SPECTRUM
Thursday, December 23, 2010
39
Movies
Rehab staffer accuses Lohan of battery, then fired
By Anthony McCartney
day that began with authorities confirming Lindsay Lohan was being investigated for battery on a female staffer at a California rehab facility treating the starlet ended with the worker fired after giving an interview about the incident. Riverside County sheriff ’s detectives said Tuesday they are investigating the “Mean Girls” star for an alleged altercation with a worker at a Betty Ford Center facility in Palm Desert that occurred after 1 am on Dec 12. The agency declined to say what prompted the fight, but said the worker was interested in pursuing charges against Lohan.
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Betty Ford spokesman Russ Patrick said the staffer was fired for identifying patients at the center in an interview and “disclosing a privileged document.” Although Betty Ford and the sheriff’s department did not identify the worker, she appeared in an interview on celebrity website TMZ on Tuesday afternoon and was promptly fired. She claims the 24-year-old Lohan and two other girls had sneaked out of the facility. In the video, Dawn Holland claims she was trying to get Lohan to submit to a breathalyzer test when the actress became belligerent, pushed her and snatched a phone from her hand, straining her arm. Attempts to reach Holland
were unsuccessful. A phone number registered to her was not accepting calls Tuesday evening. Lohan has not been arrested or charged in the incident. Her attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, said in an e-mailed statement that it was the actress who called for the police. She declined to offer additional details, citing the ongoing sheriff’s investigation. While the fallout for Holland was swift, Lohan’s situation remains unclear. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden S. Fox has ordered her to remain at Betty Ford until Jan. 3 and remain out of trouble until Feb. 25. He also ordered her to submit to all drug and alcohol screenings or face up to six months in jail for
violating her probation on a 3-yearold drunk driving case. Riverside County sheriff ’s Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela said Lohan’s case would be presented to prosecutors, who will decide whether Lohan should face a new charge. Lohan has been receiving treatment at the Betty Ford Center and its facilities, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, since late September. Patrick’s statement said that until Tuesday, Betty Ford had upheld the confidentiality of 96,000 patients who had received treatment there since it opened in 1982. He said Holland’s interview was a breach of trust and the rehab process. “When patients come to the
center for treatment, they come to a safe place where their identity is protected, where anonymity is safeguarded,” he said in an e-mail. “Their simple priority when in treatment is to learn how to live a life free of alcohol and other drugs. “Confidentiality and trust are key to the treatment and recovery process.” Lohan’s stint at Betty Ford is her fifth stay in rehab and her second this year. Beginning in July, she was jailed for 14 days, followed by three weeks at inpatient rehab. Fox agreed to release her early from treatment at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in late August based on doctor’s recommendations. —AP
In this July 20, 2010 file photo, Lindsay Lohan is shown in court in Beverly Hills. — AP
Gwyneth Paltrow finds ‘Country Strong’ a struggle By Zorianna Kit here is nothing easy about overcoming an addiction and for Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays an addict in her new movie “Country Strong,” it was a battle simply to comprehend why people abuse drugs and alcohol. “Country Strong” debuts on Wednesday with Paltrow, an Oscar win-
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A photo shows Gwyneth Paltrow from the movie “Country Strong.”
Review:
Coppola’s LA isolation in ‘Somewhere’
n gauzy portraits of privileged isolation, she has situated her characters in a Tokyo hotel (“Lost in Translation”), the opulent remove of Versailles (“Marie Antoinette”) and now, in her new film “Somewhere,” at Los Angeles’ celebrity-infested Chateau Marmont. Though she gently coaxes her characters out of their insulation and toward the outside world, her talent is in her eye for cloistered, disaffected decadence. As a style icon and daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, she is, after all, portraying a life she knows intimately. “Somewhere,” which won the top prize at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this year, stars Stephen Dorff as a famous Hollywood actor, Johnny Marco. He lives at the Chateau Marmont where he lazily and indiscriminately passes the time between dutifully heeding the phone calls of his publicist. The film opens on him in a black Ferrari monotonously circling a course, watched from an unmoving camera. Laid up with a broken arm, he falls asleep watching private pole dancers. In one scene, he sits on a sofa drinking a beer and smoking a
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cigarette for nearly two minutes. Handsome and aloof, Marco is a star in a bubble, living a vapid, easy life where adoration and sex come without even trying. When a mask of his face is made so he can look older for a part, Coppola lingers on him sitting alone, his head totally covered in plaster.
