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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – It's been a busy week in the home of Jessica Alba and her husband Cash Warren, and it's about to get busier.
Alba gave birth over the weekend to her second daughter, Haven Garner Warren, and this coming Friday, Alba's new movie, "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D," lands in theaters.
"Cash and I are so excited to announce the birth of our daughter Haven Garner Warren," Alba posted on her Facebook page over the weekend. "She was born on Saturday, weighed 7 lbs. and 19 inches long. Healthy and happy! Big sister Honor couldn't be more excited about the new addition to our family."
Being a mom mirrors Alba's role in the fourth installment of "Spy Kids." Both she and her character, Marissa, have new babies in their lives, but that's where the similarities end. Marissa is a retired secret agent and when she is pulled back in to action, she brings her two stepchildren along.
Prior to giving birth, Alba, 30, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film, her career and motherhood.
Q: This is the first time you've played a mother on the big screen. Did being a real-life mom have anything to do with wanting to be a part of this project?
A: "Yeah. I probably wouldn't have done this movie if I wasn't a mom already. So I definitely wanted to do the movie because of (3-year-old Honor). She inspired me to want to do that."
Q: Your character juggles a lot in the film between a new born, step-kids and a career. Did that ring true for you?
A: "That's definitely one of the topics that ('Spy Kids' filmmaker) Robert Rodriguez and I talk about a lot and how much time flies when you have kids -- he has five! All of a sudden they're on two or three milestones down the road. You're like, 'Wait! When did they start doing that?' I can certainly relate to that. And I certainly relate to trying to juggle and balance work and family life."
Q: With another little one on the way, that will add a whole new set of variables.
A: "I feel like I'm just getting my footing as a woman and just feeling comfortable in my choices. It's a challenge to figure out how much is too much work or not enough. Or if I'm giving up so much that I'm not going to have the opportunities that I would have if I worked a little bit more. I don't know. But my focus is Honor's happiness. If she's cool, I think everything will fall in to place."
Q: How did "Spy Kids" come your way?
A: "I was talking to Robert after I had Honor about how I'd really like to do a kids movie and how I'd love to do a movie that portrays a mom that's modern and cool. That's part of what this character is."
Q: You can't get a cooler mom than one who's a spy!
A: "(laughs) I really enjoyed doing the action sequences in the beginning of the movie. I haven't really done too much action since I did (the TV series ) 'Dark Angel,' so it was fun to do. I'm actually eager to do an action movie now -- a full action movie. I think that's what I'll be looking for next."
Q: Do you find that you're now making different career choices because you have children?
A: "(Before kids) my choices were to try and stay globally relevant and become relevant as a movie star. That's what my manager said! (laughs) I concentrated on movies that were going to be globally distributed and had a sufficient (advertising) budget, that were going to be a paycheck and where I was the lead. That was my focus for a lot of my career.
"After I had my daughter, that (goal) was not fulfilling creatively. I had worked with a lot of first time directors, which was fine, but there's only so much that you can learn as an actor from someone who's trying to find their way on set. Now it's about working with filmmakers that I look up to and that I feel are going to challenge me and take me to the next level as an actor."
Q: Have those projects come along yet?
A: "Yeah - working with Robert Rodriguez, Michael Winterbottom, whom I worked with (on 2010's 'The Killer Inside Me') and Paul Weitz with 'Little Fockers.' And Garry Marshall, even though I had just a little scene in 'Valentine's Day,' but nobody does romantic comedies like Garry Marshall."
(Reporting by Zorianna Kit, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – It's been a busy week in the home of Jessica Alba and her husband Cash Warren, and it's about to get busier.
Alba gave birth over the weekend to her second daughter, Haven Garner Warren, and this coming Friday, Alba's new movie, "Spy Kids: All the Time in the World 4D," lands in theaters.
"Cash and I are so excited to announce the birth of our daughter Haven Garner Warren," Alba posted on her Facebook page over the weekend. "She was born on Saturday, weighed 7 lbs. and 19 inches long. Healthy and happy! Big sister Honor couldn't be more excited about the new addition to our family."
Being a mom mirrors Alba's role in the fourth installment of "Spy Kids." Both she and her character, Marissa, have new babies in their lives, but that's where the similarities end. Marissa is a retired secret agent and when she is pulled back in to action, she brings her two stepchildren along.
Prior to giving birth, Alba, 30, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film, her career and motherhood.
Q: This is the first time you've played a mother on the big screen. Did being a real-life mom have anything to do with wanting to be a part of this project?
