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Leoni Online: USA Today at the Hollywood Ending Premiere

Leoni Online Articles

USA Today April 25, 2002

HOLLYWOOD ENDING GETS AN NYC START by Jeannie Williams NEW YORK– Téa Leoni clutched her bulging belly as she calmly walked Tuesday’s premiere press line for Hollywood Ending, in which she plays Woody Allen’s ex-wife, a studio exec. She and David Duchovny expect their second child “within the month” she said. He was working and couldn’t attend. In the movie opening May 3, Allen plays a director who goes psychosomatically blind just before beginning a movie his ex is producing. As usual, most of his cast received no full script, but Leoni did and had some fun. As baby kicked, she said, “I told several different actors it was revealed at some point in the script that their characters had foot fetishes. Just to add a little spice to that first shot on camera.” Allen, in sweater and corduroys, arrived with wife Soon-Yi, also sweater-clad. Leoni, who locks lips with Allen in the movie, said he’s a good kisser. Asked if that’s true, Soon-Yi laughed but wouldn’t answer. Allen said, “They’re paid to say that at these premieres.” He begins work in June on a comedy that may be titled Anything Else with Christina Ricci, Jason Biggs, Danny DeVito and Glenn Close. But first he’ll promote Hollywood Ending next month on his first visit to the Cannes Film Festival. “I’m told it’s a madhouse,” he said. George Hamilton is in his first Allen flick; Allen said he’s always wanted to work with the Tan Man. Hamilton plays a producer. “I actually didn’t know what I was doing half the time because Woody wouldn’t tell me…He just said, ‘Be yourself’.” And Mark Rydell, who plays Allen’s agent, makes him pretend he can see so he can make the movie. Rydell figures being blind is no obstacle: “Have you seen some of the movies out there?” Debra Messing, who plays Allen’s girlfriend, was with screenwriter hubby Daniel Zelman and her parents. Messing said her parents were “kvelling, as the Jewish people say. They’re thrilled. This is the first premiere they’ve ever been to with me. This is their home-town as well as mine. It’s a very special night for me.” Tiffani Thiessen shivered in a black strapless dress, and fiancé Richard Ruccolo rubbed her goose-bumped arms. “I’m freezing!” said Thiessen, who plays a buxom actress trying to seduce Allen’s character. She said she and Ruccolo will wed this fall. Planning ahead, she added, “I can tell my grandchildren I was in a Woody Allen movie!”

Guests included Keith Richards, Peter Boyle and Billy Campbell, who just finished the movie Enough with Jennifer Lopez. “She’s tough!” said Campbell, who plays an abusive husband. “She studied martial arts, and she hit me a couple times, and it hurt.”

Article courtesy of USA Today and transcribed by Carol.

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