Stars Talk Fear of Flying at Bandits Premiere

 

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At the Los Angeles premiere of his new film, Bandits, Bruce Willis, who showed up with ex-wife Demi Moore and their children, didn't want to talk about the recent real-life events. However, other stars who were willing to talk about life since the terrorist attacks confessed they're still feeling jittery.
Billy Bob Thornton — whose many phobias are so well known that some of them were incorporated into his character in Bandits — said, "My fear of flying was actually greater before [Sept. 11]. I've actually been getting over my fear the last few years."

Lovingly intertwined with wife Angelina Jolie at the Oct. 4 premiere, Thornton gazed into her eyes and said, "Frankly, if we're together on a plane, I never worry. Like the other day, she said, 'If anything ever happens, we'll look each other in the eyes and smile and hold hands and that'll be the deal."

Jane Seymour, whose sister, Sally, works for United Airlines, confessed that she's "not thrilled about the prospect" of getting on a plane now, but added, "I don't very much like to fly anyway."

Bandits director Barry Levinson, who had flown four times since the attacks, said he felt OK about flying. "It's not that you can ignore the realities of life, but I just felt safe," he said. He said he hadn't given his personal safety a thought when he left for the premiere, but added, "I think there's a new reality that everyone has to be aware of, and we'll have to deal with those fears in our own way."

'If Something Happens, Something Happens'
Troy Garity, Jane Fonda's son, who plays Willis' cousin in Bandits, said he hadn't flown since the attacks, but wasn't particularly afraid to fly. "I don't know how much control I have in that situation. If something happens, something happens," he shrugged.

Randy Spelling, son of famed TV producer Aaron Spelling, showed up with Azura Skye, who's also featured in the film, said, "We actually were stuck together on a little Caribbean island when all the terrible events happened."

Added Skye, "It's not the worst place to be trapped, so we can't complain." The actress, who was also in 28 Days, said she wasn't nervous about coming out to the premiere of the film. "I was excited, actually. I think it's important to celebrate the work and the wonderful movie." Of her flight back to the States from the Caribbean, she said, "It was a little unnerving, but we got through it. The airports have never been safer. In some ways, they're more secure."

When asked whether the time was right for Hollywood to resume events like the Bandits premiere — which was the first premiere since Sept. 11 — Jolie said, "I think we all wonder whether it's time to do a premiere. You never know when it's OK, when it feels right. At the end of the day, I think we all need to have something to maybe ease our minds a bit."

Casting Roundup: Jim Carrey, Charlie's Angels 2

Rubber-faced comedian Jim Carrey, who stars in the upcoming 1950s drama The Majestic, is now headed for the 1940s, producing and starring in The Children of the Dust Bowl, based on a nonfiction tome by social historian Jerry Stanley.
The Miramax Films project is set at the Arvin Federal Camp, the emergency farm-labor tent city depicted in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

Stanley's book follows the plight of migrant laborers and their children, who fled Oklahoma for California in 1939 to escape the dust storms of the Midwest. As refugees, the homeless kids went without schooling until a caring high-school superintendent named Leo Hart undertook the daunting venture of building them a schoolhouse in a field known as Weedpatch Camp.

Carrey's last big-budget flick was the Ron Howard-directed holiday heart-warmer Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which didn't go over very well with the critics (Mr. Showbiz called it "a candy-coated hemorrhoid") — Carrey's likely hoping that his current voyage into more serious territory will make amends.



Donald Petrie (director of the Sandra Bullock-starring Miss Congeniality) has come aboard to direct How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a comedy Kate Hudson has been sweet on. Petrie replaces Danny DeVito, who dropped out of the Paramount project earlier this fall, and he will likely start shooting next summer.

Petrie had time in his schedule because the film he expected to direct, Till Death Do Us Part, with Michael Douglas and Billy Crystal, got delayed. Douglas decided instead to work with his father, Kirk Douglas, and likely his 23-year-old son, Cameron, on Smack in the Puss, a comedy that Fred Schepisi (Roxanne) is negotiating to direct.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days centers on a womanizer who bets his pals he can stay in a single relationship for more than 10 days.



Charlie's Angels director McG (a k a Joseph McGinty) has committed to return to the helm of the sequel, while Cameron Diaz is in negotiations to star in the Columbia Pictures project.

That the studio is eager for another helping of the estrogen-rich action pic with a testosterone-fueled plot should come as no surprise: The original Charlie's Angels raked in a healthy $125 million at the domestic box office last year.

With McG's commitment to Charlie's Angels 2 as his next picture, the studio is focusing its efforts on securing the return of Diaz and other angels Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore, the latter of whom also served as a producer.

Insiders said negotiations have started with Diaz, who is committed in principle to making the picture, provided that a deal can be reached with the studio. Talks are expected to begin soon with both Liu and Barrymore, though no negotiations have commenced as yet.

A spokeswoman for the studio declined to comment on the McG deal or the Diaz negotiations.

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