News from February 2000 and before..."I always thought it was better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody." --Matt as The Talented Mr. Ripley.
February 19th, 2000
January 30th, 2000
ABOUT TIME: I know, I know I've finally added the bunch of pictures that I've had sitting around for a while from Entertainment Weekly, Premiere and GQ magazines. Click here to view them! (I couldn't get thumbnails up yet, but I will soon.)
January 28th, 2000
January 8th, 2000
December 25th, 1999
December 20th, 1999
December 15th, 1999
December 8th, 1999
December 7th, 1999
November 23rd, 1999
November 20th, 1999
'But we're lifting our dress up, as it were, to let a few of youhave an early look,' the director told me by phone late on Monday night.
Less than 24 hours later, I was walking up New York's Seventh
Avenue in a state of giddy excitement. I had just left the private Miramax-Paramount preview of one of the year's best movies.
The preview was attended by Mick Jagger and a host of other movers
and shakers people the film's antihero Tom Ripley would have murdered
to change places with.
Ripley, portrayed with quicksilver cunning by Matt Damon, wants to
be Dickie Greenleaf, a rich, jazz-loving, saxophone-playing playboy
in Fifties Italy.
British actor Jude Law, giving one of the most stunning screen
performances this year, has everything Ripley desires. A Grace Kelly-like girlfriend in the shape of Gwyneth Paltrow, money, sexual allure, arrogant confidence and class. When Ripley realises a place in the sun is to be denied him, he murders
Dickie and takes over his life.
It is wondering what will happen next that keeps you on the edge of your seat, making it the most fascinating experience I've had at the movies in years.
The film, which opens in London on February 25, is based on
Patricia High-smith's classic novel. But, as he did with The English Patient, Minghella has made the story's translation to the screen hisown.
There are standout performances from Cate Blanchett, as the woman Ripley sees as the mirror of Ms Paltrow; Jack Davenport, as a gay guy he befriends; and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who taunts Ripley by asking: 'Who wears corduroy in Italy?' I will never again wear corduroy except, perhaps, to the Oscars in March when The Talented Mr Ripley will be in contention with American Beauty, The Insider, starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe, and Cider House Rules, starring Michael Caine. Jay Lacopo?
But that's exactly the company an aspiring filmmaker hopes to find
himself in on "The Untitled Jay Lacopo Project," Sundance Channel's
biting Hollywood satire. Directed and co-written by Cambridge's Casey
Affleck (Ben's younger brother) - and with fellow Cantabrigian Matt
Damon in its cast - the "Lacopo" vignettes have been airing this fall
between movies on the independent-film cable channel.
But now the 2- to 5-minute vignettes, have been linked into one 40-
minute show Sundance premieres tonight at 8.
Unlike most TV comedy, "Lacopo" is refreshingly impromptu. The
fictionalized aspiring writer-director is played by real-life
aspiring actor-writer (and the show's co-writer) Jay Lacopo. The
vignettes generally involve the fictional Lacopo - desperate yet
hopeful - worming his way into some celebrity's orbit and trying to
get him or her interested in his screenplay.
He corners Damon outside a restaurant and, when the actor offers
only a pleasant hello, but doesn't stop to talk, Lacopo rants at the
star ("Don't snub me again!"). He actually gets Christina Ricci to
want to read the script, but then embarrassingly can't give it to her
because he only has the one copy (one of the funniest vignettes has
him at a copy shop trying to haggle down the price of 9 cents per
page). And, in the best episode, he tries to charm Gus Van Sant
(Casey Affleck's director in "To Die For") and Vince Vaughn.
Don Cheadle, Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe, Ken Marino (MTV's
"The State"), Edward Furlong and Miramax Films honcho Harvey
Weinstein also turn up, as does Damon in a follow-up vignette, in
which Lacopo claims an expired prescription was responsible for therant.
Amid all of these familiar faces, though, newcomer Lacopo (who
also stars in the upcoming film "The Third Wheel," produced by Damon
and Ben Affleck's Pearl Street Productions) really shines. It recalls
the work of Andy Kaufman, Chris Elliott (especially his "Late Night
With David Letterman" days) and Robert De Niro in "The King of
Comedy." He and Affleck make "The Untitled Jay Lacopo Project" a
"Larry Sanders Show" for the world of independent filmmaking. October 12th, 1999
"It scared the willies out of Matt Damon," I'm told. October 4th, 1999
September 24th, 1999
September 9th, 1999
September 5th, 1999
September 1st, 1999
August 19th, 1999
The actor-director is slated to begin directing the $70 million golf movie The Legend of Bagger Vance this fall, but he has yet to fill some of the most important roles in the movie.
