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“I’m just like everybody else l’m always on a diet!”
For instance, she’s a big fan of reality TV: “America’s
Next Top Model, I love it! I love Tfyra Banks. It’s won
derful to watch the appalling nature of females. We
are so awful!”
For Mirren, no topic of conversation is off-limits. Be
tween sips of veddy British milky tea and handfuls of
oatmeal raisin cookies, she let’s it rip.
On her ex-boyfriend, actor Liam Neeson: “He taught
me a lot of things Northern Ireland politics, how to
make a very good colcannon, an Irish potato and cab
bage stew. And he taught me about love.”
On cosmetic surgery: “I absolutely believe in it! Why
feel miserable if you can change something? But breast
implants are weird to me. They seem a bit like hang
ing a pah 1 of oranges around your neck.” [We didn’t
m I
/
HELEN OFJO^^
After more than 40 years
in the business, Mirren
has kicked into high
gear, with four new
movies in the works.
point why she was ready to seal the deal after a 13-year
courtship. But Hackford is more forthcoming. “I wasn’t
proud that I had two failed marriages,” he says. “But
when we got together, we were both in our 40s. We had
had lives and partners before that We realized this was
going to last, so we figured, what the hell!”
He’s set to direct her early next year in Love Ranch,
Cover clothing: dress by Saks Fifth Avenue, robe by Paul Smith Vintage, shoes by Claudia Guti;
inside clothing: sweater by Saks Fifth Avenue, tights by Hue, boots by Guess; styling: Pauline Leonard, Cloutier
dare ask Dame Mirren if
—l she’s had any work done.]
I On gay marriage: “I think
I gays absolutely should have
/ the right For the same rea-
I son Taylor [director Hack-
J ford] and I got married —to
/ be able to say, by law, ‘This
person is important to me.’ ”
Mirren and Hackford have
one of the most successful and
scandal-free relationships in
Hollyw’ood. They finally tied
the knot in 1997, after being
together since 1984. She was
52 when they wed and
hadn’t seen herself as the
marrying kind. “I used
to say, ‘I have nothing
Wa against marriage, but
to me it’s like turnips.
W They’re just not for
me.’ And now I love
being married. I love
saying, ‘l’m going to see my
husband tonight’ ”
Mirren can’t quite pin-
inspired by true events, in which she’ll play the madam
of the first legalized brothel in Nevada. “It’s a great
story,” Mirren says. “Legalized prostitution is not such
a bad idea,” she adds. “It gets girls off the street away
from pimps and drugs.”
Insisting that she’s “a working actress, not a movie
star,” Mirren chalks up her Oscar win to luck. The win
ning night, she says, was all a blur except for a star
struck moment of her own. “I remember Leonardo Di-
Caprio kissing my hand,” she says. “It was so sweet.
That was the highlight of the whole evening.”
v The real secrets behind National Treasury 2
A QUIZ: Which item does not
belong in the same category?
A. Goats. B. Alligators. C Paparazzi.
When it came to the filming of
National Treasure: Book of Secrets,
the answer is B. An alligator on the
Washington, D.C, set was just an
Internet rumor. There were, however,
unwelcome intrusions by the other
two types of aggressive beasts.
During a week of shooting
at Mount Rushmore, a dozen
300-pound Rocky Mountain goats
invaded the set 'They're not nice,
and if you get close to their babies,
they can get real mean real quick,'
says costume designer Judianna
Makovsky, who almost had a head-on
collision with one
And swarms of paparazzi nearly
attacked the cast in London's
Primrose Hill district. Ironically, that
location was meant to stand in for
D.C's staid Georgetown district
across the pond.
Additional settings in England
also doubled for settings in the U.S.
capital. Surrey’s Richmond Theatre
and a set at Pinewood Studios were
used to represent Ford's Theatre
where Abraham Lincoln was
assassinated in 1865.
(During the shooting in South
Dakota, co-star Helen Mirren, who
won an Oscar for her lead role in The
Queen, was invited to meet the real
Queen Elizabeth II but declined
because of logistical problems.)
Mirren and Leo? Why not? These days, Mirren is
often called “sexy and 60.” The men in her life agree.
“Her sensuality comes from her honesty,” says her
husband. “She’s not hiding behind makeup or a baby
doll hairdo. She’s the real thing.” Adds Treasure star
Cage: “I’ve had a crush on her since she was Morgana
in [the 1981 movie] Excalibur. She looked sensational
in chain mail. Oh yeah, that was good stuff!”
But Mirren claims not to give her sex appeal a sec
ond thought. “Sometimes I feel great and sometimes
I feel really crappy,” she says. “I’m just like every
body else l’m always on a diet!”
Then Mirren laughs and mischievously breaks off a
chunk of a buttery cookie. “Can’t you tell?”
ML 4,:
*rf\v W i 'fife V
ACTION MAMA
Mirren, center, plays
Nicolas Cage’s mother
in the movie, which
opens on Dec. 21.
The frantic filming, which
zoomed from Los Angeles
to D.C to North Dakota and
on to London and Paris, brought
quite a few challenges. "We were
getting new pages all the time,'
says a crew member. "They were
tweaking rewrites and adding
new characters.'
In Washington, filming that was
being done in Lafayette Park, across
the street from the White House,
had to be put on hold for nearly
90 minutes when an impromptu
press conference was arranged in
the Rose Garden. While Secret
Service agents wandered around
brandishing their weapons because
of security concerns, ail the cast and
crew including stars Nicolas Cage
and Jon Voight were forced to
stand by, waiting.
In the end, the hectic activity
helped boost the cost to a reported
$l3O million, compared with the
first movie's estimated SIOO million.
Instead of leaving the production
team exhausted, however, the
whirlwind shoot was exhilarating,
says producer Jerry Bruckheimer.
'Even on a set, monotony can set in
and work becomes a grind. You're
on a soundstage every day, [and]
you can't wait to leave,’ he told
USA WEEKEND. 'Since we constantly
changed locations, there was
always an adventure. It helped
the energy.' 13 — Jeffrey Ressner
9
USA WEEKEND • Dec 7-9, 2007