6A
Entertainment
Commentary
Tuesday October 27,1997
Singer sculpts haunting tunes
By T.R. Miller
Kansas music fiend
At last! A musician my best friend and I can agree on
Mrast a musical call.
Never a fan of folk, I was immediately skeptical when I saw this CD pop up in my box. But as the music critic of the University paper, I must approach all musical percussions with or
XO
Elliot Smith "XO"
**** out of *****
musical persuasions with open arms.
So here comes Elliot Smith, well known for his contributions to the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. The pensive, self-reflective nature of Smith's lyrics are what made him perfect for that film's soundtrack and perfect for my CD rack.
The first track on the album, *Sweet Adeline*, is a lovely melody in the tradition of singing storytellers — Paul Simon, Cat Stevens. The soft strum of guitar chords play background to a tale of lost love.
"Waiting for sedation to disconnect my head/ Or any situation where I'm better off than dead." Smith sings. The musician combines brutal honesty with a soft voice and acoustic guitar. It's enough to make me swoon.
Take A Question Mark, where Smith observes the world through the eyes of a wandering soul.
"I got a question mark/You got a need to always take some shot in the dark/I don't have to make pretend the picture I'm in is totally clear." "This album stands out from current soft-spoken lyricists because Smith approaches his stories without pretense and needless modesty.
Don't think that this album is one quiet stream of consciousness. Bottle Up and Explode! shows Smith's vivacity — in a reserved way, of course.
But Smith releases his anger, singing, "you look at him like you've never known him/but I know for a fact that you have." And if you hard rockers still aren't convinced, there are a couple of swear words spattered through the songs.
XO is a stream of prose and stories set with a sweet, harmonious background. I hope he takes off and aside from his *Good Will Hunting* fame. This album is wonderful, lazy Saturday afternoon listen.
High Art
Jim Jewell, a video producer with the division of continuing education, takes footage of early morning campus activity on Jayhawk Boulevard. The shots of campus in its fall glory are for a recruiting video the University is producing. Photo by Graham K. Johnson/KANSAN
Sharon Stone still trying to surprise audiences
By Bob Thomas
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Sharon Stone plans to live with her new husband in San Francisco, but that doesn't mean she will neglect her position among Hollywood's most indemand stars. She has struggled too long to get there.
The actress marked two milestones this year: in March she turned 40; on Valentine's Day, she married Phil Bronstein, 47, executive editor of the San Francisco Examiner.
Stone seemed to reflect a new maturity and a refreshing candor as she spoke in an interview at a Westside hotel.
She said she really doesn't like Los Angeles. "San Francisco is a better life. People there are interested in a much broader spectrum," she said.
Most of today's stars tap dance around any hint of controversy, Not Stone. She is reminiscent of Bette Davis and Joan Cawford in her willingness to speak out. And like those two immortals, she has earned her climb up the ladder.
Born in Meadville, Pa., she recalls wanting to be an actress from the age of 4. Her thrill of the week was watching classic movies on television on Saturday mornings, including the films of Davis and Crawford.
"My father was always barking at me, 'Go outside and play,' but I wanted to stay inside and watch movies," she said. "I'm still like that. My husband says, 'You haven't left the house in three days; you should go out.'"
After winning a hometown beauty contest, Stone made TV
New York,
modeled in
Europe and
returned to the
United States to
pursue acting.
Woody
Allen cast her
in a brief but
memorable
scene in "Stardust
Memories" in 1980.
Then she
endured a
iharan Stone:
aooks for new roles
n Hollywood.
bimbo decade in such films as "Police Academy 4" and "Action Jackson."
She blames that period on poor agents and her naivete.
"I was a kid from the country," she said. "I was getting jobs, I didn't know what to do. I felt I should be grateful for the jobs I was getting, that I could buy a home and pay my bills.
"I was doing exciting things in acting class, and, eventually I just got ashamed. I was doing all this good work in class, and I was doing all this crap on the screen."
She decided to stop being a good girl and to abandon the manners she grew up with. At 32 she realized she had to make up for the lost time.
Matters improved when she kick boxed Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Total Recall." Then came the explosive "Basic Instinct" with that risque shot in police interrogation.
Although the film placed her in the top ranks, she remains angry with the director, Paul Verhoeven.
"I hated him for showing the world up my skirt," Stone said.
"I hated him for making me believe that I could go out on a limb. I didn't have a net, he wasn't watching my back. You expect to be able to freewheel as much as you want, because you expect the director to protect you."
"I really thought that was our agreement. As a mature artist, I agree that shot was the best choice for the movie. I really disagree with the way he got it. Because, it made me look incredibly stupid when I was very, very willing to do what it took to be that character.
"It would have been better if he had brought me into the editing room and shown me the scene and explained why he did it. But he showed it to me in a roomful of strangers. That was him trying to create a cruel, inappropriate power over me. That hurt me a lot."
"I never thought 'Silver' was a good picture, I never really wanted to do it," she said. "But my agent at the time was the agent of Joe Eszterhas (who wrote the script). I didn't really understand that game."
The scene had people talking across the country and throughout the world. Her stardom established, Stone followed with "Sliver," which created no talk at all.
