Interview articles from September 2003

Interview archives from September 2003

Gael's got 'em--claws and all.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Dear Interview, I literally screamed with excitement when I saw Gael Garcia Bernal on your cover [July 2003]. Well done! It's about time someone noticed this enormously talented--not to mention hot, hot, hot--Mexican actor. All I have to...

Our pages are only so big.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Dear Interview, Whoa, baby! Thank you for the great swimsuit layout with the gorgeous John Haritan [July 2003]. But why did you limit yourself to only one footballer? I'm sure there are hundreds of others out there who'd love to strip down...

The request lane.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Dear Interview, Thank you for your wonderful magazine. I love it! But please, please consider doing an article, interview, or pictorial on award-winning star Diane Lane. She was recently voted one of the most beautiful women in the world,...

Thriller.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Dear Interview, How utterly predictable that Michael Jackson [August 2003] would turn the Pharrell Williams interview into an opportunity for self-promotion, going so far as to compare himself to Jesus. Who is he fooling? Interview is for...

That's why there's chocolate and vanilla.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Dear Interview, Come on--Coldplay on the cover of your special music issue [August 2003]? We all know who really belonged there. Too bad Thorn Yorke [of Radiohead] isn't sleeping with Sandra Bullock. C.A. DOOBININ Chicago

Conan O'Brien: when he took over late night from David Letterman, everyone wondered who the gangly redhead was. Ten years later--after some hitches and stumbles--he is arguably the funniest man on television. Here, he switches chairs with fellow sidesplitter Jack Black.(September View Man)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... JACK BLACK: Hello? CONAN O'BRIEN: Two great comedy minds, finally together. JB: Head to head. Clash of the titans, as it were. CO: Superman and Aquaman. JB: Who's Aquaman? CO: I'm afraid you are. JB: [laughs] Okay....

Alison Lohman: murderous mothers. Missing fathers. Here's the actress who plays their unlucky daughters better than anyone. Tim Burton finds out what she's got inside her that allows her to do this.(September Inter Woman)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Some actresses climb slowly to prominence, and others break out so suddenly their performances feel like a series of wham!s striking the screen. Alison Lohman delivered just such a surprise in last year's White Oleander, a movie in which she...

Sugar & spice: have yourself a Shirley Temple.(Look Of The Month)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... The grin has never really been fully investigated as the potent beauty accessory it is. Folks over the years have known its power--take the Cheshire cat, Lauren Hutton, and the entire cast of Saturday Night Live, for example. But its greatest...

Alfred Hitchcock: he was a mystery to many of the famous names he directed, but a new book gets inside the suspense maestro's mind. A sneak peek.(Legend--Behind The Scenes)(Excerpt)
September 1, 2003... Of the nearly 65 feature films that Alfred Hitchcock directed (starting in the silent era and continuing right up to his death in 1950), a surprising number of them remain compelling despite time's and fashion's fickleness. The following...

The Stills: despite the name, this band is going places--fast.(Music Prediction)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... The Stills are a new kind of rock band with an old kind of ethic: putting the music first. In just a year, the moody, melodic, and ambitious quartet has won a groundswell of fans with just a handful of songs. As these Montrealers prepare their...

Tywanna Jo Baskette: edgy country music, without bright lights and big hair.(Music Scoop)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... While Tywanna Jo Baskette has spent her whole life in Nashville, she might as well be a world away from the country music capital. Her debut album, Fancy Blue (Sweet Tea/Terminus), is crafted in the Southern tradition of quirky outsiders like...

Anthony Hamilton: this former barber is restyling soul music with a slinky, sultry debut.(Music Buzz)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... On wax, soul singer Anthony Hamilton sounds like the ultimate mack daddy: smooth talking, streetwise, and brimming with lover-man confidence. But in person, the 30-year-old self-described "spiritual pimp" has the gleeful, impish demeanor of a...

Lili Haydn: making emotional music, with strings attached.(Music Tip)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... The scene: Madison Square Garden, 1998. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant's reunion tour. A sold-out crowd of hard-core Zeppelin fans are going stomping wild. "The lights go down, people are screaming--and I walk out," recalls singer-songwriter Lili...

Mary J. Blige Love & Life (Geffen).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... Oh, Mary J., will the drama ever subside? Fortunately, listening to Blige sing about abuse, infidelity, and self-doubt is a religious experience. With P. Diddy back at the helm after nearly a decade, the beats are thick and infectious, and her...

Nappy Roots Wooden Leather (Atlantic).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... The Kentucky sextet's second album is at the nexus of urban music: where hip-hop meets the blues, where culture intersects with politics, and where hyperbole and camp converge with reality and depth. Inspired raps and thoughtful imagery are...

Andrew W.K. The Wolf (Island).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... The motivational metal head kicks out the jams on his second batch of cheek-biting rock anthems, screaming about parties ("Long Live the Party"), sex ("Make Sex"), and music ("I Love Music"). W.K.'s positive attitude is like a shot of...

Dido Life for Rent (Arista).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... This follow-up to 1999's No Angel--which featured the breakthrough hit, "Thank You," famously sampled by Eminem--is another churning, trippy, and tuneful collection of love songs for people with expensive haircuts. But the big difference on...

Iggy Pop Skull Ring (Virgin).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... On this rush of a record, spiked by his macabre wit, punk's elder statesman reunites with Raw Power's rhythm section, along with members of Sum 41, Green Day, and dirty girl Peaches, on cuts as sharp as his ribs. Only Pop could glamorize his...

Pretty Girls Make Graves The New Romance (Matador).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... Few contemporary bands write I-love-rock songs as convincingly as this Seattle quintet. The song "Speakers Push the Air," from their debut, 2002's Good Health, was a rock-lifer anthem to believe in; this sophomore effort kicks off with singer...

The Star Spangles Bazooka!!! (Capitol).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... These New York City blitzkrieg boppers display a familiarity with the "two R's" of rock--the Replacements and the Ramones--on their debut. With erstwhile Ramone producer Daniel Rey and covers of Johnny Thunders and Hoodoo Gurus songs, even the...

Steve Burns Songsfordustmites ([PIAS] America).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... Given his former job as host of the Nickelodeon show Blue's Clues, no one could have anticipated that Burns would have more in common with Badly Drawn Boy than Kermit the Frog. But this muffled guitar opus--an off-kilter fairy tale about...

Super Furry Animals Phantom Power (XL/Beggars Group).(Sound advice: music for lovers, music for fighters, music for thinkers)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... Ever wondered what the Beatles would sound like if they picked up where they left off? This Welsh quintet, with their loping art pop, is a good bet. Their fifth album's orchestral wanderings, tubular bass lines, and barbed lyrics beneath a...

Mike Vogel: introducing Heathcilff for the cliffnotes set.(Actor On A Roll)(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... When Mike Vogel, then a high schooler in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, sent a "sponsor me" audition tape to skateboard companies, he never imagined he'd make another one years later as part of a feature film. But the 24-year-old actor is...

Melvil Poupaud: he plays the guys you love to hate.(Movie Moment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... With inky ringlets flowing over his angelic face, Melvil Poupaud looks like the wronged party in James Ivory's recently opened comedy, Le Divorce. Which is why his casting as Charles-Henri, a moody artist who leaves his pregnant wife (Naomi...

Paz Vega: this bullfighter's daughter is setting her sights on the red cape of Hollywood.(Movie Heat)(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Given the attention that Paz Vega has received for appearing nude onscreen, it's no surprise when the earthy Spaniard says, "I've never been shy." "But I actually don't enjoy being naked on film," explains the 27-year-old, whose 2001...

Paul Giamatti: the captivator who drives the year's most innovative, most brain-twistingly complicated movie.(Cult Movie News)(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... It's been six years since Paul Giamatti stormed movie screens, indelibly and foaming at the mouth, as the weaselly radio executive "Pig Vomit" in Private Parts (1997). Balding, slightly heavy, and completely captivating, Giamatti all but dared...

Pawel Szajda: how many poles does it take to heat up a movie? All you need is this one.(Movie Spotlight)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... As children, we tend to rebel against our parents' choices. But as young adults, the wisdom of their experience often comes into sharper focus. For 21-year-old first-generation Polish-American Pawel Szajda, the clincher that landed him a role...

Emmy Rossum: the thinking teenager's actress.(Movie Breakout)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... "I don't normally tell people," whispers actress Emmy Rossum, "but I like to study philosophy." It's an interest that the 17-year-old, who first gained notice in Songcatcher (2001), has little difficulty connecting to her craft: "It's like...

Josh Lucas: his brush with death in a sea storm told him what he needed to know about life. Now he's approaching moviemaking with the intensity of a Tsunami, showing the world a new side of his acting chops as a drugged-out gang leader in this month's wonderland, a film that skulks through the underbelly of Los Angeles in the '80s.(Movie Profile)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Though a swim through his recent credits--The Deep End (2001), The Weight of Water--may lend itself to some puns that are, well, all wet, it was in 2001's A Beautiful Mind that Josh Lucas made his first big splash, as an all-too-human academic,...

Cold Creek Manor (Touchstone).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Mike Figgis Bummed by the Big Apple's frenetic pace, Cooper and Leah Tilson (Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone), pack up the kids and head for the country. The once-glorious mansion they've bought is a wreck, but that's okay: Like...

The Order (20th Century Fox).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Brian Helgeland A priest (Heath Ledger) goes to Rome to investigate his mentor's mysterious death, and encounters the Sin Eater, a shady character who offers sinners absolution--and a ticket to heaven--outside the Church's...

American Splendor (Fine Line).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Shari Springer Barman and Robert Pulcini A smart combination of drama and documentary, Splendor is the story of Harvey Pekar, a depressive Cleveland file clerk and an all-around schlub who became a cult icon thanks to the comic...

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (Columbia).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Robert Rodriguez The third film in the El Mariachi trilogy finds the series' guitar-toting, sharpshooting hero (Antonio Banderas) caught in the middle of a coup as he seeks revenge on his family's executioners. The director's...

Matchstick Men (Warner Bros.).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Ridley Scott Small-time con men Roy (Nicolas Cage) and Frank (Sam Rockwell) are planning their latest scam. But Roy's an obsessive-compulsive agoraphobe, and when he's not on his meds, look out--he has meltdowns over lint....

Thirteen (Fox Searchlight).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Catherine Hardwicke Hardwicke teamed up with her ex-boyfriend's 13-year-old daughter to pen this gripping, gritty screenplay about two teen girls. Evan Rachel Wood and the prodigy scribe, Nikki Reed, star as the L.A. kids who...

Open Range (Touchstone).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Kevin Costner Cowboys Charlie (Costner) and Boss (Robert Duvall) don't like it much when they get bush-whacked by cattle king Baxter (Michael Gambon), so they settle the debt in time-honored frontier fashion--with few words and...

Party Monster (Strand).(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato Midway through this monster--which follows the real-life exploits of professional party boy-turned-murderer Michael Alig (Macaulay Culkin)--a character gulps back a glass of what he thinks is...

Spanish flies! Latin matters in every language.(Style Latest)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Given the recent visibility of all things Spanish-influenced (from both the New and Old worlds), it seemed only a matter of time before fashion would catch wind of all the possibilities and run with it. From performances by high-profile...

Survival instincts: attention all fashion-forward folk--please fasten your seatbelts!(Fashion Trend)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... In a year punctuated by searches for WMDs, war, terrorism, and general gray clouds of unease, turning to survival apparel as inspiration for fashion may seem a logical leap. To transform something so utilitarian into the altogether beautiful,...

Power to the Pierrots! It may look like a lot of clowning around, but this is serious stuff.(Fashion Flash)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... As evidenced at some of this fall's more wonderfully out-there shows, an emerging fashion faction is challenging traditional ideas of proportion with clothes, and their inspiration is equally left-field. In this case it's clowns, albeit the...

The college conundrum: Camille Paglia on the $160,000 question: is college really worth it?(Culture Opinion Page)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... INGRID SISCHY: September is when people go back to school. Even if one has been out of school for years, somehow in September there's a mood forever. In keeping with the season, I'd like to get your thoughts on college education in America,...

Days between stations: music writers are their own breed, a new novel takes you into the heart or their world.(Music Column)(Book Review)
September 1, 2003... "Music writing is an art of substitution," Jonathan Lethem wrote in his editor's introduction to Da Capo Best Music Writing 2002. "What we seek is the voice, and what's behind it. What we want is to be with ourselves, but not alone." ...

Elton John's tip sheet.(Music Opinion Corner)(Interview)
September 1, 2003... INGRID SISCHY: So, Elton, before we go into what you're listening to right now, I want to ask: Do the big hits from the summer normally carry over into the fall, or does the season change demand a switch, psychologically, from listeners? ...

