HBO Film Explores Vanderbilt's Life Through Her
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SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016 HBO film explores Vanderbilt’s life through her son or much of his career, CNN’s Anderson on the art she has created throughout her life. Cooper rarely talked publicly about being Her brand of designer jeans - for many people, FGloria Vanderbilt’s son. He wasn’t ashamed. the thing they most associated with her - gets Cooper just didn’t want the baggage, the barely a minute in the nearly two-hour film. assumption that his life was set because he was a There’s a sadness in her eyes. Vanderbilt was long descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the estranged from her mother, and one of her sons world’s richest business magnates of the 1800s. with Stokowski cut himself off from the family for Since he has the last name of his father, actor more than 40 years (since the film was made, Wyatt Cooper, it was easy to keep this quiet. there has been some contact). And she suffered a All of that changes with “Nothing Left parent’s ultimate nightmare with the loss of a Unsaid,” a documentary that premieres Saturday son, Anderson’s brother Carter. on HBO (9 pm EDT). The film explores Vanderbilt’s remarkable life and offers families a Emotional centerpiece blueprint for conversations with aging parents. In 1988, shortly after his graduation from Cooper wasn’t as close with his mother as he Princeton, Carter jumped out the window of his wanted to be, and when she had a health scare a mother’s high-rise apartment. She watched, and year ago, realized he didn’t want to be left with pleaded with him to stop. Vanderbilt says in questions when she couldn’t answer them. His “Nothing Left Unsaid” that she contemplated fol- mother, now 91, has likely been in the public eye lowing him, but the thought of how it would dev- longer than anyone else alive. At age 9, she was astate Anderson stopped her. Carter’s death, on newspaper front pages as the “poor little rich capped by Cooper and Vanderbilt visiting his girl,” the subject of a custody battle between her Anderson Cooper and his mother Gloria Vanderbilt attend the premiere of “Nothing grave together, is the film’s emotional center- mother and other relatives (her father died when Left Unsaid” at the Time Warner Center in New York. — AP piece. Filmmaker Liz Garbus includes an interview she was 15 months old). with Carter’s former girlfriend, who says she Stokowski when she was 20 and he was 63. The always believed he was most like him. Through turned down his request to come over the night Money wasn’t an issue marriage produced two children and ended the film and its accompanying book, he learned of his suicide because she had a pimple and The nickname “bothered me enormously,” when Frank Sinatra began pursuing her. all he had in common with his mother. Both fruit- didn’t want him to see it. Vanderbilt said in an interview. “I didn’t see any of Vanderbilt later married director Sidney Lumet lessly believed their fathers had left behind letters Vanderbilt and Cooper had no hesitation reliv- the press - the newspapers were kept from me. I and then Wyatt Cooper. The Cooper marriage for them to read after their deaths. “The whole ing the painful time. “It brings him alive when you didn’t know what it meant. I didn’t feel poor and I seemed the most grounded, but he died when Vanderbilt side never had any reality to me at all,” talk about him,” she said. “I’m close to a lot of his didn’t feel rich. It really did influence me enor- Anderson was 10. Even in her tenth decade, he said. “My mom didn’t feel connected. She felt friends who were in Princeton with him and I mously to make something of my life when I real- Vanderbilt said she believes she has a great like a changeling, an impostor. We grew up with- always enjoy seeing them and talking to them.” ized what it meant.” Money wasn’t an issue; romance ahead of her. out any real connection. My father took me to see Mother and son hope that some people who see Vanderbilt inherited $4.5 million in 1941. Yet she “She’s the most vulnerable, optimistic person I the statue of Commodore Vanderbilt in Grand the film will be encouraged to speak to elderly lived a young life unmoored, with no father and a know,” Cooper said. “She’s the most trusting per- Central, and I thought all grandparents turned relatives about their lives. “Anderson really knew mother uninterested in child-rearing. She was fas- son. I’m not as trusting as her at all. She’s incredi- into statues when they died.” little