Surfing Celebrities launch WCT in Malibu

From The Rip Curl Pro

HOLLYWOOD STARS JOIN WORLD'S LEADING WOMEN SURFERS TO PREVIEW RIP CURL MALIBU PRO

The Rip Curl Pro at California's legendary Malibu Beach – the first stand-alone women's professional world championship surfing competition on the USA mainland – is all set to re-start the battle for the 2004 world title this weekend.

The world's current top four female professionals were joined at a Malibu restaurant today by five popular Hollywood actors and two other special guests to preview the historic competition that could well determine the fate of Australian Layne Beachley's bid for a record 7th consecutive world championship.

Beachley, the 32-year-old who is already the most successful pro surfer of all-time male or female, is currently fourth on this year's Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) world ratings after her least successful campaign in more than a decade. She must reach the final of the Rip Curl Malibu Pro and hope her rivals have early round losses to keep alive hopes of a 7th successive world title.

Commenting on her season so far, Beachley said: "My motivation and focus has been lower than in past years because I don't feel like I have anything more to prove. But I'm still as competitive as ever and if I wasn't here to win, I wouldn't be here at all."

The great champion happily acknowledged this new event on the women's tour, saying: "I am impressed with Rip Curl putting an event on in mainland America, and it’s fantastic that they’ve put us on a wave that is real quality. It’s encouraging to see the (surf) industry backing the sport because I think the girls deserve the respect and recognition and backing we’re receiving. But of course it can always improve. We’ve come a long way in the 15 years that I’ve been on the tour, and there is plenty more to come – and at least I know the future of the sport is in very safe hands."

Current world number one, Peru's 21-year-old Sofia Mulanovich, is also on the verge of creating her own piece of history. If the diminutive South American wins at Malibu, she will become the first female surfer to win four consecutive events in 26 years of pro surfing.

"I'm not thinking about the world title or the records at all," Mulanovich said, before adding that her success this year has been because: "I am enjoying surfing so much, taking every heat and surfing every wave as if I was free surfing."

Hawaiian 33-year-old Rochelle Ballard and Brazilian 25-year-old Jacqueline Silva, currently ranked second and third respectively, are theoretically the strongest challengers to Beachley and Mulanovich at Malibu. For either Ballard or Silva to remain in contention for a maiden world title, each must place higher than the other, as well as finishing ahead of Beachley and Mulanovich.

Veteran Ballard is having her best year in her 13th season on tour. Like Mulanovich, the Hawaiian partly attributes her success this year to a more relaxed approach to competition. "I love surfing every different type of wave there is, no matter where I'm at," Ballard said.

"I love it (surfing) and I feel like a grommet – it’s just a love for the ocean and the waves. And that’s the reason why I continue to be so motivated. The more years of experience on the tour, the more I enjoy it and feel comfortable with it. I feel really inspired and it’s an exciting thing. Part of me just really gets relaxed with it and I enjoy myself. I think sometimes when you get so excited about something you can put in too much effort, instead of recognising it as something you love and letting it come naturally."

Silva, runner-up to Beachley for the 2002 world title, slipped to 10th at the end of 2003. Contending for the world title again in her sixth season among the top 20, she expressed a quiet confidence today about her chances this weekend, saying: "I'm feeling really good and I'm here to win, I think I can."

Today's celebrity guests were all invited because of their personal passion for surfing, to help raise the profile of the competition and highlight the efforts of the Heal The Bay Foundation, a local environmental group campaigning against the pollution of the Santa Monica Bay, home to Malibu.

Those on hand were:
– Simon Baker, star of the recent hit TV series The Guardian and the soon to be released movie The Ring 2;
– self-confessed "idiot" Chris Pontius, best known for his crazy antics on MTV's Jackass and Wild Boyz programs;
– Mark Ruffalo, star of hit movie 13 Going On 30;
– Jorja Fox, one of the stars of the highly popular TV series CSI;
– Dominic Purcell, star of another soon to be released movie Blade Trinity.

All spoke admiringly of the skill of the female professional surfers, and being given the opportunity to support the Heal The Bay group, though they're not so sure about thequality of entertainment they will provide in a fun "Celebrity Surf Bout" on Sunday, October 3rd, against a team of music stars who surf.

Chris Pontius probaly summed it up best when he said: "It's great to be a part of this, but I think my surfing in the celebrity surf event is going to be an embarrassment to the sport."