The film is based on the Steven Pressfield novel about a
Depression-era match between golfing legends Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen and a local hero Rannulph Junuh. Bagger Vance is Junuhs caddy.
At first, Redford thought he would play Junuh, alongside Morgan Freeman as Vance. But the lead character in the book is much younger than Redford, who turns 62 tomorrow, so the plan was scrapped. Redford then reached out to Brad Pitt, who kept him on hold for weeks before turning him down.
A few weeks ago, Redford offered the role to Matt Damon. Although he reportedly accepted it, a deal has yet to be worked out. And Redford cant cast the Vance role without the story's hero in place.
Redfords plight is made even more problematic by the fact that he has blocked out much of November and December to shoot his golfing scenes at the famed Ocean Course on Kiawah Island off the coast of South Carolina. Rumors are rampant the Oscar-winning friends (for the "Good Will
Hunting" screenplay) are opening a dance club at 1506 E. Sixth Ave.,
formally Club DNA.
The rumor was fueled by a disc jockey who told Ybor City Chamber of Commerce officials he had been hired by the acting duo and that the club will open Labor Day weekend, says Annette Delisle, chamber president.
County property records indicate the building was sold in
September 1997 by Rain, Summer and Liberty Phoenix (siblings of River
Phoenix) and their mother, Arlyn, to Ledra Holdings, a Tampa company. There's always a possibility a more recent sale has not yet been entered into the records.
By the way, the 1997 selling price was $350,000. Not bad,
considering a new parking garage is going up just across the street. August 12th, 1999
August 8th, 1999
July 29th 1/2, 1999
July 29th, 1999
Negotiations won't begin until Spielberg gets a final draft of the shooting script at week's end. But sources considered Damon's participation likely. In what would be a decided departure from his virtuous turn in "Ryan," Damon would play a villain in the new film, which is based on a Philip K. Dick short story, adapted by Jon Cohen and now being rewritten by "Out of Sight" scribe Scott Frank. The futuristic tale is about a cop (Cruise) in a system where killers are arrested for murders they have yet to commit, preventing the crime. The problem: One of the future murderers is his brother (Damon). A businessman attacked a taxi driver as tempers flared when filming of The Talented Mr Ripley stopped traffic. Shakespeare In Love actress Gwyneth and co-star Matt Damon looked on in horror as the brutal assault took place.
An insider revealed: "Gwyneth was very shaken. The guy went ballistic. It looked like he was going to kill the taxi driver."
New York police eventually intervened. July 17th, 1999
Kent Damon, who coaches baseball at Newton North, told the
Splendid Splinter he uses his book, "The Science of Hitting," as a primer for his young teams. Whereupon, Ted asked Matt if he ever read the book and started quizzing him on the "Science!"
"Tell me what's the most important thing in the whole book," Williams asked Matt.
And after a few nerve-wracking seconds, the actor answered: "Wait for a good pitch."
Bet Damon's dad was delighted those few Harvard tuition payments didn't go to waste!
But while the Hollywood It Boy was sweating out the "Science" quiz, there were other people in the box quaking in their shoes: the hot dog honeys!
