Joe Eszterhas

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BIRTHDAY

November 23, 1944

Csakanydoroszko, Hungary

RECENT CREDITS

Children of Glory (FILM) Dec. 6, 2006

Burn Hollywood Burn (FILM) Feb. 27, 1998

One Night Stand (FILM) Nov. 14, 1997

Telling Lies In America (FILM) Oct. 17, 1997

Jade (FILM) Oct. 13, 1995

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BIOGRAPHY

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Hungarian-born Joe Eszterhas began his journalistic career as a reporter for Rolling Stone. In 1974, Eszterhas authored the popular, award-winning novel Charlie Simpson's Apocalypse. The book was optioned by Hollywood, and though it has not as yet been filmed, it served as the key for Eszterhas' entree into scriptwriting. He is best known for his vicious, sexy, highly literate crime and mystery scripts: Jagged Edge (1985), Betrayed (1988), and the Sharon Stone starmaker Basic Instinct (1989). At one point Eszterhas was the highest-paid writer in Hollywood, receiving $3 million up-front money for Basic Instinct alone. Never one to shirk from a fracas, Eszterhas has fought publicly with producers, directors, powerful agents and even crime bosses (especially after accepting the responsibility of penning the John Gotti biopic). Given his reputation for censor-baiting, it is surprising to learn that one of Eszterhas' biggest battles was aimed at convincing director Paul Verhoeven to tone down the sex-and-violence excesses that Verhoeven had added to Basic Instinct. Nonetheless, it was Eszterhas who in 1995 issued a sarcastic response to Senator Bob Dole's call for Hollywood to clean up its act; kidding on the square, Eszterhas argued that some of the political misdeeds of the Nixon, Reagan and Bush administrations were far more "obscene" than anything found in an R-rated movie.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Headlines

Speaking of revealing tops, a radiant Halle Berry struts her stuff.

Role Call: Berry shows her guns

Aug. 15, 2001

This week in Role Call: Halle Berry joins Ben Affleck in "Gigli"; Al Pacino, Colin Farrell will star in "The Farm"; Kip Pardue joins cast of "The Rules of Attraction" with Jessica Biel, Thomas Ian Nicholas and James Van Der Beek; Eddie Griffin, John Leguizamo, LL Cool J and Lil' Kim will star in "My Baby's Mama"; Angelina Jolie is attached to "Beyond Borders"; John Frankenheime...

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Stone sues "Basic Instinct 2" producers

Posted: Jun. 7, 2001

ROLE CALL: Stone Gets That Old 'Instinct'

Posted: Jun. 23, 2000

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