Also attending today's preview to be named patron of the Rip Curl Malibu Pro was the original surfer girl Gidget, Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman. Her real-life surfing exploits at Malibu in the 1950s inspired the 1959 hit movie Gidget, which helped popularise surfing worldwide.

Probably the most in-demand person at today's function was 14-year-old Bethany Hamilton, the promising Rip Curl team surfer who lost her left arm in a shark attack less than a year ago in Hawaii. Hamilton is at Malibu to compete in the Rip Curl Wetskin Trials on Friday, October 1st, a 16-woman preliminary event to the Pro, with the winner to earn a chance to take on the world's top 17 women surfers.

Bethany also presented a sneak preview of her biographical book Soul Surfer, to be officially released worldwide by Simon & Schuster in New York October 5th.

NB. The Rip Curl Malibu Pro is the fifth of seven world championship competitions in 2004, with each surfer's best six results to determine the final 2004 rankings.

Check out the pictures by clicking here.

Baker Plays 'Dead' for Romero

From:Hollywood Reporter

Simon Baker, John Leguizamo and Dennis Hopper are off to "The Land of the Dead," George A. Romero's return to the zombie genre that he made famous.

Asia Argento and Robert Joy also are joining the cast.

Written and directed by Romero, the story takes place in a world overrun by zombies where the human survivors live in a walled city. While the zombies are evolving, certain factions seek to overthrow the city.

The film is meant to complement Romero's earlier zombie movies, "Night of the Living Dead," "Dawn of the Dead" and "Day of the Dead," and to start a new line of zombie films.

Universal Pictures is distributing domestically and internationally. The European-based Wild Bunch, which is co-producing, is handling the film in France, Benelux and French-speaking Switzerland. The production is scheduled to begin shoot ingOct.11inToronto.

Mark Canton, who is producing through his Atmosphere MM shingle, said the film also will feature cameos.

"A lot of people revere George, and fellow directors and actors are calling to see if they can be zombies. I think it's a testament to George and the genre that he created," Canton said.

Baker will next be seen in "The Ring 2."

Leguizamo, shooting "The Honeymooners," next can be seen in "Assault on Precinct 13."

Check out the pictures by clicking here.

''The Guardian'' Tribute

From:Pittsburg Post-Gazette
By Ed Masley

A briefcase used by Simon Baker in the late great CBS drama "The Guardian" fetched $5,500 in an auction held Saturday night at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center to benefit KidsVoice, the local legal aid organization for at-risk children on which the show was based. A briefcase used by Dabney Coleman brought an additional $2,200 to KidsVoice. Show creator David Hollander proved a charming, comic auctioneer, wryly sharing inside stories on the stars. A Mt. Lebanon native, Hollander also talked about how he created the stories and characters, inspired by the work his brother, Scott, does at KidsVoice. Scott Hollander, the organization's executive director, thanked his brother for "not cutting corners on the reality" and also for not listening to him when he said a show about the work he does would be "a really bad idea." Guests at "The Guardian Tribute," where the series finale was screened, included the Hollanders' father, Tom, honorary chairs Ralph and Ruth Anne Papa and Dan and Shelly Onorato, Jenifer and Mark Evans, who bought the Baker briefcase, Michael and Judy Cheteyan, and Linda Fetzer, a "Guardian" fan who flew in from Los Angeles and flew back home with Coleman's briefcase

Cooking up a comedy in Delaware(1)

From:The News Journal
Date:09/12/2004
By GARY MULLINAX

Imagine 'The Odd Couple,' toss in a sex-change operation, mix well in Wilmington, serve 'Partners' on Broadway!

A veteran sitcom writer and two actors familiar from their work on television are eager to get the new play they're working on to Broadway.

But the road from Hollywood to New York City will have a stop in Wilmington, where they will work "Partners" into final shape in its world premire.

The comedy will open the Delaware Theatre Company's new season this week. If things go well here, the Wilmington company will have its name attached to a Broadway show.

"We wanted to do this first production to get the play in shape someplace outside New York and not have everybody breathing down our necks," said Allan Katz, who wrote for "M*A*S*H," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and other classic sitcoms.

The show also could move from here to off-Broadway in New York, and then to Broadway. Or, of course, it might not get to New York at all. A lot depends on how things go here.