A: "Yeah. I probably wouldn't have done this movie if I wasn't a mom already. So I definitely wanted to do the movie because of (3-year-old Honor). She inspired me to want to do that."
Q: Your character juggles a lot in the film between a new born, step-kids and a career. Did that ring true for you?
A: "That's definitely one of the topics that ('Spy Kids' filmmaker) Robert Rodriguez and I talk about a lot and how much time flies when you have kids -- he has five! All of a sudden they're on two or three milestones down the road. You're like, 'Wait! When did they start doing that?' I can certainly relate to that. And I certainly relate to trying to juggle and balance work and family life."
Q: With another little one on the way, that will add a whole new set of variables.
A: "I feel like I'm just getting my footing as a woman and just feeling comfortable in my choices. It's a challenge to figure out how much is too much work or not enough. Or if I'm giving up so much that I'm not going to have the opportunities that I would have if I worked a little bit more. I don't know. But my focus is Honor's happiness. If she's cool, I think everything will fall in to place."
Q: How did "Spy Kids" come your way?
A: "I was talking to Robert after I had Honor about how I'd really like to do a kids movie and how I'd love to do a movie that portrays a mom that's modern and cool. That's part of what this character is."
Q: You can't get a cooler mom than one who's a spy!
A: "(laughs) I really enjoyed doing the action sequences in the beginning of the movie. I haven't really done too much action since I did (the TV series ) 'Dark Angel,' so it was fun to do. I'm actually eager to do an action movie now -- a full action movie. I think that's what I'll be looking for next."
Q: Do you find that you're now making different career choices because you have children?
A: "(Before kids) my choices were to try and stay globally relevant and become relevant as a movie star. That's what my manager said! (laughs) I concentrated on movies that were going to be globally distributed and had a sufficient (advertising) budget, that were going to be a paycheck and where I was the lead. That was my focus for a lot of my career.
"After I had my daughter, that (goal) was not fulfilling creatively. I had worked with a lot of first time directors, which was fine, but there's only so much that you can learn as an actor from someone who's trying to find their way on set. Now it's about working with filmmakers that I look up to and that I feel are going to challenge me and take me to the next level as an actor."
Q: Have those projects come along yet?
A: "Yeah - working with Robert Rodriguez, Michael Winterbottom, whom I worked with (on 2010's 'The Killer Inside Me') and Paul Weitz with 'Little Fockers.' And Garry Marshall, even though I had just a little scene in 'Valentine's Day,' but nobody does romantic comedies like Garry Marshall."
(Reporting by Zorianna Kit, Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
NEW YORK (Reuters) – From an old-world Italian restaurant where Leonardo DiCaprio ate to the bakery where Cher found love, a New York tour company is taking movie fans to see where their favorite films were shot -- in Brooklyn.
Photographs of DiCaprio and director Martin Scorsese are proudly displayed in the window of Ferdinando's Foccaceria restaurant, a location for the 2006 film "The Departed," which won the Academy Award for best picture.
The fact that "The Departed" was set in Boston makes it an even more exciting find.
"Brooklyn is now the 'it' borough and people are not as interested in big bad Manhattan as much anymore," said Pauline Gacanja, spokesperson for On Location Tours Inc. "People are always surprised about how many movies have been filmed there."
The four-hour Brooklyn TV & Movie tour, which begins in lower Manhattan before crossing into Brooklyn, showcases the bridges, restaurants and brownstones featured on the small and big screens.
"It was great seeing where 'Moonstruck' was filmed," Tessa Benjamin, 38, of Dallas, Texas said about the 1987 film for which Cher won an Oscar for best actress in the romantic comedy that also starred Nicolas Cage.
Benjamin's 13-year old daughter was just as excited to see a house in a quaint neighborhood that featured in "Remember Me", the movie starring teen heart-throb Robert Pattinson.
The tour includes more than 40 locations such as the historic Brooklyn Bridge, which featured prominently in the 1971 film "The French Connection," which won the Best Picture Oscar, the courthouse seen in "American Gangster" and the bakery made famous in "Moonstruck".
The critically acclaimed Prohibition-era HBO show, "Boardwalk Empire," that is set in Atlantic City, New Jersey, has also been shot in Brooklyn.
Most of the On Location Tours, including "Sex and the City Hotspots," "Gossip Girl Sites" and "Soprano Sites," are concentrated in the more recognizable Manhattan. The company also offers tours in Washington D.C., and Boston.
An early popular stop in the Brooklyn tour is Junior's Restaurant, a New York tradition that claims to have the world's most fabulous cheesecake.
