was very cool on the outside, but inside I was like a nervous schoolgirl." Pratt did 25 years of hard time for a murder he steadfastly maintained he did not commit, saying he had been framed by an FBI that considered him subversive. Much information has surfaced to back up his claim, and his conviction was overturned last year. Pratt had been a long-range reconnaissance expert with the 82nd Airborne during the Vietnam War, and used those skills to teach members of the Panthers how to handle themselves in shootouts with police. "Here was a guy trained by the military who came home and became another type of soldier who brought that knowledge back to the black community," La Salle said, adding that the Panthers "were no angels either; there was infighting, brother killing (or trying to frame) brother, and guys getting killed in huge shootouts with the police. And the head of the FBI personally was trying to bring Geronimo down, which led to blatant abuses of the law at the time of the killing." La Salle called Pratt an "honorable antihero" and feels the volatile climate that hatched the Panthers has never fully been explored on film. Penn will star in Woody Allen's next film, but then will cut down on his screen time to concentrate on producing and directing, possibly handling both those duties with Brando starring in Autumn of the Patriarch. Penn found seed money to develop the project, but the Pratt connection is Brando; he knows the ex-Panther. Although La Salle will find a way to suture significant roles into the script for both Penn and Brando, he said they're in agreement that the film should not be driven by white stars.
DID SEAN PENN ROCK PAPARAZZO? Penn told police he was walking with his dad, director Leo Penn, on Sunday 16th August in a quiet section of the star-studded beach community of Malibu, California, when 20-year-old Michael Sindell allegedly arrived on the scene with a videocamera. Words passed between paparazzo and Sean Penn. After calling each other funny names, Sindell claims the actor stoned him in the ear with the rock. Penn, however, claims Sindell lunged at him, cracking his ear on the rock with his own force. Both are claiming assault, the sheriff's department says. Neither has been arrested, and an investigation is pending. If culpable in this latest tiff, it would mark yet another occasion in which someone has intentionally rammed their face into a solid object (clenched fists, included) that Penn was holding.
SEAN PENN AND KATE MOSS Former Johnny Depp squeeze, model Kate Moss, has found a new actor -- and a new beau, claims the New York Post. He is Sean Penn, the former husband of Madonna. The paper says "the pair first spent quality time" at a women's film festival near Paris at the end of March and "were spotted recently holding hands in a coffee shop in L.A."
SEAN PENN TO DIRECT BRANDO After starring in Woody Allen's next untitled film, Sean Penn plans to concentrate on working behind the camera, including directing Marlon Brando in Autumn of the Patriarch. That's according to Variety. Brando would play an aging Latin American dictator in the project, which is based on the 1975 novel by Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The veteran actor was quoted last year as saying it would "be the role I wish to bow out on." Penn is working on several other projects. With business partner Michael Fitzgerald, he will produce Waiting for the Barbarians. Penn has also written an untitled script and plans to direct. In the Woody Allen project, which begins shooting in the fall, Penn plays a musician.
NEW PROJECT Philip Haas is directing Up at the Villa, produced by Sydney Pollack and starring Sean Penn and Kristin Scott-Thomas.
NEW FILM A true Hollywood story is coming to the big screen — the seven-decades-long life of director William (Wild Bill) Wellman. Sean Penn will play the multitalented filmmaker, whose own life was at least as colorful as what he put on screen — which is saying a lot since his films ranged from A Star Is Born to The Story of GI Joe, Battleground, The High and the Mighty, Nothing Sacred, etc. Wellman joined the French Foreign Legion at the outset of WWI, later flew with the famous Lafayette Escadrille. And he directed the first Oscar-winning film, Wings, in 1927. His son, Bill Jr., an actor- filmmaker, spent years creating the documentary Wild Bill, Hollywood Maverick and now has the feature pact with Phoenix Pictures to write the screenplay and exec produce the big screen edition starring Penn — who had also read Wellman Sr.'s autobiog, A Short Time for Insanity. Wellman, fills, met with Penn and his partner Michael Fitzgerald in San Francisco to seal the deal. Who would direct? "Maybe I’ll talk to Warren (Beatty)," Penn said to Wellman … My Dog Stupid, a novella by screenwriter John Fante (who died in 1983) will be feature-filmed by Peter Falk with John Turturro directing. Fante’s screenplays ranged from Jeanne Eagels to Walk on the Wild Side. And Robert Towne is also screen playing Fante’s major work, Ask the Dusk. Now Fante’s son, Dan (who had a deathbed reconciliation with his father), has written a roman a clef of his relationship with his father, Chump Change, to be published by Sun Dog Press. He also has a play, Boiler Room, running at the Actors’ Theater.
