ENTER: STARLORD

SHARON AND DON

Looking for a partner for Don Johnson in Dead Bang, 1990, director John Frankenheimer told me how he was "just bowled over by this beautiful girl who can act ... But I had a terrific fight with my producer. 'You can't use her. She looks exactly like Don Johnson.' I said: 'You're crazy. If Don Johnson looked like that, I'd be married to him!'" That was Sharon Stone, that was. And John put her in his next (and much better) film, The Year of the Gun. "I never offered it to anyone else."

AL AND AL

On the  1976 set of Hitchcock's final movie, Family Plot, Bruce Dern politely asked The Maestro why he'd chosen him for a third Hitch gig. "Because Mr Pakinow wanted a million dollars." Pause. Indeed several pauses ... as it took Dernsie a long while to work out that Mr Pakinow was, in fact ... Mr Pacino.  Now, listen to Hitchcock: "If I ever said that actors are cattle, then Bruce is the golden calf." Dern grinned at the memory. "You think he was small. But he was big. Six-foot-one. Weighed 285. No one to [mess] with." 

THE GOOD WIFE

Japanese directing icon Nagisa Oshima said his main subjects were sex and crime: "the most violent urges of human beings." OK, said Paris producer Anatole Dauman, let's make a porno flick! The result  was the most important film in erotic cinema. Oshima created art core - far better than any Lars Von Trier codswallop. Trickiest problem, the director thought, would be finding actors willing to have sex in front of the camera. Imagine his shock when his actress wife Akiko Koyama, suddenly  said: "I'll do it,"  What? Oshima was floored and she later explained that when word got out that she was willing, other actors would know it was a worthwhile role and feel more comfortable about auditioning. She was right. "They came in great numbers," said Oshima, "saying if sex was required, well, that was no big deal."  Akiko played a non-explicit geisha when Oshima shot the (true) story - In the Realm of the Senses - with Eiko Matsuda in 1975 - on the  same Daiei Studio lot in Kyoto where Kurosawa made his 50s classic, Rashômon.  How times had changed!  

MEMORY LANE

Checking Fred Williamson's page the other day (yah I browse my own site!), I recalled meeting him at  Cannes one year. We did an interview on the day before the festivai started. He  was charming, gracious, amusing. That night, my hotel room was robbed. My money was stolen. Plus my tape-recorder stolen with the Fred tape  still in  it!!! Next day, I borrowed a recorder, hunted the town for Fred, found him, explained all. He laughed like a drain, looked at the new machine and said: "What was the first question again?" He then did the entire interview all over. And paid for the drinks.   

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

There are nearly 6,000 actors detailed on the CCC website. Some have missed/passed a single film. Others, many more. Then, there are the champions. These are the top three ...

1. Brando - he bypassed 134 movies
2. Nicholson - 125
3. Cary Grant - 113

Highest Brit is Sir Sean with 84.

Highest dame is Liz Taylor with 60 (same as Burton!), followed by Julie Christie, 58; Jodie Foster, 55; Katharine Hepburn, Madonna and Julia Roberts tie on 52. (Meryl’s at 50).

New Brigade: Kidman, 45; Gwyneth, 44; Leo, 41; Sean Penn, 40; Clooney, 30; Ewan, 29; Robert Downey passed on 28 (including George’s Gravity). Amazingly, Lindsay Lohan totals 27; Scarlett 25; Keira and Olivia Wilde, 24; Christian Bale, 22.

Finally, a fistful of anomalies… Bollywood’s Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is as high as 41 - three more than Marilyn! Gable (and Belmondo), 42. (You’ll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu).