The Cat's Meow

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THE CAT’S MEOW

PRODUCTION NOTES

SYNOPSIS From award-winning screenwriter Steven Peros and acclaimed director Peter Bogdanovich comes The Cat’s Meow, an extraordinary look at a fateful excursion of “fun and frolic” aboard William Randolph Hearst’s private yacht in November of 1924 that brought together some of the century’s best-known personalities and resulted in a still-unsolved, hushed-up killing. As Hearst and his lover actress Marion Davies set sail from San Pedro Harbor early one Saturday morning, hosting a small group that includes the brilliant but self-absorbed Charlie Chaplin, film pioneer Thomas Ince preoccupied with his recent financial setbacks, ambitious gossip columnist Louella Parsons, and the eccentric British Victorian novelist Elinor Glyn, it quickly becomes clear that although witty repartee and double entendre are the order of the day, deceit and deception are also on the menu.

Everyone, it seems, has a secret agenda: Ince, whose pioneering work in defining the role of the film producer has been favorably compared to D.W. Griffith’s contributions to directing, is determined to seal a partnership with Hearst’s Cosmopolitan Pictures despite W.R.’s seeming lack of interest; New York-based film critic Louella Parsons has her eye on a transfer to the west coast where she can cover the film industry more intimately; Ince’s lover, actress Margaret Livingston, no longer cares to keep their affair a secret; Hearst himself suspects that his paramour Davies has been unfaithful with the legendary comic Chaplin; and Chaplin indeed schemes to steal away the beautiful actress from the richest man in the world.

The boat sets off, and the first evening’s dinner gives way to frenetic dancing to the on-board jazz band, followed by a screening of Ms. Davies’ latest film. From there the late-night revelries shift to individual cabins for bootleg whiskey, marijuana cigarettes and other tempting, though illicit, nocturnal activities.

2 Meanwhile, Ince stokes Hearst’s flames of jealousy and offers to “keep an eye on” Ms. Davies if the two men were to unite their filmmaking enterprises. At the same time, Elinor warns Marion away from the predatory advances of the womanizing Chaplin. Hearst is further incensed when a late-night wire comes in to report that a rival newspaper will publish an item romantically linking Chaplin and Davies.

The next day Hearst’s party guests are treated to an unusual display when their host fires a cannonball into the stomach of a brawny vaudevillian named “Mr. Cannonball.” Meanwhile, lawyer George Thomas warns the increasingly desperate Ince not to turn over a love letter to Marion that the producer stole from Chaplin’s cabin. That afternoon, as Margaret reveals to anyone who’ll listen that she is Thomas Ince’s lover, Marion pleads with Charlie to keep his distance, though they cannot deny their mutual attraction.

That night Ince stokes the flames of Hearst’s jealousy into a bonfire. In an attempt to further ingratiate himself in order to close the partnership deal, he hands Hearst the crumpled love letter that he stole from Chaplin’s wastebasket. Later, as figures come and go, trading whispered conversations in the shadows, the events of the last two days hurtle toward a dramatic moment of tragedy and a single gunshot echoes in the night. The events of that evening affect the lives of every celebrity on board the ship, and before the excursion is over, all will learn the painfully high price of their precarious success. * * *

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION

Producer Kim Bieber so believed in Steven Peros’ screenplay for The Cat’s Meow that, after her initial attempts to interest various film studios in it fell short of obtaining an actual commitment, she proposed that the writer rework it as a play. He did and she subsequently produced the piece at a small theater in Los Angeles. As she had hoped, the play garnered rave reviews and at least one critic wrote that it might make a compelling film.

Bieber then contacted her friend, casting director Carol Lewis, who had been looking for a vehicle that would allow her to make the transition to film producer, and proposed that they work together on it. The two found that they both gravitated to this unique piece because they shared a love of the classic films of old Hollywood. Though the road from idea to reality was a long and arduous one for the first-time feature film producing team, in the end, said Lewis, “We made the picture we wanted to make.”

For both Bieber and Lewis the selection of a director was an easy one. “Peter was our first choice and we’re so glad that he was interested and available,” said Lewis. “Kim and I are both long-time fans of his work and we knew that he wouldn’t be afraid of a period piece. At the time we had no idea of his personal connection to the story – we felt that his vast knowledge of Hollywood history was just one more reason why he was the perfect one to direct it.”

Director Peter Bogdanovich, whose own life has been touched more than once both personally and professionally by tragedy, first heard “the whisper” about the story from no less a film icon than Orson Welles, while the two men were working together some years ago on a book about Welles’ films.

“Hearst’s name came up,” recalls Bogdanovich. “The story behind The Cat’s Meow was in the first draft of Citizen Kane. He said Herman Mankiewicz (Welles’

4 co-screenwriter) put it in, but Orson took it out because, as he later told Bogdanovich, “Kane was not a killer.”

“At the start of the movie you know there was a shooting, because it begins with a funeral,” says Bogdanovich. “You know someone’s going to get hurt – the question is who? All these famous people were reputed to be on the yacht, and there are several versions of who they were. In her narration, Elinor Glyn says, ‘everything was told in whispers. This is the whisper most often told.’”

More than just a tale of suspense set in the glittering world of Hollywood celebrities, The Cat’s Meow also struck another thematic chord for the celebrated director. “One of the reasons I was attracted to the script, apart from the fateful aspect of it, was that it’s basically a story about how difficult success is – it creates a kind of curse that comes with it…Here is a story about how difficult it is to deal with success.

“Success leads you into an unreal world,” he continues. “It creates a kind of miasma and people lose themselves. Everybody gravitates to you because of your success – then the avarice factor, the jealousy factor, the envy factor, all kick in. You might say that all seven deadly sins start dancing more.

“It’s very dangerous,” Bogdanovich adds knowingly.

According to the director, success in the U.S. poses unique challenges, and success in Hollywood is especially treacherous.

“In America success is particularly difficult because it comes to you in waves and can so easily be taken away,” he notes. “America, after all, is a young country and we have no respect for age here, or for tradition.”

5 Bogdanovich himself is no stranger to scandal, or to the fickleness of success. After establishing himself as an American director of the first rank with a succession of the critically acclaimed films The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon, his career took a turn with the less well received Daisy Miller and At Long Last Love.

The director enjoyed a moderate comeback with Saint Jack, an engrossing character study of a Singapore pimp, but then suffered another setback with They All Laughed, a film that he was forced to distribute himself and which became a financial disaster for him. Personal tragedy visited him at the same time when Dorothy Stratten, former Playboy Playmate of the Year and Bogdanovich’s girlfriend at the time, was murdered by her jealous husband, from whom she was separated at the time, after finishing her featured role in the film. Several years passed before Bogdanovich returned to filmmaking, but his career was revived again by the success of that effort, the award-winning Mask.

“In Hollywood failure is a scandal,” says Bogdanovich. “Of course, everything’s a scandal when you live in a goldfish bowl, so everything is the stuff of gossip and legend.”

As both a film historian and someone whom has himself been at the epicenter of considerable personal and professional controversy, Bogdanovich seemed predestined to be the one to bring this particular Hollywood legend to the screen. The story first shared by Orson Welles, who had heard about it firsthand from Marion Davies’ nephew, stuck in his memory, so that when he read the script of The Cat’s Meow, it seemed to the director “that fate was telling me something.”

As a film historian, Bogdanovich has always been interested in the decade of the 1920s, which were in many ways the zenith of the film industry, and the legendary filmmakers of that time. During that decade most Americans of all ages went to the movies at least once a week. It was well before the age of

6 television; even radio, in fact, hadn’t yet established itself in the public’s imagination.

The director’s interest in and knowledge of that period is also evidenced by his several books on movies and their illustrious directors, his most recent being Who the Devil Made It, based on his interviews with sixteen legendary filmmakers, which received a special award from the L.A. Critics Association. He has also written books about such directors as John Ford, Allen Dwan, Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang. This Is Orson Welles was published in 1992, along with excerpted audiotapes of his interviews that were subsequently nominated for a Grammy Award.

For a filmmaker like Bogdanovich, who has made a number of period films, the times were irresistible, though the challenges formidable.

“My attempt has always been to tell the story and serve the text as best as I can,” notes Bogdanovich. “Beyond that, my designers and I are always after verisimilitude.

“The designers and I all try to be as close to reality as possible,” he continues. “On The Last Picture Show we gave bonuses to anyone who could spot an anachronism on the set, and I recall that someone got a bonus for pointing out that a soda vending machine wasn’t of the right period.”

The director immerses himself in the period during the entire shoot. “Orson Welles didn’t think it was absolutely necessary to be so focused on the pop culture of the moment, but I find it helps me,” says Bogdanovich. “I often have period music playing on the set between takes and will listen to music of the period when I go home after the day’s shoot.”

7 Bogdanovich’s attention to detail and commitment to absolute verisimilitude is evident in the score for the film. Each of some three-dozen songs is genuine and from the actual period. As Bogdanovich notes, “The basic thing that makes it work is that it is all real music.”

Bogdanovich got his first taste of making period films with his work on the Oscar- winning The Last Picture Show, which premiered in 1971 and catapulted the director’s career forward. “When anyone had asked me what I was working on, I would say a period piece,” he recalls with a smile. “Then they’d ask, ‘What period?’ When I answered that the film took place in 1951, they all said it wasn’t a period piece at all.”

Nevertheless, he was hooked. “What I like about making period films and why I keep going back to them is that once you set a moment in time, it becomes very specific and very real to the audience.”

The Cast The casting of the film presented several challenges: a number of the characters, for example, are still familiar faces to movie fans. Moreover, as Bogdanovich notes, “When you’re doing a period picture, you look for a period face. Faces look different in different periods, though often it’s a subtle difference. One’s look can be too modern.”

Lewis’ background as a casting director helped the process along. “It was great working with Peter because there was never any question that we would go for the best actor for each role,” she recalls. “We got many calls from agents pitching clients who really weren’t right, for a number of reasons, but we held out for the best.”

In the end, Bogdanovich, who has often been acclaimed for his casting choices, distills his technique down to a deceptively simple formula: “Basically,” he says,

8 “You try to find the person who most easily eliminates the thin line between the actor’s persona and the character’s persona.”

He notes that this technique has not always been understood in Hollywood.

“When I was preparing to do Mask, the studio brought me a list of 35 or so women who they felt were right for the part. Almost everyone within a certain age range was on that list, from Meryl Streep to Jane Fonda,” he recalls. “After reading me the list, they asked me what I thought. I told them the best one for the part would be Cher, who had only done one supporting role in Silkwood at the time. When they asked me why I wanted her, I said it was because I could believe her as a drug addict – though she’s not one – and I could believe her as a person who hangs out with bikers.”

To recreate the celebrated personages that acted out this extraordinary drama, Bogdanovich went about assembling an international cast of exceptional range and ability.

“Edward Hermann, who plays Hearst, is a superb actor who I’ve seen both on the stage and in movies,” notes the director. “He just does a great dramatic performance…complicated, full of color, full of complication as Hearst. He also looks a lot like Hearst. It was quite amazing.”

To Herrmann, an acclaimed actor equally at home on stage, on television or in feature films, the opportunity to portray one of the most powerful men in the world of his time was irresistible.

“Hearst was an archetypal power broker, a media mogul before such things existed,” says Herrmann. “He could make or break anything or anyone; he could start wars or break a president – he was absolutely extraordinary. As a person, he was far more enigmatic and difficult to pigeonhole. He had enormous

9 appetites like J.P. Morgan, but was also adolescent and even childish in many ways. He loved to create the world he wanted to see and had the power to do it.”

To portray Marion Davies, the successful actress and the one true love of Hearst’s life, Bogdanovich turned to Kirsten Dunst, who most recently received critical acclaim for her performance as a wealthy but bored-with-it-all high school student in Disney’s crazy/beautiful. Previously, she was seen in Universal’s Bring It On and Virgin Suicides with James Woods and Kathleen Turner. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Interview with the Vampire.

“I think Kirsten Dunst is a remarkable actress,” says Bogdanovich. “It’s quite staggering how much she understood a character who was just a bit older than herself.

“In preparing for the role, she also watched several of Marion’s movies and it was apparent that that enriched her performance. She did a brilliant job.”

For Dunst the allure of a period piece initially captured her interest, but as she delved into the life of Davies, an intelligent, sympathetic portrayal of the actress became her central focus.

“I’ve always wanted to do a movie in the twenties and I loved the idea of playing a silent film star. I thought that was so exciting,” she recalls with a smile. “Then, when I learned a little about her, I saw that no one portrayed her like the really great comedian and intelligent businesswoman she was, so I wanted to do her justice. They made a documentary about her that I watched a lot. The first time I saw it, it made me cry.”

Jennifer Tilly, nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, was tapped to play legendary Hollywood gossip

10 columnist Louella Parsons in spite of the fact that she bears no physical resemblance to her at all.

“When they called and asked if I wanted to play Louella Parsons, at first I was horrified! I said, ‘Louella Parsons, that fat, pudgy gossip columnist?’” she recalls with a laugh. “But then I got the script and I really loved it. I think it was very insightful for Peter to cast me because it’s so comedic and she’s so much fun and she’s really goofy, but she’s also very smart.”

“Jennifer Tilly is just a brilliant comedian and a very fine actress,” notes Bogdanovich. “She handles the comedy sections brilliantly, of course, but she has dramatic sections that she also handles brilliantly as well.”

On Eddie Izzard’s recommendation, Bogdanovich turned to British actress Joanna Lumley to play the theatrical Victorian romance writer Elinor Glyn.

“Joanna is well known to American fans of the British television series Absolutely Fabulous and Eddie thought she’d be good for this part,” he recalls. “When she read for me, I thought she was good, very, very good, and she is one of the finest people I’ve ever worked with – a brilliant sense of comedy and a brilliant sense of drama.”

For Joanna, working with a director she’d admired for years was a prime consideration.

“Elinor Glyn was quite a remarkable woman,” she says. “She was very daring and very sort of avant garde for her time, but another lure of doing this picture was Peter, who’s been a huge hero of mine ever since I saw The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon and What’s Up Doc? What I love about him is his complete skill, and I love him also because he loves our business and he loves the greats in our business.”

British actor Eddie Izzard plays comic film genius Charlie Chaplin and Cary Elwes portrays Thomas Ince, a contemporary of D.W. Griffith who is thought of as one of the earliest visionaries of the film industry. It is often said that Ince contributed as much to the art and craft of the film producer as Griffith did to the art of the director.

“Eddie, who plays Chaplin, is an inordinately gifted comic mind who is also a superb actor,” notes Bogdanovich. “Comedy is the hardest of the arts to pull off because it’s so brutal – if they don’t laugh, it’s not funny, so comedy can be instant death. But Eddie is superb at comedy and really got into where Charlie was at that moment, and captured that very well.

“Cary Elwes gives a very fine performance as Thomas Ince, which is one of the most complex parts in the picture, because the character is deeply ambiguous and troubled and in a very dangerous place in his life,” Bogdanovich continues. “Cary pulled off the various different elements that were necessary to be revealed.”

Production of the film took place in Berlin, Germany, as well as on locations in Greece.

In addition to reconstructing the period, the design team had to recreate the luxurious world of William Randolph Hearst and his life aboard the Oneida, the multi-millionaire’s two-hundred-and-twenty-foot steamer, all polished teakwood and gleaming brass beneath towering smokestacks.

“The sets were very lush to reflect the opulence of the period and of Hearst himself,” says Bogdanovich. “It also helped that our designer, Jean-Vincent Puzos, and our Director of Photography, Bruno Delbonnel, were brilliant and worked quite well together.”

The collaboration of Puzos and Delbonnel is particularly evident (and effective) during the film’s nighttime climax, as light and shadow play on the opulent setting to create a mood thick with anticipation and suspense.

The Crew The film’s international crew included Production Designer Jean-Vincent Puzos, Costume Designer Caroline de Vivaise, Make-Up Artist Trefor Proud and Director of Photography Bruno Delbonnel.

“I once asked John Ford about something on a picture and he said, ‘Oh, that was just luck…I mean, you have luck in pictures. Most of the time it’s bad luck but every so often you have good luck, so that was just luck,’” recalls Bogdanovich. “We got lucky on this picture in a lot of areas. Cast is first among the luck areas that paid off but we also got lucky with an extraordinary Director of Photography and a very, very fine Production Designer who’s certainly right up there with the best I’ve ever worked with. I’d like to do every picture with him. Our Costume Designer was also terrific. Many of the costumes in the film, in fact, are authentic clothing of the period.”

ABOUT THE CAST

Kirsten Dunst “Marion Davies”

Kirsten Dunst stars as film actress Marion Davies, who adores her long-time lover, multimillionaire media mogul William Randolph Hearst, but is torn by the desire stirred within her by the romantic advances of an old flame, the very persistent Charlie Chaplin. ______

Since her feature film debut in 1989 at the age of seven in Woody Allen’s New York Stories, Kirsten Dunst has amassed an impressive roster of credits. Her performances last year in Universal’s comedy Bring It On, which opened number one at the box office, and Virgin Suicides with James Woods and Kathleen Turner, signaled a transition from Hollywood darling to leading lady. Dunst recently received additional critical acclaim for her lead role in Disney’s crazy/beautiful and will be seen later this year in Miramax’s Get Over It.

Nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the feature film Interview with the Vampire, Dunst’s other motion picture credits include starring roles in Drop Dead Gorgeous with Ellen Barkin and Kirstie Alley; Dick with Michelle Williams; Little Women with Susan Sarandon and Winona Ryder; Jumanji with Robin Williams; Mother Night with Nick Nolte; the Golden Globe-nominated Barry Levinson film Wag the Dog starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro; and Small Soldiers with the late Phil Hartman.

Dunst’s performance in Vampire earned her the Blockbuster Video Award for Best Supporting Newcomer, an MTV Award for Best Breakthrough Artist and the

14 Saturn Award for Best Young Actress. The Hollywood Reporter also named the actress Best Young Star for her portrayal of a teenage prostitute in NBC’s hit series ER.

Dunst’s career has not been limited to the big screen. In addition to her critically acclaimed recurring role on the hit television series ER, she starred in Showtime’s The Outer Limits and Devil’s Arithmetic, produced by Dustin Hoffman and Mimi Rogers; the telefilm Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy; the Wonderful World of Disney’s Tower of Terror, and Lifetime Television’s 15 And Pregnant.

Edward Herrmann “William Randolph Hearst”

Edward Herrmann portrays William Randolph Hearst, America’s first media mogul, both ruthless and cunning, and willing to do anything to protect his relationship with the love of his life, film actress Marion Davies. ______

A graduate of Bucknell University, Edward Herrmann studied at London’s prestigious Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before returning to the United States and spending several years with the Dallas Theater Center. Equally at home on stage or in front of the camera, the actor has an impressive list of credits both on and off Broadway, including a Tony Award for his performance in Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” as well as on the London stage.

Herrmann’s numerous television roles include his acclaimed portrayal of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in both the television movie Eleanor and Franklin and its sequel. He also gave a memorable performance as Lou Gehrig in the television movie A Love Affair: The Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Story.

15 Herrmann made his debut in film in 1971’s Lady Liberty starring Sophia Loren and William Devane. His subsequent early film credits include James Bridges’ The Paper Chase; Mike Nichols’ The Day of the Dolphins; The Great Gatsby starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow; The Great Waldo Pepper, also starring Redford; The Betsy starring Laurence Olivier and Robert Duvall; and Warren Beatty’s Reds.

Herrmann has also been seen in the Woody Allen films A Little Sex and The Purple Rose of Cairo, as well as in Mrs. Soffel starring Diane Keaton, The Man with One Black Shoe and Big Business.

Eddie Izzard “Charlie Chaplin”

Eddie Izzard plays Charlie Chaplin, America’s foremost comic genius and a self- absorbed man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants – even if it’s the love and affection of another man’s wife. ______

Eddie Izzard is an award-winning performer whose many diverse stage and film roles complement his already formidable reputation as an exceptionally talented stand-up comedian. This versatile actor and comic has been awarded the Time Out Award (1991) and the British Comedy Award for Top Stand-Up Comedian (1993, 1996), as well as the Jury Award for Best One-Man Show in the Aspen Comedy Festival (1998). Most recently, for his show Eddie Izzard: Dress To Kill, he received an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Music, Variety or Comedy Program and a second Emmy Award for Best Individual Performance in a Music, Variety of Comedy Program (2000). Among his other television comedy appearances are Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable, Eddie Izzard: Definite Article, The Unseen Frank Skinner TV Show and 30 Years of Monty Python: A Revelation.

On the big screen Izzard’s credits include All the Queen’s Men; Shadow of the Vampire; The Criminal; Circus; Mystery Men; The Avengers; Velvet Goldmine and The Secret Agent. His London stage credits include Lenny, Edward II, Cryptogram and Oneonta.

Cary Elwes “Thomas Ince”

Cary Elwes portrays Thomas Ince, a pioneering filmmaker in the early days of Hollywood who has fallen on hard times and sees William Randolph Hearst as the key to his economic salvation. ______

Born in London into a family of painters, Cary Elwes attended Harrow. Following his graduation he moved to the United States and studied acting at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. After gaining some experience acting in several Off-Broadway productions, he returned to England to make his film debut in Another Country.

Elwes first gained prominence in the film world with his acclaimed comical performance as the farm boy Westley in The Princess Bride. He has since been seen as Tom Cruise’s racing competitor in Days of Thunder, Matthew Broderick’s gallant second-in-command in Glory, the driven fighter pilot in Hot Shots! and the forlorn fiancé of the beautiful but doomed Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Especially fond of playing period pieces, Elwes played the title role in Mel Brooks’ Robin Hood: Men in Tights to good effect.

Additional film credits of note include Twister, Liar Liar, The Cradle Will Rock and Shadow of the Vampire. He has been seen on American television in The

17 Pentagon Wars, the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon and in Race Against Time.

Joanna Lumley “Elinor Glyn”

Joanna Lumley plays the renowned English Victorian novelist Elinor Glyn, a remarkable woman who viewed Hollywood as a voracious beast who trapped people with dreams of wealth, then sucked the morality out of them. Nevertheless, she took on a very theatrical look and manner herself, and reveled in her own experiences in Tinseltown. ______

Born in Kashmir the daughter of a British major in the Ghurka Rifles, Joanna Lumley and came to England as a young girl to complete her schooling at St. Mary’s School in Sussex. She spent three years as a model before becoming a house model for the late Jean Muir. Her early films include Some Girls Do; On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; two Pink Panther films – Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther; The Satanic Rights of Dracula and Shirley Valentine. Her most recent films include James and the Giant Peach, Innocent Lies, Funny Bones, Prince Valiant, Sweeney Todd and a television film version of Cold Comfort Farm.

Her television credits include the role of Purdey in 24 episodes of The New Avengers as well as appearing in 34 episodes of Sapphire and Steel. Her experiences of living alone on a desert island were filmed for a BBC Special entitled Girl Friday. She also traveled to Bhutan in 1996 to film a journey made by her grandparents.

18 American television audiences know Lumley best for her co-starring role as Patsy Stone (the character’s full name was Eurydice Clytemnestra Dido Bathsheba Rabelais Patricia ‘Patsy’ Cocteau Stone), a middle-aged and totally debauched former model who hasn’t had a non-alcoholic drop to drink since her stomach bypass in 1969, in the hilarious British comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, also known as AbFab. The satirical look at two unsympathetic social misfits who thrive on bad behavior – Patsy’s partner in debauchery is PR executive Edwina Monsoon, played by series co-creator Jennifer Saunders – was classic British humor at its driest and best, and spawned a generation of viewers who greet each other as Patsy and Eddie always did, with air kisses and “Sweety, dahling.” Several retrospective specials have aired since.

Lumley has written three books: Stare Back and Smile, Forces Sweethearts and Girl Friday, from the BBC Special. She has also been awarded an OBE.

Jennifer Tilly “Louella Parsons”

Jennifer Tilly portrays neophyte New York-based gossip columnist Louella Parsons, who is determined to use whatever means is at her disposal in order to pressure William Randolph Hearst into transferring her to Hollywood with a long- term contract to cover the city at the epicenter of the film industry. ______

Award-winning actress Jennifer Tilly has received critical acclaim for her performances in a wide range of roles. She received both an Academy Award nomination and an American Comedy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Olive in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway. Her performance as Samantha Cole in Universal’s Liar Liar starring Jim Carrey earned the actress another American Comedy Award nomination for Best

19 Supporting Actress, as well as a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actress in a Comedy. Her range has further been demonstrated in roles as different as Tiffany, a “bad” girl whose spirit possesses the doll-form companion of Chucky in The Bride of Chucky, the fourth installment of the Child’s Play series, and Stuart Little’s mother in Stuart Little, a family comedy based on the E.B. White classic. Additional film credits include The Muse, The Getaway, The Doors and The Fabulous Baker Boys.

Among Tilly’s television credits are Sister Mary Explains It All, Bella Mafia and Heads. She has also made notable guest starring appearances on such popular hit series as Dream On, Moonlighting, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and Cheers.

Ronan Vibert “Joseph Willicombe”

Ronan Vibert plays clipboard-carrying Joseph Willicombe, the efficient and always self-effacing chief secretary to William Randolph Hearst, one of the richest and most powerful men in America, as well as the world’s first media mogul. ______

British actor Ronan Vibert is equally at home on stage, on television or in film. On the big screen Vibert has appeared in Stephen Frear’s Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Elias Merhige’s Shadow of a Vampire, and Chen Kaige’s Killing Me Softly. He will soon also appear in Roman Polanski’s latest film effort entitled The Pianist.

On British television Vibert has portrayed Robespierre in both The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Scarlet Pimpernel II for BBC/London Films. Other credits include Mrs. Bradley Mysteries, The Raven, Cadfael, A Statement of Affairs and

20 Jeeves and Wooster. He was also in the cast of the original British television production of Traffik, the miniseries later remade into the Academy Award- winning feature film (Traffic) by director Stephen Soderbergh. American audiences may recognize him from his appearance on HBO’s Tales From the Crypt.

Victor Slezak “George Thomas”

Victor Slezak plays George Thomas, a practical man who does double duty as Thomas Ince’s business manager and as a pretend escort to Margaret Livingston in order to disguise her affair with the high-powered film pioneer. ______

Slezak’s film credits range from Clint Eastwood’s The Bridges of Madison County to John Boorman’s Beyond Rangoon. Among his additional film credits are Alan Pakula’s The Devil’s Own, Ed Zwick’s The Siege, Arne Glimcher’s Just Cause and Janusz Kaminski’s Lost Souls.

On television Slezak has appeared in the American Playhouse production of Darrow starring Kevin Spacey, The Good Policeman directed by Lee Grant and the HBO Films presentation of Jackie Presser: Team Boss. He has also guest starred on such series as Law and Order, Miami Vice and Crime Story.

Slezak’s work on Broadway includes a portrayal of John F. Kennedy in Jackie: An American Life. He was also seen in Any Given Day and the classic Suddenly Last Summer. His lengthy list of Off Broadway and regional credits range from the classics, like Sweet Bird of Youth, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Month in the Country and Of Mice and Men, to more modern fare like Mafia on Prozac,

21 Appointment with a Highwire Lady and the New York Shakespeare Theatre’s production of Talk Radio.

ABOUT THE CREW

After a short career as an actor with the New York and American Shakespeare Festivals, Director Peter Bogdanovich began directing plays off Broadway and in summer stock. He also wrote a series of monographs of film directors for the Museum of Modern Art and later began publishing books on the works of such artists as Fritz Lang, John Ford, Allan Dwan and Orson Welles. In 1966 he entered the world of filmmaking as an assistant director for Roger Corman and two years later got his first directing break piloting Targets starring Boris Karloff. The following year he caught the attention of both critics and the public with The Last Picture Show, starring Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms, a brilliant look at small-town American life in the 1950s. The film received a N.Y. Film Critics’ Award for Best Screenplay, British Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and 8 Academy Award nominations, with two wins.

An unapologetic sentimentalist about the classic era of great moviemakers, Bogdanovich had a second huge hit the next year in What’s Up, Doc?, a madcap comedy starring Barbra Steisand and Ryan O’Neal made in the style of Howard Hawks. One year later he recreated John Ford’s vision of rural America with Paper Moon, a Depression Era tale about a pair of unlikely con artists that nabbed an Academy Award for nine-year-old Tatum O’Neal in her screen debut.

Bogdanovich found less success with such subsequent efforts as Daisy Miller, At Long Last Love and Nickelodeon, but had another hit with Saint Jack starring Ben Gazzara and Denholm Elliot in the story of an amiable and ambitious pimp living in Singapore. He then scored another major triumph with 1985’s Mask, starring Cher and Eric Stoltz in the true story of a boy whose face has been terribly disfigured by a rare disease and the mother who’s instilled a sense of confidence and love in her son. The film was honored with an Academy Award.

23 Bogdanovich has also written numerous books on the history of film and the great filmmakers, including The Cinema of Orson Welles; The Cinema of Howard Hawks; The Cinema of Alfred Hitchcock; John Ford; Fritz Lang in America; Allan Dwan: The Last Pioneer; Pieces of Time: Peter Bogdanovich on the Movies; This is Orson Welles; A Moment With Miss Gish; and Who the Devil Made It.

Among the other awards Bogdanovich’s films have earned are a Writer’s Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay (What’s Up, Doc?); three Academy Awards nominations, with one win, (Paper Moon); Best Director, Brussels Festival (Daisy Miller); an L.A. Film Critics Assoc. Awards Special Citation, and an Italian Film Critics Assoc. Barbari Award (Who the Devil Made It).

Screenwriter Steven Peros is an award-winning writer and filmmaker with credits in film, television, and theater. He is the co-author of two independent films, one of which, Murdered Innocence, received awards for Best Screenplay and Best Feature at the Long Island Film Festival. In 1998 Peros wrote and directed The Inside Man, a half-hour independent film that received the Audience Award at the Long Island Film Festival. As a television writer, Peros penned three episodes for The Lot, which premiered to rave reviews in January 2001 on the American Movie Classics network.

Peros’ roots in storytelling began with the stage where his 1994 full-length play Karlaboy received a Drama-Logue Critics Award for Outstanding Achievement in Writing. The Los Angeles World Premiere of The Cat’s Meow, upon which the film is based, had a nine-week sold-out run. In addition to his many film, television and stage credits, he also served as the director of development for Nederland Television in New York for three years. In this position he was Associate Producer and one of the creators of the A&E series The General Motors Playwrights Theater, which earned four ACE Awards.

24 After working as an Art Director on such feature films as 1989’s Suivez cet avion, Production Designer Jean-Vincent Puzos became Production Designer on a number of films primarily for the French cinema, including La Note Bleu (Blue Note) starring Sophie Marceau, Tykho Moon starring Julie Delpy, Michel Piccoli and Jean-Louis Trintignant, La Fidelite (Fidelity) starring Sophie Marceau, and, most recently, Le Roman la Lulu starring Thierry Lhermitte.

Though Costume Designer Caroline de Vivaise has worked primarily on films for the French cinema throughout her career, her work is familiar to American fans of Shadow of the Vampire, starring Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich. Her most recent project is the film Lisa, starring French film legend Jeanne Moreau.

Make-Up Artist Trefor Proud has the distinction of having received an Academy Award for his make-up work on the critically acclaimed recounting of the relationship between collaborators Gilbert and Sullivan in Topsy-Turvy. His very next film was last year’s Academy Award-winning epic Gladiator. Additional credits include Bent, Swept From the Sea and Pierce Brosnan’s first turn as Agent 007 in GoldenEye.

Director of Photography Bruno Delbonnel began his career as Second Assistant Operator for director Jean-Jacques Beineix on his internationally acclaimed drama Betty Blue. He followed that up by working on the Pyrenees team for Beineix’s L’ile aux pachyderms (The Island of Pachyderms) starring Yves Montand. As Director of Photography, Delbonnel’s credits include C’est jamais loin starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Le Fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain (Amelie from Montmartre).

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