Claire Forlani - ARTICLES FROM 1997


Escape From the '80s
By Allison Glock

(Excerpt) Lucky for him, it seems fans don't want to know about what he eats and drinks (even his rumored romance with actress Minnie Driver and his relationship with girlfriend Claire Forlani have skated beneath the ET radar). They only want to know that he is, that he exists. Because if he exists, then they do, too. He is, as his writing partner and friend of fourteen years Steve Pink says, "somehow able to escape being a celebrity. He's a good actor. But he's also fundamentally sincere. He's honest. He doesn't run games. He's no Hollywood Bob."

GQ / December 1997


Claire Forlani
FACE TO FACE: TWO SHOOTING STARS LIGHTEN UP

She played Sean Connery's daughter in The Rock. He was a kidnapper in Ransom. If you blinked, you missed them. But if you hang at the local art-film-plex, you probably know Liev Schreiber and Claire Forlani. He played a porn freak in Walking and Talking and a Kafka-damaged novelist in The Daytrippers. She was an alluring siren with self-destructive tendencies in Basquiat and The Last Time I Commited Suicide. In 1998 they both move into the major leagues. He's featured in Phantoms, Since You've Been Gone, The Blouse Man, Barry Levinson's Sphere, and the new Robert Benton film. She stars in Basil, Elements, and the drama Meet Joe Black with Brad Pitt. This interview is their first time working together.

CLAIRE: How are you, Liev?
LIEV: I'm okay. (coughs) I'm sick. Every time I have a cigarette I feel really sick, but I can't stop myself.
CLAIRE: Bummer. I look at smoking as a crutch, and as an actor I would like strip away as many crutches as possible.
LIEV: Maybe what I'll do is really, really smoke it up while I feel sick like this and it'll be my farewell... So, Claire, where were you born?
CLAIRE: London. My parents are Italian and British. They live in Berkeley now -- we all moved there four years ago.
LIEV: I was born in San Francisco but I was raised in New York City. I did a student-exchange program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. I had gone to school at Hampshire College. I was so exceedingly smart I graduated in three years. Then I got my master's. I could open up a studio. I could be Master Liev. I could teach martial acting.
CLAIRE: I love the educated actors. There's always something to talk about or listen to. I'm a college dropout.
LIEV: It doesn't matter, though, because you've got an English accent. In our country you automatically sound literate. Even the Spice Girls sound literate. If you made a recording of the one who wore the big Captain America outfit at the MTV video awards and you recorded Norman Mailer and you played them to your average Joe, he'd probably think she was more literate. Norman Mailer talks like he's one of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
CLAIRE: So what does being an actor mean to you?
LIEV: I don't know. If a bunch of aliens flew down to this planet and saw all these movies, they would think, "Why do they spend so much time and moeny telling each other stories?" It's kind of wonderful. Did you have much training?
CLAIRE: I went to a private arts school. We had to wear cloaks.
LIEV: That's the best thing about the English: training -- and the fact that they subsidize the arts. Here, you go see Cats and it's like $100. In England, I saw Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench in Antony and Cleopatra for six bucks.
CLAIRE: I just finished Meet Joe Black with Hopkins. We had this problem with my first scene with him, 'cause he only does three or four takes. I turned to him and said, "You've done a hundred films and won an Oscar, and I haven't done anything; you're going to do as many takes as I do." But when we hit take 30 he was looking at me like, Can't you just remember your fucking lines, sweetheart? I play Hopkins' daughter. Brad Pitt plays Death. He's a very-good looking Death. With him, dying isn't so bad. And I did a movie called Basil with Jared Leto and Christian Slater. And this independent film, Elements, with Rob Morrow. It's about these three people --
LIEV: That was a great script, it's all about a triangle relationship. I wanted to be in it but they wouldn't let me.
CLAIRE: Have you worked with anybody you've been in love with?
LIEV: Peter O'Toole and Dustin Hoffman. I did 'em both. (laughs)
CLAIRE: You did?
LIEV: Well, no, but I thought about it.
CLAIRE: What was Hoffman like?
LIEV: Hoffman, he's a monster. We did a movie called Sphere together. He's really my personal inspiration. He's started out as a funny-looking Jewish guy and captured a huge audience. He was one guy who came along and said, This character is who the audience is, this is who we are -- we stumble, we bump into things, we don't always make it, we don't always get the girl.
CLAIRE: It was like Jennifer Grey for me in Dirty Dancing.
LIEV: Oh, and I did Paul Newman.
CLAIRE: Sounds like you had a very interesting year.
LIEV: Yeah, I had an incredible year with movie stars, but I can't talk about them.
CLAIRE: Oh, God! How 'bout if I call you later?