"The girls completely fell apart seeing Damon in there," said
Someone Who Was There. "One girl was actually cooing like a nervous pigeon when she was having her picture taken with him." Bars and restaurants need to be careful they don't serve underage patrons, but who would think there's a person alive in Boston who doesn't recognize home-run homeboy Matt Damon? There was one person, apparently. A waiter in the lounge at the Ritz-Carlton carded Damon, whose face was obscured by his baseball cap, the other night. The 28-year-old actor, known for his boyish good looks, stopped by after the All-Star Game festivities. . . . But the folks at Fenway Park know exactly who Damon is. The star gave his waiter at Fenway's 600 Club a $100 tip. July 14th, 1999
The Celebrity All-Star game happened Monday night at Fenway Park in Boston! Matt was there and unfortunately he didn't do too well! (His team did win though!) Screengrabs from the game are forthcoming...but meanwhile, here's the news from the Boston Globe:
Damon: Fenway trumps Oscar
Hitting at Fenway Park is bigger than winning an Oscar. At least that's the impression Cambridge native and Red Sox fan Matt Damon gave yesterday afternoon after his team won the hitting challenge. Damon was still chewing his bubble gum and hadn't taken off any part of his uniform -- not his hat, jersey, or even his batting glove -- when his winning team met with reporters. How does it stack up to an Oscar? "A very different feeling, but there really isn't any comparison for me. This is it." Damon and fellow Cantabrigian Ben Affleck won an Academy Award for penning "Good Will Hunting.". . . During the press conference, Damon was asked whether he might write a baseball movie, and he confided: "We haven't written anything since 'Good Will Hunting.' "
Damon keeps his day job
Damon's team took home the blue Tiffany's boxes and the crystal stars inside, thanks to the batting of former All-Star Steve Garvey and former Red Sox player and now Sox batting coach Jim Rice, who belted three out of the park. Rice was asked by a sports writer what his recommendations as a hitting instructor for Damon would be but the actor cut off the question: "He can't take that question." . . . Damon, who tallied the lowest score, got ready for yesterday's demonstration with the help of sportscaster Sean McDonough, who took Damon -- and the actor's father and brother -- to the South Shore Baseball Camp in Hingham. "And boy, was I terrific yesterday," Damon said. "I was great. I should have brought that bat." "I was really nervous. I was nervous that I was going to be
nervous. When I got up there, I was just so excited. I kept saying to myself, `I'm swinging at Fenway Park, this is unbelievable.' Every kid around here, every single kid around here, grows up wishing they could swing the bat once."
Damon laughed as he remembered the day he and some friends came to Fenway to be extras when Costner filmed a scene for "Field of Dreams." "We came down to Fenway that day for $50," he said, "and to see if we could sneak on the field and maybe pluck up some grass and take it with us. The ballpark has definitely got a special meaning for the kind of people who are around here." He did a lot better than Damon did in the celebrity competition in which four teams of three players each - a celebrity, a former All-Star and a former Red Sox star - earned points depending on how far they hit the ball on their seven swings.
Damon missed the ball once, hit four fouls and put just two balls in play...
The AL lineup wasn't announced Sunday. That day was reserved for activities attended by fans who might not be able to go to the actual game since Fenway is the smallest major-league park with 33,871 seats.
"I don't think that takes the spotlight off the game," Damon said before taking his cuts. "This is just some kind of warmup stuff, revenue for the city, an excuse to come out to the ballpark on a sunny day for a lot of people."
"Whip out a script?" he said. "(I) haven't whipped anything up since Good Will Hunting," which he co-wrote with his friend and fellow film star Ben Affleck. "They were like superheroes to me," said the Boy Wonder.
And when he sat down next to Costner and "Chicago Hope's" Harmon
in the media interview room, Damon asked his dad, Kent, to throw him
a disposable camera.
"I wanted to get a shot of all you guys," Matt said, as he snapped
photos of the All-Star press corps. "Because this is as close as a
Damon is going to get to being interviewed at a Major League
ballpark. Smile!"
Damon, who wore Pudge Fisk's No. 27 on his jersey yesterday - the
same number he wore on the Cambridge sandlots growing up - was
practically giddy with excitement before he got up to bat.
A lifelong Red Sox fan ("It's like the Mob, it's something you're
born into"), he recalled going to Fenway with buddy Ben Affleck to be
extras in Costner's flick, "Field Of Dreams," when it was filming here.
Damon confessed he hadn't played any baseball since he was 12, but the rest of the celebrity contingent had clearly been practicing.
...Damon, who was mobbed by the media while Costner and Harmon
talked to a lot of empty chairs, was clearly the hometown hero.
"I don't think I have much to brag about but I'll be bragging
about the team I ended up on," he said. "This is an experience I'll
take to the grave."
And speaking of Damon, there's a reason why the Carlton Fisk
fanatic didn't bid on No. 27's 1975 Game Six home run ball - he said he couldn't afford it!
Fisk's dinger was sold at auction last week to an anonymous Illinois collector for $113,273.
"I don't have that kind of disposable income yet," he said.
What! Not enough play money?
Matt, get your agent on the line!
July 10th, 1999
Word is, Cruise is very hot on the project, which is based on
Charles Frazier's best-seller about a wounded Confederate soldier who gets up from his hospital bed and begins walking home. And Pitt also has been mentioned for the lead. But Damon could have the edge because he just finished working with Academy Award-winning director Anthony Minghella on Paramount's "The Talented Mr. Ripley."
Which will be Cold comfort to Tom and Brad!