The plain message: He’s not even a person. But he has a daughter: 11-year-old Cleo (Elle Fanning), of whom he typically sees little. Her mother, Layla (Lala Sloatman), abruptly abandons her to Marco, leaving the two to bond. He brings her along on a trip to Milan, Italy, where
he’s promoting his latest action film, “Berlin Agenda.” Quiet and smart, Cleo is generally just happy to be around her father. Perhaps like Coppola, she’s an observer. Like any good child actor, Fanning has learned that less is more. Marco - a blank slate played appropriately
In this film publicity image released by Focus Features, Stephen Dorff, and Elle Fanning, right, are shown in a scene from, “Somewhere.” —AP
inscrutable by Dorff - doesn’t have much to teach her. In a lengthy pan out, Coppola shows them lounging pool-side under shades, while the Strokes play: “Sit me down/ Shut me up.” As they spend more time together, there’s a transformation taking place in Marco, but it’s very subtle. The film’s emotional breakthrough comes in just its last minutes. Will Marco shrug off banality for a life of substance? Do we care? That last question is what decides whether “Somewhere” has any impact on you. Coppola is brilliant at capturing mood: With cinematographer Harris Savides, her languid camera depicts California melancholy. But substance isn’t her game. As she did in “Lost in Translation,” she aims for a sudden rush of meaningfulness at the end of the film. But the weight isn’t there. A rejection of utter emptiness is less inspiring than rather obvious. “Somewhere” ultimately passes like a soft breeze down Sunset. “Somewhere,” a Focus Features release, is rated R for sexual content, nudity and language. Running time: 98 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four. —AP
Chinese film to star Hollywood’s Bale By Michael Martina hang Yimou, one of China’s best-known directors, and local movie moguls is hoping for an ascendance on the world’s silver screens to match the country’s rise on the global political and economic stage. Winning that international audience may mean tying a Chinese story to a Hollywood face. Zhang’s newest project, a film to depict wartime Nanjing under Japanese occupation, will mark the first time a domestically-funded Chinese movie has placed a Hollywood actor-Christian Bale-in a leading role, producers told a news conference in Beijing yesterday. “The strategy for China’s film industry is to go abroad. It is a goal for the future and matches China’s fast development,” Zhang said at the unveiling of Bale as the leading man in the film, currently titled in English, “Thir teen Women of Nanjing”. The movie, set to begin
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Zhang Yimou speaks during a press conference to promote his new movie in Beijing, China yesterday. — AP
filming in Nanjing, formerly known as Nanking, in early January, is based on a book by Yan Geling, depicting a religious man (Bale) who attempts to save a group of young women forced into prostitution at by the Japanese army. “I think anyone who is doing artistic work has the responsibility for cultural exchange,” Zhang said. “We (China) have done many Nanjing-related films, but many of them were directed inwardly, and young people in the West may not know them. So we hope we can make a good film and more young people in foreign countries will see it,” he added. China’s movie industry is not alone in wanting to expand its audience. The government-from the State Council, or cabinet, to the Ministry of Culture-has had its hand in promoting China’s cultural footprint around the world. The movie that plays on the volatile historical memor y of
Chinese who suffered under a brutal Japanese occupation during World War Two may help carry a political reminder abroad. An indication of that push, the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV hosted 99 film festivals in 47 countries in 2009, according to the official China Daily. Zhang Weiping, chief producer at New Pictures Film Co Ltd, said many foreign investors had been interested in the film, but the 600 million yuan ($90 million) already invested in the project was generated entirely in China. “Investors first and foremost think about the market, unlike Yimou, who is focused on art. We invited Bale to join because I am thinking about the market and because we want the world to better understand Chinese culture,” the producer said. “Hollywood stars are expensive, but they are worth it because they can influence the whole world,” he added. —Reuters