Details / December 1997


August 12, 1997

Model photography on Superman Lives is being begun tommorow (Aug. 13) at Digital Domain on SM, CA. The shot involves a huge mock-up of Mt. Rushmore and BRANIAC'S BRAIN SHIP -- which has been severely modified from the pre-crisis comics classic.

Claire Forlani was offered the role of Lois. She was in Basquiat and is in Brad Pitt's next film (Meet Joe Black). She had a scheduling conflict and had to pass. A rumor around town says Burton may cast (his g.f.) Lisa Marie in this part, or possibly, Holly Hunter (Burton is a huge Raising Arizona fan). Jon Peters really has no say in the casting, since he trusts Burton.

Michelle Forbes did pass. She's on for 24 Homicide episodes for 97-98.

Club Kryptonium


LOST HORIZON
By Christine Spines

(Excerpt) Then came the knockout punch. Three months after [Brad] Pitt returned from Argentina, his publicist announced that his engagement to [Gwyneth] Paltrow had been called off. The breakup led off 6 o'clock newscasts nationwide and made the cover (IT'S THE PITS!) of the New York Post. Everybody had a theory. Some asserted that the breakup was merely a red herring, to keep paparazzi from crashing the wedding. Observers dreamed up scenarios in which Pitt was the guilty party: He got cold feet; he was having an affair with his Meet Joe Black love interest, Claire Forlani.

Premiere / November 1997


JOHN CUSACK: POINT BLANK
By David A. Keeps

(Excerpt) While he is out of town filming the Clint Eastwood-directed version of the best-seller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, I talk to John's friends. (They are a tight-knit bunch. The first time I met them was at the Sundance Film Festival. John was there with D.V. De Vincentis, Doug Dearth -- once John's trainer, now a production associate at New Crime -- and John's girlfriend, actress Claire Forlani, who starred in Basquiat. They were there to ski and see a midnight screening of Claire's new film, The Last Time I Committed Suicide. "Hi, I'm Johnny," he said to me by way of introduction.)

Details / August 1997


Wednesday July 2 1997
Gwyneth Comes to Brad's Defense

Gwyneth Paltrow wants to put a stop to the rumors that her breakup with Brad Pitt was caused by infidelity on his part. In a statement to Newsday, Paltrow leapt to the defense of her ex-fiancé. "The desperation to uncover a reason why has produced information which is false, unfair, and foolish," she said. "Not only is Brad Pitt beyond reproach but he is a man of extreme integrity and goodness." And his ex isn't so bad either, if you ask us. Tabloids have tried to place Pitt in the arms of his Meet Joe Black co-star Claire Forlani, but reps from both camps have vigorously denied that their relationship is anything other than professional.

Mr. Showbiz


Friday June 20 1997
Rumors Swirl Around Pitt and Paltrow

The rumor mill is working overtime trying to find out what went wrong with the seemingly fairytale romance of Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow. Theories ranging from another woman to the possibility that it's all a hoax have surfaced since the couple's split was announced on Monday. So, as a public service to all those women who have written in, offering to console Brad personally, here's the latest: According to Pitt's publicist, the couple is in contact. "They are definitely talking," Cindy Guagenti, Pitt's rep, tells USA Today. "There's no animosity between them, so you never know what will happen." People magazine, which has a cover story on the former lovebirds set to hit the stands next week, speculates that Pitt's fear of commitment was behind the break-up. People's Mitchell Fink reports that Pitt is living in his New York apartment while filming Meet Joe Black, and that Paltrow is staying with friends. New York Post columnist Cindy Adams ran an item on Thursday linking Pitt with Claire Forlani, his Joe Black co-star, but Guagenti insists that there's not one "iota of truth" to the rumor. "Since nobody knows the truth, everybody's making up reasons," she says. Forlani's spokeswoman, Becca Kovacik, also denies the claims that her client is involved with Pitt, telling USA Today: "If Brad was doing a movie with an eighty-year-old actress, people would probably link them together." And as far as speculation that the entire break-up is a hoax to throw the media off the couple's trail so they can marry in private? "That's demeaning to their relationship for them to pretend to break up," Guagenti tells the paper. "Who needs that kind of publicity?"

Mr. Showbiz


The buzz swells over Pitt-Paltrow breakup
By Arlene Vigoda

What's the latest on Brad Pitt and Gywneth Paltrow's breakup?

Reports are swirling that either a reconciliation is afoot or a third party is involved.

Are the once-engaged couple, who stunned celebrity watchers with a Monday announcement that they had gone separate ways, trying to work things out.