The stars are eager to get back to New York, too, at least for a while. Both have spent many years in Hollywood. Alan Rosenberg has been a regular on such shows as "L.A. Law," "Chicago Hope" and "The Guardian" (as Alvin Masterson). Vyto Ruginis has been a guest star on TV shows ranging from "Law & Order" to "The Practice" to "Ally McBeal." Both also have worked in films.

You'd probably recognize the faces if not the names.

Adding to the star power, Rosenberg's wife, Marg Helgenberger of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," is expected to be in Wilmington for the opening Saturday.

Rosenberg and Ruginis play three characters, Norm, Jack and Jackie. Jack, an idealist who wanted to be an architect, and sloppy, cranky Norm are longtime partners in a low-level knockoff fashion business who bicker throughout Act 1. Ruginis, who plays Jack, comes back as Jackie after an offstage sex-change operation late in the first act. Maybe the partners will get along better in Act 2.

Sort of like Neil Simon with a twist. A big twist.

"I started thinking about how people say the best relationship they ever have in a marriage is when they started off as best friends," Katz said. "If you could be married and your wife had the same interests and rhythms you did and understood your business and at the same time you had the husband-and-wife sexual aspect to it, wouldn't that be a perfect relationship?"

Ruginis and Rosenberg have been best friends for 25 years, which got Katz to thinking the other day.

"If Vyto ended up in real life getting a sex-change operation, I think they would end up being a couple," he said with a laugh.

Not a chance, says Rosenberg.

"No matter what Vyto chooses to do with his life, we will not be a couple," said the 53-year-old actor. "That's just out of the question."

Remember, this guy is married to Marg Helgenberger.

Katz said the germ of the idea appeared years ago when he was watching Johnny Carson's talk show.

"Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were guesting after they had done 'The Odd Couple' for years," he said. "They were joking around and Carson asked if they had the same relationship with their wives. They said, no, guys have a different relationship with their wives."

Regional theaters serve as launching pads

Professional regional theaters have originated Broadway shows increasingly in recent years. Money is one reason. Katz said he would need about $1.5 million to open the show on Broadway. Here he can do it for about $700,000.

Katz has a friend who knows Bill Shea, head of the Delaware Theatre Company board. The board liked the idea of taking on a co-production targeted for Broadway, but could come up only with part of the money required. This is a six-actor play, a large cast by Delaware Theatre Company standards. Katz's New York producer, Bill Haber, added "enrichment" money to complete the budget.

Haber is crucial to this production in more ways than one. He's the established Broadway producer whose name and connections can smooth the way for "Partners." Now the show does not have to lure a New York producer to come see it in Wilmington. The producer is already on board.

"Partners" will be the first Delaware Theatre Company production under new producing director Anne Marie Cammarato. She is overseeing the production from her own company's point of view.

"Credit for having a world premi鋨e carries a lot of weight in the theater world," she said. "It's great for our audiences to have an investment in a play that has a life beyond Wilmington."

But she is also mindful that regional theaters are sometimes criticized for emphasizing commercial projects like "Partners" at the expense of more high-minded productions.

"We have to find a balance within our season and occasionally we might find it within one play," she said.

Cammarato also pointed out that some in the Wilmington audience might find "Partners" a bit risqu? not just for the sex-change theme but also for copious use of the F-word.

"I don't think people are offended by 'The Odd Couple,' but this play they might be," she said.

Katz knows that's a risk. But he thinks the problem will disappear when people actually see the show. He noted that it is not about homosexuality. "Even for somebody a tad homophobic, it has nothing to do with that."

He also cited the experience of a Delaware Theatre Company board member.

"When she read the first draft, she was very vocal against it. She said she didn't know if they should open the season with a play with that language and that subject matter. But in the first couple of days after we got here we did a reading for the board, and she was laughing harder than anybody."

On the other hand, Katz is leery of too much laughing. He sounds like a man who doesn't want his play to be tagged with a "just like a sitcom" label.

"If a couple of stand-up comics were doing this, it might feel like wall-to-wall jokes," he said. "But these guys are seasoned actors who fill every moment of this thing. They make what might be read as a joke into reality. Some will be brought to tears."

Cooking up a comedy in Delaware(2)

From:The News Journal
By GARY MULLINAX

Regional theaters serve as launching pads

Professional regional theaters have originated Broadway shows increasingly in recent years. Money is one reason. Katz said he would need about $1.5 million to open the show on Broadway. Here he can do it for about $700,000.