The restaurant is where Carrie Bradshaw, who is played by Sarah Jessica Parker, and friends shot her wedding reception in the first "Sex and the City" film, which delighted many women on the tour. They found the mini-cheesecake that each received at the stop even more exciting.
"People really enjoy themselves," said tour guide and actor Amadeo Fusca, who shared his knowledge about the films and inside industry information and behind-the-scene scoops with the tour guests.
"Everyone loves the movies and they love to see these places up-close," he said.
(Reporting by Paula Rogo; Edited by Patricia Reaney)
CHICAGO – Drew Peterson, a former police officer charged with murdering his third wife and suspected in the disappearance of his fourth, joked that he'd rather see Denzel Washington play him than Rob Lowe when he heard there would be a television movie about him. Now, though, he wants to pull the plug on the project.
Walter Maksym, a lawyer for Peterson, sent letters Wednesday to Lifetime Entertainment Services, Lowe and others involved with the movie demanding that they stop production because they have no legal right to use Peterson's name, likeness or story without Peterson's approval.
"There are right to publicity statutes in every state that you have the right to use your name, persona, likeness, and life story for commercial purposes and nobody else can use that unless they get your written permission," said Walter Maksym, who said he sent out 18 letters. Peterson, he said, has never been asked for his permission.
Peterson, who was an officer in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, is charged with murder in the 2004 bathtub drowning of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. He is also a suspect, though he has not been charged, in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, Stacy, who is presumed dead by investigators.
Peterson has been in jail since he was arrested in May 2009. He maintains his innocence in both his third wife's death and fourth wife's disappearance.
Maksym also alleges in his letter that the movie defames Peterson, who has not been convicted, because it is based on a book that is "nothing more than a deliberate and calculated assemblage of falsehoods constituting a character assassination ... to falsely and intentionally insinuate that my client is a despicable wife murderer."
A spokesman for Lifetime Entertainment, Les Eisner, declined to comment on the letter.
But Joe Hosey, who wrote "Fatal Vows: The Tragic Wives of Sergeant Drew Peterson," defended the book as accurate, saying neither Peterson nor his attorneys have identified any errors. In fact, he said, his reporting was borne out by testimony during a lengthy court hearing regarding the murder charges in the Savio case.
"The testimony from several witnesses was word for word printed in my book well before that hearing took place," said Hosey. "Under oath, they gave the same account that I had when I thoroughly researched my book."
A judge ultimately ruled that much of that hearsay testimony could not be used at trial — a ruling that is now before an appellate court — but Hosey said that nobody has ever proven that the witnesses lied, that what they told him is what they told the court.
Kelli Sager, a prominent Los Angeles media lawyer who is not involved in the dispute, said it's unlikely Peterson's claim would hold up in court.
"The law's very well established on this — the First Amendment allows filmmakers, authors, TV producers, and the like to publish unauthorized biographies, and the "right of publicity" is trumped by the constitution," she wrote in an email Thursday.
Dave Heller, an attorney with the Media Law Resource Center in New York who also is not connected to the dispute, said the statute Maksym based his argument on is geared toward preventing the unauthorized commercial use of a person's likeness, and that it wouldn't apply here.
"Right of publicity claims are defined and intended to stop the use of celebrities or other people's names in commercial advertising, and movies, like the news, are not generally considered commercial advertising," he said, adding that unauthorized movies and books are produced all the time about people without their permission.
Heller said Peterson could have a legal claim if he can prove the film "departs from the known facts and is defamatory." But he said, "They don't have a claim over an accurate portrayal of real life events."
The movie has received a fair amount of publicity in recent weeks, including a People Magazine story, that includes a photograph of Lowe, made up to look like Peterson, which explains how the actor "goes through a nine-hour transformation every day" to make him resemble Peterson.
When first told of the movie, Peterson, through his attorneys, joked about Lowe playing him. At the same time, one of his attorneys, Joel Brodsky, said he hoped that Lifetime, which is making the movie, would not rely on Hosey's book, which he characterized as biased and inaccurate.
And Maksym said that the reason Peterson did not want to file a lawsuit over the book was because he did not want to be forced to testify in a civil case before his criminal trial "because the state would use what he said" when he ultimately stood trial.
"We will do that later," he said.
Maksym said that even if he cannot halt production of the movie, which, he said is already being filmed, he is confident that if those involved with the production ignore his letter and he ultimately files a lawsuit that he can prevent the movie from being aired. He said that if he does not receive an answer to his letter by the end of next week that he will file a lawsuit before the end of the month.