"They are definitely talking," says Cindy Guagenti, Pitt's spokeswoman. "There's no animosity between them, so you never know what will happen."

Next week's People speculates that Pitt's fear of commitment caused him to call off the wedding.

Paltrow spokesman Stephen Huvane says he "really can't comment on what they're doing personally because that would be infringing on their privacy."

Pitt is in New York making Meet Joe Black, a romantic comedy; Paltrow has just finished filming Sliding Doors in London.

As for Cindy Adams' Thursday New York Post column linking Pitt with twentysomething British actress Claire Forlani, his Joe Black co-star, Guagenti says there's not an "iota of truth" to that. "Since nobody knows the truth, everybody's making up reasons," she adds.

Forlani's spokeswoman, Becca Kovacik, also denies the gossip. "If Brad was doing a movie with an 80-year-old actress, people would probably link them together," she says.

And what about talk that the split is a smoke screen to deflect media attention from upcoming under-wraps nuptials?

"That's demeaning to their relationship for them to pretend to break up," Guagenti says. "Who needs that kind of publicity?"

USA Today / June 20 1997


Thursday June 19 1997 2:53 PM EDT
Martin Brest's Meet Joe Black Starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins Begins Production for Universal Pictures
Company Press Release (Source: Universal Pictures)

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. (PRNewswire) -- Universal Pictures' Meet Joe Black, starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, produced and directed by Martin Brest, has begun principal photography in New York City.

Meet Joe Black is a romantic comedy-drama about an otherworldly presence who, assuming a human identity in order to get to know a powerful businessman, finds himself falling in love. The film co-stars Claire Forlani (The Rock, Basquiat), Marcia Gay Harden (First Wives Club, Desperate Measures), Jeffrey Tambor (HBO's The Larry Sanders Show) and Jake Weber (Amistad). The screenplay is written by Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno and Kevin Wade and Bo Goldman. Ronald L. Schwary serves as executive producer.

Brad Pitt (Seven, The Devil's Own) plays the title role. He was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for 12 Monkeys and will next be seen in Seven Years in Tibet.

Anthony Hopkins, who was honored with the Academy Award for his role in Silence of the Lambs, plays businessman William Parrish. He has recently completed roles in the upcoming releases, The Edge, The Mask of Zorro and Steven Spielberg's Amistad.

Martin Brest most recently produced and directed Scent of a Woman, which was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture and for which Al Pacino won the Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor. The film was also honored with Golden Globes for Best Picture and Best Screenplay (Bo Goldman). Mr. Brest's previous films include Midnight Run and Beverly Hills Cop.

Meet Joe Black was inspired by a character in a 1930's stage play that was adapted for the screen in 1934 as the movie Death Takes a Holiday.

In addition to New York City, Meet Joe Black will film on location in Rhode Island and New Jersey. The film will be released by Universal Pictures in 1998.

Universal Pictures is a part of Universal Studios, a unit of The Seagram Company Ltd., a global beverage and entertainment company.

PRNewswire


Tuesday June 17 1997
Extras needed for Meet Joe Black

Sylvia Fay Casting is looking for performers 25 years old and up to appear in a glamorous party sequence in the new Universal Pictures film, Meet Joe Black, which will star Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Claire Forlani. The scenes are scheduled to shoot in Warwick, Rhode Island, at night for approximately 4 weeks starting on or around August 3, 1997. All performers must be available for the entire shoot and should expect long hours.

The scene requires a very elegant look. Men should wear black tuxedos and women should wear long qowns (in all colors except very bright colors). Please wear or bring your outfit and accessories with you to the casting call. Performers with upscale automobiles are also needed.

The casting call takes place Saturday, June 21st and Sunday, June 22nd at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, Rhode Island.

For more details, visit Rhode Island Films: Meet Joe Black.

Rhode Island Films


Friday June 13 1997 5:01 PM EDT
The Kushner-Locke Co., Roxie Releasing & Tapestry Films add theatres to The Last Time I Committed Suicide opening on Friday, June 20th
Company Press Release

LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--June 13, 1997--Inspired by The Great Sex Letter that Neal Cassady wrote to Jack Kerouac, The Last Time I Committed Suicide stars newcomer Thomas Jane (The Crow; City of Angels), Keanu Reeves (My Own Private Idaho, Speed), Adrien Brody (Nothing to Lose), Claire Forlani (Basquiat, The Rock), Marg Helgenberger (China Beach), Lucinda Jenney (Leaving Las Vegas), Gretchen Mol (The Funeral, Donnie Brasco), John Doe (Great Balls of Fire) and Jim Haynie (Bridges of Madison County).