"It's a great role, a teriffic role," said Matt's dad, Kent Damon. "I hope he gets it."
Damon said his son is taking a much-needed vacation this summer and hasn't signed onto any new projects yet. But he will most definitely pick another flick before "Cold Mountain" is ready to roll.
"This is the first time off he's had in three years," Damon said. "He'll be back home for the All-Star Game and other than that, he's just lounging and hanging with his pals."
As for his romance with screen queen Winona Ryder, they're Ryding it out.
"He's happy, she's happy," said Damon.
File under: The Talented Mr. Damon. July 2nd, 1999
June 29th, 1999
June 26th, 1999
Around June 15th, 1999
June 2nd, 1999
Word is the project, which has been batted around from studio to studio, will start filming in the fall. And it could land here (Boston) -weather permitting.
At one point in the distant past, Matt Damon was under consideration for the leading role of a Cape League baseball hero who moves in with a family on the Cape and romances the daughter.
But, at the time, they thought Matt wasn't heavy-hitter enough to carry a film. Score that one an error on the pitch! Matt makes it onto Premiere Magazine's "100 Most Powerful People in Hollywood" list again this year, dropping from #88 to a not so bad 93.
According to an article in the London Times, Las Vegas is becoming quite the hot-spot for celebs nowadays. It apparently is where celebs go to "smoke, drink and, in the case of Damon and Norton, play a mean game of poker."
As well he is on the cover of Time magazine! (Thanks Julia!)
Gwyneth Paltrow will be on with Eriq La Salle.
Jude Law will be on.
Winona Ryder will be appearing.
OSCAR-WINNER Anthony Ming-hella has been toiling away for months
putting the finishing touches to his movie, The Talented Mr Ripley.
Well, Mr. Ripley opens here on Christmas!
Spike Lee. Martin Scorsese. Quentin Tarantino. Jay Lacopo.
WINONA Ryder's friends get a nasty shock when they call her at home. She has persuaded Sir Anthony Hopkins to record a message on her
answering machine, using his Hannibal Lecter voice.
A group of us live in Hilton Head and we are extras, excuse me, background actors, in the Bagger Vance movie. He is now filming just off the island on
the Dye Course at Colleton River Plantation. What a pleasure it has been to watch him at work. Standing only inches from him and Robert Redford has been a joy....they're fun to watch at work. Matt seems to enjoy golf, but needs a few more lessons!!!
I will have still up as soon as possible.
Robert
Redford.
Halle Berry loved the risotto with portobello mushrooms at Pagani so much that she was known to reserve a month in advance. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck -- their offices are next door -- liked the lobster won ton and the Chilean sea bass. (Pagani had to close its doors last week, which means those stars will have to go elsewhere until George Pagani finds new backers.)
Are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (or their money) coming to Ybor
City?
Sightings
BEN Affleck, his brother Casey, and Matt Damon, catching "The Sixth Sense" at the Kips Bay Cinema on Saturday afternoon
Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow's architects, Michael Pierce and D. D. Allen, are talking to them about concrete flooring for their New York addresses.
"Minority Report" looks to be close to signing a majority of its above-the-line talent. Director Steven Spielberg wants to draft his "Saving Private Ryan" star Matt Damon to join Tom Cruise in the Fox/DreamWorks co-production, which begins filming in October for release next summer.
It's Matt Damon to star in the Robert Redford-directed "Legend of Bagger Vance" for DreamWorks. Filming starts in October in Savannah.
I thought he was taking a break for a while, but apparently he can't stay away from his job!
BELIEVE IT OR NOT: Matt Damon, starring in "The Talented
Mr. Ripley," ate a hot dog while shooting the last few scenes of the
film in Manhattan last week, while Ben Affleck just finished "Boiler
Room" over on Wall Street. His diet remains unreported.
Matt and the cast and crew of The Talented Mr. Ripley are in New York for a while to shoot an opening title sequence.
OSCAR-WINNER Gwyneth Paltrow was left shaken after a horrific road rage incident on the set of her latest movie.
MATT DAMON, in NYC shooting location scenes for "The Talented Mr. Ripley," was the stellar beauty at Al Gore's campaign event last week at Tribeca Grill. (A fete for the young professionals' fund-raising arm of Gore 2000, GoreNet.) Billy Baldwin and Julianna Marguiles also were on hand mingling with hosts Harvey Weinstein, Drew Nieporent and Jane Rosenthal and about 100 others.