PENN AND ALLEN Woody Allen's annual film making effort has begun under the auteur's characteristic secrecy, but sources said young U.K. actress Samantha Morton has been cast in the film, slated to start shooting Aug. 31 in New York City. As with most Allen films, details of the upcoming production are difficult to obtain, with sources revealing only that the film is a period piece. No other actors have been attached to the project, sources said, but Sean Penn has reportedly had discussions with Allen regarding a role. A spokesman for Jean Doumanian Prods., Allen's longtime producer, had no specific comments about the new project, and said only that the director shoots a film each year, during the fall.
SEAN WILL ACT WITH DI CAPRIO Sean is going to act in a new film together with Leonardo Di Caprio. People Online reports that Di Caprio has his heart set on starring with Sean Penn and Jack Nicholson in Phoenix Pictures' low-budget adaptation of William Faulkner's 1930 novel As I Lay Dying. Penn may also direct and/or produce the feature, which is scheduled to start shooting in Mississippi this August. The book, for those who dozed off in English class, is about a Southern family who try to honor their late mother's wish to be properly buried in her birthplace. Over the course of nine days, the rural clan carries her coffin in a mule drawn wagon, facing flood, fire, and various personal demons along the way.
STARS HAVIN' A GAY OLD TIME Movie stars Emma Thompson and Sean Penn admit they're gay on Ellen episode broadcast in March on WABC/Ch.7. Thompson said she was proud of her stunning revelation. Thompson and Penn aren't gay in real life, but in this Ellen on WABC/Ch.7 both actors, playing themselves, depart from their usual serious movie roles to toy with their public images. Hollywood tough guy Penn "comes out" during a nationally televised awards ceremony honoring Thompson and says: "I have to tell you that I'm gay, I'm just so relieved to stop living this lie!". Ellen Morgan came out as a lesbian in a highly rated sweeps episode last spring. But she seems to be taking tonight's warning in stride. "It's been sort of quiet all week," said one insider. "They're taping their 100th episode and everyone is really happy. Everything seems to have died down." Thompson said she was "profoundly moved" by last season's coming-out episode of Ellen. "I had a ball. I love the idea of playing around with one's public persona," Thompson said in a statement. Penn was unavailable for comment.
PENN SUES ATTORNEY OVER NIGHTCLUB Actor Sean Penn, who became known for strong-arming unwanted paparazzi, is suing an attorney who allegedly muscled in and took control of a nightclub from Penn and his partners. Penn's lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks $130,000 plus damages for his investment in McInerney's, a trendy Santa Monica night spot. Penn became a partner in McInerney's in 1996, but it started losing money the next year. Bash, a club in Miami Beach in which Penn has a stake, offered to buy McInerney's, but Penn claims that McInerney's attorney John Hilbert blocked the sale and then obtained McInerney's liquor license and lease. Penn says Hilbert offered to let Penn recoup his losses if he would make Hilbert partnership manager and pay him $66,000. "I find it very interesting," Hilbert said Monday. "But I haven't seen it and I haven't been served yet so I won't be making a comment."