The Kushner-Locke Co., Roxie Releasing and Tapestry Films presentation opens on June 20th in Los Angeles at the Laemmle's Music Hall, The Los Feliz Theatre and in Orange County at the Edwards University 6 followed by a national theatrical release. Neal Cassady was only 42 years old when he died, but he forever remains one of the geniuses of the Beat generation. Writer-director Stephen Kay's jazzy, impressionistic journal chronicles Cassady's (Thomas Jane) early-1950's love affair with a beautiful, but suicidal, woman named Joan (Claire Forlani) and his simpatico friendship with a hard-drinking, pool-playing, womanizing buddy named Harry (Keanu Reeves).Kay gives us a glimpse of the restless energy, boundless curiosity and irresistible charm that made Neal Cassady the standard bearer for poets, artists and dreamers who would soon be known to the world as "beats".

Distributed by The Kushner-Locke Co., Tapestry Films and Roxie Releasing, The Last Time I Committed Suicide is directed and written by Cable Ace nominee Stephen Kay (Showtime's Two Over Easy) and photographed by Bobby Bukowski (Till There Was You). It was produced by Edward Bates and Louise Rosner and executive produced by Peter Abrams, Robert L. Levy, J.P. Guerin, Peter Locke, Donald Kushner and Lawrence Mortorff.

Business Wire


Monday April 28 1997 8:33 AM EDT
Harden Joins Joe Black
By Anita M. Busch

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Actress Marcia Gay Harden, whose credits include The First Wives Club and The Spitfire Grill, is joining the cast of Meet Joe Black for director Martin Brest.

She joins Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt and Claire Forlani in the update of the 1934 Fredric March film Death Takes a Holiday. A personified Death (Pitt) takes a break from his job to learn about life from a wealthy businessman (Hopkins), whose life he was about to take. Harden and Forlani play Hopkins' daughters.

The project will go before the cameras in New York in June.

Harden will next be on screens with Andy Garcia and Michael Keaton in Desperate Measures on Aug. 8. She just completed co-starring with Robin Williams on Flubber, a re-make of The Absent Minded Professor. It is due out in November.

Reuters/Variety


Wednesday April 23 1997
Hollywood chooses R.I. again
By BOB WYSS
Journal-Bulletin Staff Writer

Psst. Brad. Yeah you, Brad Pitt.

America may think you are one of the biggest heartthrobs in Hollywood, but you're being upstaged.

By a house.

And get this, it's a house right here in Rhode Island.

It's the Aldrich Mansion, which yesterday helped land another major motion picture production for Rhode Island this summer.

Governor Almond in a State House news conference announced that the film is Meet Joe Black, starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Claire Forlani. Executive producer Ron Schwary, whose credits include The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Scent of a Woman, Tootsie and Sabrina, will head a cast and crew of more than 200 that will be in the state for about two months, beginning in August.

The film has a $60 million budget.

"This is a huge project," proclaimed Rick Smith, director of the state film and television office.

"Rhode Island is made for major motion pictures," declared Governor Almond during the news conference. "Their preference is here in living color."

Meet Joe Black is loosely based on a 1920s play and 1934 film, Death Takes a Holiday. The main character, an "otherworldly presence" according to the press blurbs, assumes a human form so that he can understand how people tick. He winds up, naturally, falling in love with a beautiful woman.

But back to the star.

Its greatest quality may be its lawn. Smith says a critical requirement of the moviemakers was a large spacious lawn that will be used for a number of scenes, including a large party at night. Aldrich delivers. The lushly landscaped 75-acre estate on craggy Warwick Neck gently slopes down to the shoreline of Narragansett Bay.

Here are the mansion's other credits: styled like a French chateau; opened in 1909 by the owner, U.S. Sen. Nelson W. Aldrich; Italian marble fireplaces in every room; a grand marble staircase; ornate wood carvings, all produced by artisans who toiled for 16 years.

Here are its frills: a boathouse that looks like a ship, with thick wooden beams and stained glass windows; a tower and caretaker's cottage; an underground railway between the boathouse and mansion to deliver supplies brought by ship.

Schwary yesterday said the mansion was so important that he looked at more than 200 along the Eastern Seaboard.

Smith said Aldrich was one of more than a dozen Rhode Island mansions he showed to the film crew.

Warwick Mayor Lincoln Chafee said he was delighted by the decision. "This is one more instance of Rhode Island improving its image," he said.

Chafee added that he often lingers in a cinema to read the credits and see where a particular film was set. "And I know that people will be waiting to see where they did this film, and they're going to see it was Warwick, Rhode Island," he said.

While most of the location filming will be shot in Warwick, studio work and some other scenes will be shot in New York.