Katz has a friend who knows Bill Shea, head of the Delaware Theatre Company board. The board liked the idea of taking on a co-production targeted for Broadway, but could come up only with part of the money required. This is a six-actor play, a large cast by Delaware Theatre Company standards. Katz's New York producer, Bill Haber, added "enrichment" money to complete the budget.

Haber is crucial to this production in more ways than one. He's the established Broadway producer whose name and connections can smooth the way for "Partners." Now the show does not have to lure a New York producer to come see it in Wilmington. The producer is already on board.

"Partners" will be the first Delaware Theatre Company production under new producing director Anne Marie Cammarato. She is overseeing the production from her own company's point of view.

"Credit for having a world premi鋨e carries a lot of weight in the theater world," she said. "It's great for our audiences to have an investment in a play that has a life beyond Wilmington."

But she is also mindful that regional theaters are sometimes criticized for emphasizing commercial projects like "Partners" at the expense of more high-minded productions.

"We have to find a balance within our season and occasionally we might find it within one play," she said.

Cammarato also pointed out that some in the Wilmington audience might find "Partners" a bit risqu? not just for the sex-change theme but also for copious use of the F-word.

"I don't think people are offended by 'The Odd Couple,' but this play they might be," she said.

Katz knows that's a risk. But he thinks the problem will disappear when people actually see the show. He noted that it is not about homosexuality. "Even for somebody a tad homophobic, it has nothing to do with that."

He also cited the experience of a Delaware Theatre Company board member.

"When she read the first draft, she was very vocal against it. She said she didn't know if they should open the season with a play with that language and that subject matter. But in the first couple of days after we got here we did a reading for the board, and she was laughing harder than anybody."

On the other hand, Katz is leery of too much laughing. He sounds like a man who doesn't want his play to be tagged with a "just like a sitcom" label.

"If a couple of stand-up comics were doing this, it might feel like wall-to-wall jokes," he said. "But these guys are seasoned actors who fill every moment of this thing. They make what might be read as a joke into reality. Some will be brought to tears."

Actors adapt to stage

Rosenberg and Ruginis attended the Yale School of Drama, and both left early. Rosenberg was five years ahead of Ruginis. They didn't meet until one day when Rosenberg was back in New Haven, Conn., to act in a play. He was eating a hamburger at a greasy spoon.

Says Rosenberger: "Vyto came up and said, 'You're Alan Rosenberg. I hear you dropped out of this [dump], too. You're my hero.' Then he was gone."

They met again on the soap opera "Ryan's Hope" during the mid-1980s. Rosenberg played the manager of a sleazy hotel, Ruginis played a pimp and Helgenberger - before she and Rosenberg married - played a policewoman undercover as a prostitute.

Rosenberg was eager to get back on stage in "Partners" after his years in television. "There are rewards in television, but they're mostly financial," he said. "In theater you get to go through a process from one point to a final point. You get to be flexible and learn from the audience every night."

Rosenberg and Ruginis are performing under a "favored nation" arrangement that pays them the same amount as other cast members.

Rosenberg was cast first, after Katz saw him play a comic role in a movie called "Frankie and Johnny Are Married," which is due at Wilmington's Theatre N on Sept. 27.

"I'd always liked him as an actor, but until then I didn't know he was capable of doing this comedic stuff," Katz said.

For the Jack/Jackie role, Rosenberger suggested his friend Vyto. Katz said he would have him read, but acknowledged last week that he did so only as a favor.

"I knew his work, but as a dramatic actor, a tough guy," Katz said. "You look on the Internet and find his picture and he looks like he's gonna eat his young. But he came in, he looked fabulous and he just blew us away.

"I told him he saved me a phone call to tell Alan your friend is really nice but not quite right for this."

In Wilmington, Rosenberg and Ruginis are rooming together - and not at some palatial Ch漮eau Country estate, either. Like all actors who work at the Delaware Theatre Company, they are staying at the Greenville Place apartment complex near the edge of Wilmington.

"It's just fine so far, but it's a little like being at camp," Rosenberg said. "It's been a long time since I've had a roommate and had to fend for myself. But it's good for character-building."

Ruginis was going to talk about his own experiences after Rosenberg, but he couldn't make it. He had an appointment in the wardrobe department, where he was being fitted for a dress.