SEAN FOR BONO According to U2 front man Bono, Oscar-nominated bad boy Sean Penn has committed to star in The Billion Dollar Motel, a sci-fi flick penned by Bono himself, to be directed by Wim Wenders. "The lead is a character called Tonto," Bono told Radio Ireland over the weekend. "Sean Penn is committed. And his character is a retarded guy who, in death, is set free and starts to talk about his life." The story will take place in said motel between the present day and the year 2030. Bono, who collaborated with his friend Nicholas Klein on the script and will play a small part in the film, went on to describe Motel as a black comedy. Of course, this isn't the first time Bono has teamed with director Wim Wenders. Together with U2, he has supplied music for the films Until the End of the World and Faraway, So Close! as well as Wenders' upcoming project, The End of Violence. U2's contribution to the latter, I'm Not Your Baby, is a collaboration with fellow Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor.
CASABLANCA REMAKE A Casablanca remake is in the works, and the project's screenwriter is letting his casting choices be known. Writer Michael Walsh tells News day columnist Liz Smith that Sean Penn is his choice to fill Humphrey Bogart's shoes as Rick, and he's even tailoring the script to play up Penn's tough guy persona. Walsh would also like to see Ralph Fiennes in the role of Laszlo the freedom fighter, and Julia Roberts as Lisa, the role occupied by the incomparable Ingrid Bergman in the 1942 classic. Keep in mind that screenwriters have little-to-no say in who is cast in their movies, and the film is still in early development, so you'll be lucky if you see it hit theaters in this millennium.
SEAN AT SEATTLE FESTIVAL Robin Wright's performance as an abused woman in Loved earned her two things last weekend: the Seattle International Film Festival's award for best actress, and some good-natured ribbing from her producer/co-star/husband, Sean Penn. Wright, Penn, and writer-director Erin Dignam took to the stage at Seattle's Egyptian Theater to field questions following the world premiere of their film. At one point, Dignam enthused about "the way Robin can deglamorize herself for this kind of a role," adding that the beautiful actress never "quite gets to the point of looking ugly, though." At that point, Penn who'd spent the question-and-answer session silently smoking cigarettes and staring at the floor held his hand up as if to say, "Stop right there you should see her in the morning." The capacity crowd, which had been subdued by Loved's troubling subject matter and the oppressive heat in the theater, came to life for a hearty laugh at Robin's expense.
SEAN PENN BEST ACTOR IN CANNES Sean Penn, who won a Best Actor award at Cannes for his performance in Nick Cassevetes' She's So Lovely, seems to want to ensure that he isn't nominated come Oscar-time. "With the Academy Awards, if you're standing up there and looking out, you're not going to see many people who can find their butt with their hand," he tells Reuters. "So what does their opinion mean?" Penn, nominated last year for his performance in Dead Man Walking (he lost to Nicolas Cage for Leaving Las Vegas), says he sees little value, career or otherwise, in the award. "The Academy Awards is an opportunity to be an extra in a TV show, and maybe twenty seconds more than that if you win." And we're not sure who exactly Penn is referring to when he takes his fellow actors to task for starring in big budgeted action flicks. "If there's anything more disgusting in the movie business . . . it's the whoredom of my peers," Penn says. "It's a guy's arm coming out of the screen jerking you off," he says of the shoot-'em-ups. "I prefer to do it myself at home than to have some guy contriving wet dreams for me."
CANNES TABLOID NEWS SERVICES Sean Penn thought he was being funny. The star of new Nick Cassevettes flick She's So Lovely was standing by the cigar counter in the bar of the Hotel Du Cap, the $5,000-a-night, cash-only epicenter of Cannes power-brokering. When the bartender's back was turned, Penn grabbed the humidified countertop case full of Cohibas and Monte Cristos, and slyly hid it out of sight. "Whaddya mean you have no Cohibas?" Penn yelled at the barkeep's back. "I want a Cohiba!" When the poor man turned around to survey the empty counter, Penn waited a moment and then -- roaring with idiot laughter -- reached down and pulled the cigar case out of hiding. "Hyagh, hyagh," he screamed. Maybe he'd had a few too many of the Du Cap's $30 cocktails.
DEAD MAN WALKING HONORED Dead Man Walking is honored at the Catholics in Media Awards, for being a project that "affirm[s] life and recognize[s] the sacredness of the human person."
MADONNA ON SEAN In the October issue of Vogue, Madonna calls Penn's marriage to Robin Wright a "knee-jerk reaction" to news of her pregnancy.