Hollywood hottie Matt Damon and his fetching father, Kent, caught a couple of innings of the All-Star Game in baseball legend's Ted Williams' skybox. Because, of course, Matt and Ted arelikethis now after the "Good Will Hunting" hunk met his hero the other day!
Matt Damon, actor and rabid Red Sox fan, got another chance to improve his less-than-stellar televised batting performance at Fenway Park Sunday. Damon, whose swings were off at the All-Star Celebrity Hitting Challenge, was much happier Monday. He told other fans that he came back to the park after hours Sunday night for another try and hit the wall once, with his father, Kent Damon, pitching. . . . The Cambridge native was one of the biggest attractions at the private party after Monday night's Home Run Derby. Though Boston native
Donna Summer was singing on a stage in the Brookline Avenue parking lot, Damon and other special VIPs stayed inside the heavily guarded tent while the ordinary VIPs gawked and took pictures. With his
brother Kyle and father along, Damon chatted up Hall of Fame inductee George Brett and Red Sox star Nomar Garciaparra. Also visiting the tent were New York All Stars Derek Jeter and Mike Piazza; former Boston Brave Warren Spahn; Rachel Robinson, Jackie Robinson's widow; New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his son Andrew; Red Sox boss John Harrington; baseball commissioner Bud Selig; Patriot Max Lane; former Red Sox and New York Giant Bobby Thomson; and former Red Sox Dominic DiMaggio.
Damon: Some don't know him and others won't forget
"It was unbelievable walking up the steps to the field," Damon said. "I mean, that's something you dream about. I wish I could explain what it feels like. I'm going up there taking my hacks for every kid who will never get a chance to do it and never will be a professional baseball player.
The World team beat the United States team 7-0 as Yankees infield prospect Alfonso Soriano had two homers and five RBIs.
Damon, who contributed 70 points in the final round to Rice's winning team, said no one should wait for a cinematic version of his team beating Kevin Costner's team and TV/film star Mark Harmon's.
Cambridge favorite Matt Damon got into town early for the All-Star Game, so he and his brother Kyle spent a few hours Thursday night shooting pool and posing for pictures with waitresses at Jillian's, the Fenway spot where Kyle used to work.
Damon talked about watching Hitting Challenge teammates Rice, Fred
Lynn, Dwight Evans and Rico Petrocelli as a kid at Fenway.
Tom Cruise wants it. And so does Brad Pitt. But Cambridge homey Matt Damon may have the Inside Track over the Hollywood hunks for the lead in the Civil War drama, "Cold Mountain."
Last July, Wiatt (Carrie Latt Wiatt, owner of Diet Design) traveled to Rome to keep Matt Damon on track while he filmed The Talented Mr. Ripley. She did have to
accommodate Damon's craving for thin-crust Roman pizza, however. "I told him he could have a 4-inch square for lunch," she says. "The whole idea is to be a conscious eater. I don't want people obsessed."
And finally, Baseball biggies George Brett and Andre Dawson, along with retired Red Sox Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, will play in the All-Star Game's celebrity slugfest July 11. The old Hall of Famers and MVPs will play ball with Hollywood hunks Kevin Costner, Matt Damon and two other star sluggers whom, we expect, Major League Baseball will name today. Our fax machine is ready and rarin' to play ball!
Talk about your celebrity deathmatches: Tom Cruise, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt are all reportedly salivating over the lead in Anthony Minghella's ("The English Patient") adaptation of the best-selling novel "Cold Mountain," according to the Hollywood Reporter. It's premature for auditions, though, because Minghella is just starting to write the script based on the National Book Award winner.
"Cold Mountain" is about a wounded Confederate soldier who walks home.
Phoenix Pictures' Coulter's Run.
This western is based on a true story about a scout with the Lewis and Clarke expedition of 1806. After abandoning the expedition, John Coulter tried to become a mountain man.
Artisan and Warner Brothers are in a bidding war over "Summer Catch," a romantic comedy about the Cape Cod Baseball League.
If you want another place to go Matt-spotting, check out C.O. Bigelow Apothecaries, on 414 Sixth Ave., N.Y.C.; phone number 800-793-5433. According to InStyle magazine, this is where he and Winona are regulars.
Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are writing another movie script, that Affleck promises is "very different'' from Good Will Hunting and in which the stars intend to act. "Why would we write roles for anyone else? There's enough competition out there,'' said Affleck from Cannes.
