The new romantic comedy America’s Sweethearts, once again treats audiences to an insider’s look at the wonderful and wacky world of movie making and celebrity. There is the usual diva-esque behavior, schizophrenic directors, greedy studio execs, beleaguered assistants and break-ups of popular movie stars–you know, all the stuff behind what dreams are made of.
America’s Sweethearts centers on the all important “press junket”–an interesting media circus where the press are invited to view a film before its opening and interview the stars and filmmakers who made it. In Sweethearts, the “stars,” Eddie Thomas and Gwen Harrison (John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones), are a mega-superstar real-life couple publicly on the outs, and the “filmmaker,” Hal Weidmann (Christopher Walken), is a highly eccentric director holding the film hostage.
It’s up to the studio’s publicist extraordinaire Lee (Billy Crystal) to save the day. He must generate enough of what Hollywood lovingly refers to as “buzz” to ensure the movie is a smash success. Lee turns to whatever means possible, including involving Kiki (Julia Roberts), Gwen’s put-upon sister and assistant, in a love triangle with Gwen and Eddie. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it.
Mostly, however, the film is about America’s fascination with the rich and famous and whether the personal trials and tribulations of movie stars truly have an effect on the films they make.
Hollywood.com sat down with Billy Crystal, Julia Roberts, John Cusack and the other stars of the film at a “press-junket” and asked them how true-to-life Sweethearts really is. Would a very public and messy break up of a real-life movie star couple, the media darlings of the world, really make people go see a movie?
Hmmm, Julia and Ben did just break up…