ner in romantic comedy “Shakespeare in Love,” playing singer Kelly Canter. The actress strums the guitar and belts out tunes with ease, yet, getting her head around Kelly’s drinking and drug use was among her most difficult work as an actress. “I just couldn’t understand how you could be so drunk that you could wreck people’s lives and then wake up the next day and pretend everything was fine,” the actress, 38, told Reuters. “I struggled with that.” To prepare, Paltrow turned to her “Iron Man” costar Robert Downey Jr, who has recovered from addictions in his own life to stage a career comeback. “I asked Robert, ‘How does this work?’” said Paltrow. “He was really articulate about addiction and the psychology behind it. He really helped me a lot.” In the movie, country singer Canter is a star of the music industry when her drinking and drug use lands her in rehab. She is discharged before she is ready and embarks on a comeback tour, planned by her husband James (Tim McGraw). Joining Canter on tour is her sponsor-a budding young singer named Beau Hutton (Garrett Hedlund) — and rising starlet Chiles Stanton (Leighton Meester). But they only complicate Canter’s return to the stage. Canter’s affection for Hutton threatens to come between her and her husband, and Stanton has her mind set on overtaking the Canter and ascending to the top of country music charts. Going country Paltrow is no stranger to music. She has sung on-screen before, in her late
father Bruce Paltrow’s “Duets,” and she is married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. When she sang the song “Country Strong” at last month’s Country Music Association awards, she earned a standing ovation. Yet, she said playing Canter offered new challenges. For one, a country star who sings in major arenas to tens of thousands of fans requires a booming voice. “I could always sing a bit and I have good pitch, but my singing teacher really kicked my butt. She was like, ‘There’s a big voice in there, we’re gonna get it out!” Paltrow sings three tunes on the film’s soundtrack, including “Coming Home,” which was nominated for a Golden Globe last week. A fourth song is a duet with Tim McGraw titled “Me and Tennessee,” written by Martin. The actress also said she enjoyed portraying Canter because she identifies with being a mature woman in an industry that favors youth. “I loved playing a woman who was feeling her age and worried about the young twenty-something coming up and stealing her thunder,” said Paltrow. After working almost non-stop in the 1990s and early 2000s, Paltrow slowed her career’s pace in recent years to focus on being a mother. She has two children with Martin, daughter Apple, 6, and son Moses, 4. She said winning the best actress Oscar for 1998’s “Shakespeare In Love,” left her feeling like there was little else to accomplish as an actress, and when her father died in 2002, she was overcome with grief and didn’t want to work anymore. “My dad died, then I met my husband and then we had a kid,” recalled the actress. “I was like, ‘What the hell have I been doing for 10 years? My daughter really redefined my life and the way I approached everything.” After son Moses was born in 2006, “I didn’t have the desire to work at all,” said Paltrow. But now she is back with roles in the smash hit “Iron Man” movies. A recent turn in TV comedy musical “Glee,” introduced her to a whole new set of young fans and “Country Song” has lovers of that genre singing the praises of Paltrow. “It’s funny how much I feel country music is a part of me even though I didn’t grow up surrounded by it,” said Paltrow. “I love how authentic it is. I find it homey and comforting. It’s about being who you are, full of soul and truth.” —Reuters
Lopez says heʼd like to be LA mayor-NOT omedian George Lopez caused a stir when he told a TV news program Tuesday that he wanted to be mayor of Los Angeles, but his municipal political ambitions were a joke. Lopez insisted he was serious when told the Fox 11 news show “Good Day LA” on Tuesday that he wants to run for mayor. Lopez said that if actor Arnold
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In this May 19, 2010, file photo, talk show host George Lopez attends TNT and TBS Upfront presentation at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York. —AP
Schwarzenegger could become California’s governor, there’s no reason he couldn’t be LA’s mayor. He added he’d be a sort of a “Lobama,” instead of an Obama. Fox put out a press release about the announcement. But Lopez’s spokeswoman, Ina Treciokas, late in the day had the punch line: Lopez was kidding. — AP