about my childhood because I’d never spo- cinated with Hollywood, dated Errol Flynn when bly optimistic, and I believe the next catastrophe Cooper is a gentle guide through the film, ken about it,” Vanderbilt said. “So we really got to she was 17 and had a short-lived marriage as a is right around the corner and I want to prepare going through boxes of memorabilia and draw- know each other and became really close in a teenager. She married conductor Leopold for it.” Cooper looks more like his father and ing stories out of his mother. Much time is spent way that we never had before.” — AP Cuba Gooding Jr: Worried pastor prayed for me over OJ role uba Gooding Jr revealed Thursday his role as football star- John Singleton’s seminal social drama “Boyz N The Hood,” about turned murder suspect OJ Simpson had taken him to such a black youths surviving violence and deprivation in South Central, Cdark place that his pastor prayed over his soul. The 48-year- one of the poorest parts of Los Angeles. old described at a celebrity charity event in Hollywood how film- “We’re always fighting the good fight for diversity and always ing FX’s “The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story” had tak- trying to break down doors, so I don’t think that fight will ever en a heavy emotional toll. “I was in a dark place with it. It’s over- end,” the actor told AFP. “And that movie is always almost at the whelming the reception I get from people I don’t know, famous or top of the list for me. This was my first lead.” Gooding Jr described not,” said Gooding Jr, who won an Oscar for himself as “a young, black kid coming up in his role in Cameron Crowe’s 1996 sports com- Los Angeles who had negative and positive edy Jerry Maguire. interactions with the police.” The MTPF File photo shows actress Charlize Theron waves as “I went to church one Sunday and the pas- cause is close to the heart of “Jurassic she attends the Italian State RAI TV program ‘Che tor asked for me to stay after the service. And World” actress Howard, whose mother Tempo che Fa’, in Milan, Italy. — AP then he and his wife prayed over me because Cheryl volunteered as a young woman at they thought there was darkness in my spirit. the organisation’s residential home in Los “I mean it’s things like that were, I’m like, Angeles for retired film industry workers. Charlize Theron ‘Man, this show has really affected people.’” “It’s not charity, it’s a community. This is all The 10-part series, which finished this week, about community building and finding a gets back behind the followed Simpson’s prosecution for the mur- way to support one another through the der of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and difficult moments, through illnesses (and) wheel for ‘Fast 8’ her friend Ron Goldman. The pair were found aging, upsets, changes in the economy,” stabbed to death outside her home and the she said. “Mad Max: Fury Road” star Charlize Theron is ready to former American football star endured one of Actor Cuba Gooding, Jr attends the rev up those engines once again in the eighth install- the most highest-profile trials in US legal his- FX’s For Your Consideration ‘Autographs and sunglasses’ ment of the “Fast and Furious” series. Universal Pictures tory. Simpson was acquitted in the case but Event for ‘The People v OJ Howard shared memories of being announced the casting Thursday on social media. is now serving time in prison for an armed Simpson - American Crime Story’ at raised on movie sets by her mother and Theron, who also showed off her car skills in “The Italian robbery and kidnapping in Las Vegas. The Theatre at Ace Hotel in Los father, film director Ron Howard, who has Job,” will join stars Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson and Angeles, California. — AFP made more than 20 films, including Michelle Rodriguez in “Fast 8,” set for release on April 14, ‘Fighting the good fight’ “Parenthood,” “Apollo 13” and 2017 with “Straight Outta Compton” director F Gary Gray Gooding Jr was among a number of A-listers at the annual “Frost/Nixon.” “I felt more comfortable with the crew. No one was at the helm. Motion Picture and Television Fund’s “Reel Stories, Real Lives” gala pushing us to spend time with the actors because they need to The announcement teased that Theron’s character will evening, hosted by Adam Scott of “Parks and Recreation.” He was have their space, and not a little redhead who can’t stop talking,” be the “crew’s greatest adversary ever,” although no plot joined on the red carpet by Danny DeVito, Michael Douglas, and she said.