She agreed to "Silver" with the provision that her agent push for "Intersection" with Richard Gere. That happened, and she followed with an action film with Sylvester Stallone "The Specialist," and a
Western, "The Quick and the Dead," produced by her own company.
She was cast in "Casino," opposite Robert De Niro. The Martin Scorsese film brought her an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe and a bundle of respect.
Always aiming for surprise, the actress has abandoned her wicked ways to play the loving mother of a disabled boy in "The Mighty It." A secondary role to a pair of 13-years (Kieran Culkin, Elden Henson) who form an old friendship to defy their young tormentors.
"I always try to do something that I haven't done before," she said. "I think it's appropriate to play moms and to play people who have life experiences. I'm not an ingenean anymore. I think it's time for me to invest some of my own life into my work.
"It's interesting to play psychopaths and villains because they're without boundaries. That's kind of sensationalistically entertaining. But I reached a point where it's not as rewarding to me, it's not as much fun."
Her husband considers her "Mighty" role the closest to who she really is, and she's inclined to agree. But there is a difference. She is childless.
"So far," she said. "But I just found my dude. Give me a minute." That's something the tabloids have declined to do. She claims her pregnancy has been announced "400 times." But not by her.
After claiming preposterously,
"I'm just a normal girl," she elaborated:
"I have a very unnormal occupation. But I am a normal woman. I'm not my job."
Janee Garofalo and Vince Vaughn starred in the film Clay Pigeons, a serial killer thriller. The movie was released in September. Contributed photo.
Crazy abnormal attitude helps Vaughn portray serial killers, psychos
By Cynthia L. Webb The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Vince Vaughn doesn't care if people think he's crazy for portraying serial killers. He has always been able to do things differently yet still come out ahead.
The 6-foot-5-inch Vaughn broke onto the scene a few years ago as the video-game loving, bar-hopping actor of "Swingers," who was on the prowl for "beautiful babies" and made the saying, "You're so money," seen hip.
Vaughn, 28, plays a killer in "Clay Pigeons" and will star as the equally demented Norman Bates in Gus Van Sant's remake of the Alfred Hitchcock classic, "Psycho."
Based on his dead-on performances, will people think he's a womanizing, smooth-talking, borderline psychotic, too?
"It would be nothing new for me," laughes Vaughn, rubbing his stubby baby face. Still, he warns, "Perception can be a bad thing."
He says the real Vince is often "painfully shy" and only turns up his humor if he likes someone. If people are mean, he can be downright "boisterous."
Over a lunch of chicken tacos near his Los Feliz home, Vaughn speaks quickly, almost in a stream of consciousness. If his hands aren't gesturing while he speaks, he taps them on the table. Every so often, his denim-clad leg jitters below the booth. Vaughn is always on the move, even while he sits — perhaps a remnant of a childhood hyperactive streak.
Vaughn offers a scary portrayal of a madman in "Clay Pigeons"—a twisted, at times comic tale of a gas station attendant who is befriended by a mysterious cowboy drifter named Lester Long (played by Vaughn).
Vaughn said he didn't know the film would be released only months before "Psycho," but shows no worry about being pegged as the guy who can only portray wackos.
Van Sant said Vaughn's physical appearance helped him get the "Psycho" role.
"Vince came in for a meeting when we started to cast the film and he scared my assistant because of the way he looked," the director said.
"He had close-cropped hair and a short beard ... but there was something quite deep in his gaze which helped me make the decision to
cast him. Not looking like Anthony Perkins healed, too."
The Midwestern-bred actor — born in Minnesota, raised in Illinois — said he has never tried to win praise by following the norm.
"I was weird. I'm a kid that they took to a psychiatrist at 5. They thought I was crazy, because I was never a follower," Vaughn says. "I was a kid who would take tap class and then I would go play football. ... I was always lucky that I could do my own thing."
School was not his forte. He remembers talking back to teachers and going to detention, even if it was to stick up for other kids he felt were being wronged.
"I had a lot of confidence. I think I got it from my parents that you can't just let people pick on you," Vaughn says.
"I had teachers yelling at me all the time. But I had one teacher who never yelled or anything. He pulled me outside and said, 'I just wanted to tell you, you let me down.' I cried my eyes out, even at 13 years old, because I wasn't as comfortable with that, I guess. My journey has been getting more comfortable with that sort of thing."
At the suggestion of the school, he went to counseling and then was put in a special class for a while.
Vaughn's parents decided acting would be a good outlet for his energy. At age 7, he was in school plays and community theater. After high school, he did some work in Chicago—even temporarily joining an improv group.
Vaughn skipped college and headed to Los Angeles at 18, leaving behind a life that had always been full of contrasts. He was raised both Protestant and Catholic; born poor but later transplanted to a rich Chicago suburb; obtrusive at school, yet still popular.
He describes his dad, Vernon, as being a hardworking man from a redneck outdoor plumbing farm in Ohio.
"My dad put himself through college, served in the Navy, and became a self-made man and made a lot of bread," he says. "He worked in an insane asylum at night so he could do his homework and put the kids to bed. He was so determined to change his life existence."
When Vaughn was in elementary school, the family — parents and two older sisters — moved to affluent Lake Forest. His parents have since divorced.
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