Shots in the dark: when the multiplex is the furthest you can go.(Movie Column)(Movie Review)
September 1, 2003... Watching Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation and Olivier Assayas' Demonlover, both opening this month, you might think you're at the center of the world, no matter that the former is a dreamy meditation on entrapment in a foreign culture and...

All the dish: waiting to exhale: three outdoor spots for breathing in the last of summer.(Food Column)(Restaurant Review)
September 1, 2003... The arrival of Labor Day may typically be regarded as the last call of summer, but September in New York often offers up days as clear and warm as any found in mid-July (consolation, perhaps, to those of us feeling shortchanged by this year's...

Letter from the editor September 2003.(View)
September 1, 2003... "People think, Oh, what a happy-go-lucky chap, with his funny show," says Conan O'Brien to his interviewer Jack Black in this month's issue (beginning on page 81). As you'll read, the pairing of these two wide-awake comics is a recipe for some...

Diane Lane: the actress who has nine lives plays a character who is on her second.(Interview)
September 1, 2003... As recently as a few years ago, Diane Lane was a working actress who used to be a star. Now, thanks largely to Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful, co-starring Richard Gere (whom she also appeared opposite in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club, 1984),...

Shelby Lynne: she's neck and neck in the drama stakes with Courtney Love, and her new album is called Identity Crisis. She should have one every year.(Interview)
September 1, 2003... Shelby Lynne's life Is the stuff country songs are made of. When she was 17, her father fatally shot her mother, then took his own life in the family driveway. By 18, she was already married and divorced, raising her younger sister and...

Hugh Jackman: how do you bring the life of Liza's ex to Broadway? Ask this man.(Interview)
September 1, 2003... The most eagerly awaited performance of the new theater season belongs to Hugh Jackman, the Australian actor who's slashed his way onto the movies' A-list with his brooding portrayal of Wolverine in the X-Men franchise. In his Broadway debut,...

The cat burglar's school of fashion.(Brief Article)(Illustration)
September 1, 2003... ANY CAT BURGLAR WORTH HER SALT KNOWS THAT SOMETIMES THE BEST PLACE TO HIDE SOMETHING IS RIGHT BEFORE ONE'S EYES. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED IN FASHION A SEASON AGO, WHEN MIUCCIA PRADA BOLDLY SENT OUT A COLLECTION IN WHICH ONE COULDN'T TELL...

Black moustache: look what's risen out of the ashes of electroclash.(Interview Music Flash)(Sound Recording Review)
September 1, 2003... While the band's cryptic name conjures images of Burt Reynolds at his hirsute zenith, there's much more to Black Moustache than ironic facial hair. The Williamsburg, Brooklyn art-rock trio--singer Spencer Product, drummer Mike Skinner, and...

Scarlett Johansson: we live in a new age that needs new love stories, and new presences to tell them. Here is an actress born for these roles.(Interview)
September 1, 2003... A case can be made that Scarlett Johansson is the most exquisitely gifted young actress currently working in American films. After her fine adolescent performances in Manny & Lo (1996) and The Horse Whisperer (1998), Johansson matured swiftly...

Blue hot.(Blue jeans)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... THE BLUE JEAN HAS BEEN A REBEL, A WORKER, A PUNK, A HIPPIE, A POP STAR, AN ARTIST, AN OUTSIDER, A MOVIE STAR, A RENEGADE, AND A BOHEMIAN (AMONG OTHER THINGS). IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE THAT THIS LEGENDARY GARMENT, ONCE BANNED FROM AMERICAN...

Michelle Rodriguez: in role after role, she has kicked the stereotype of the token female in the teeth, leaving an imprint all her own. Now, with a quick trigger on her hip--and lip--she more than holds her own against the boys with badges.(Interview)
September 1, 2003... OLIVIER MARTINEZ: Hello? Michelle? MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ: Hey, Olivier! Yo! What's Canada like? OM: It's great, but this is not my interview. I prefer questions to answers. So you're in a new movie called S.W.A.T., right? Do they really...

Hold that blonde!(Legally Blonde 2 opening gala photographs)(Illustration)
September 1, 2003... It was a blonde summer, starting out with Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon at NYC's Ziegfeld Theater for the premiere of Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cornelia Guest and M-A-C Cosmetic's John Demsey...