Smith did not have any immediate figures on what the economic impact of Meet Joe Black would be for Rhode Island. But he said the investment during the 10 days of filming for True Lies in 1993 was $2.1 million. He said the impact from the recent filming of Amistad was at least $4.5 million.

The state has been on a roll recently with film productions. The lineup included: The Buccaneers, shot in Newport in 1993 by the BBC; True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger was also filmed in Newport; Dumb and Dumber starring Jim Carrey; Killer featuring Warwick native James Woods; American Buffalo with Dustin Hoffman shot in Pawtucket in 1995 by Michael Corrente, and Amistad, which director Stephen Spielberg just finished shooting in Newport and Providence.

Smith said Rhode Island is luring filmmakers because the state is such an architectural treasure and it has a growing reputation for satisfying film crews.

"I keep an eye on the bottom line to make sure that they are happy," Smith explained.

Schwary said he did not make the final decision until he talked to Spielberg, who spoke glowingly of Rhode Island.

As bright as Rhode Island's star is, there's yet more good news for individual Rhode Islanders.

Get ready for another casting call for extras. A minimum of 400 will be needed, mostly for the evening party scenes.

But Smith urges those who have a hankering to be the next Brad Pitt to wait for instructions on where to go when the advertisements are published in a few weeks. Otherwise, he says his small office will be flooded with phone calls.

"We're already getting calls," he said yesterday, only hours after the news conference. "This is a small state."

www.projo.com


Thursday April 10 1997 8:02 AM EDT
Forlani Gets Invitation To Meet Joe Black
By Anita M. Busch

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Claire Forlani has nabbed the coveted female lead in Meet Joe Black opposite Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, sources said.

Martin Brest is directing and producing the drama, which was inspired by the 1934 Fredric March film Death Takes a Holiday. Brest will shoot from a script by Bo Goldman.

Meet Joe Black tells the story of how a personified Death (Pitt) takes a break from his job to learn about life from a wealthy businessman (Hopkins) whose life he was to take. In the process, Death's head is turned by the man's daughter (Forlani).

The role was originally eyed for Robin Wright. The casting is a major boost for Forlani, who had a bit part in The Rock and appeared in Mallrats. Until recently, she has starred in only indie projects, Basquiat, Basil and Elements.

Reuters/Variety


Bright Prospects
By John Griffiths

She's buoyed by bountiful lips, Liz Hurley-ish cheekbones and a London-bred sardonic wit that belies her 24 years, but Claire Forlani's morbid bent is what really distinguishes her. She's no Slyvia Plath, but she probably reads her. You might recall Forlani's brief turn as jailbird Sean Connery's angry, confused daughter in The Rock last summer. That was mild. "The last three films I've done are about self-immolation," she notes. She glowed as the forlorn girlfriend in the arty downer Basquiat, slashes her wrists in the Keanu Reeves beat poets movie The Last Time I Commited Suicide, and -- get out those tourniquets again -- suffers her husband's wrist-slicing in the psychological drama Elements. "Lying in blood is eerie," she says. "I wouldn't have missed it for the world." All that and she starred with Shannen Doherty in Mallrats, too.

Forlani seems positively averse to making things easy for herself. She got fired from the action thriller Deep Rising after arguing with the director over here character's development. "He was smart to fire me," she tosses. "I didn't want to be there." Turns out she's never been soft on herself. "After I saw the first thing I ever did, I got a migraine." Even in trivial matters of clothes she's beyond self-effacing. "I would have dressed better if I'd known [you'd bring it up]," she tells me when I ask about her well-worn sweater.

Now that Forlani has moved from London to Hollywood, is she afraid she's losing luscious roles back home to, say, Kate Winslet? "I watch movies like Sense and Sensibility and walk out crying that I didn't get to do it," she admits. But, sigh, perhaps the relocation is all for the best. "The weather in England can really darken your spirits," she says with a weary, self-knowing grin. "And I'm trying to not be so dark."

Movieline / April 1997


Tuesday February 25 1997 5:02 PM EST
$10 million "Basil" begins principal photography Feb. 26: Christian Slater, Jared Leto, Derek Jacobi, Claire Forlani head cast in an epic saga of love and revenge to be distributed by Kushner-Locke


LOS ANGELES (Business Wire) - The Kushner-Locke Co. (NASDAQ/NM:KLOC) Tuesday announced that principal photography is set to begin Feb. 26 on Basil, an intense drama of love and revenge set in England around the turn of the century, starring Christian Slater, Jared Leto, Derek Jacobi and Claire Forlani.

This ambitious and sweeping epic is written and directed by Radha Bharadwaj, the highly acclaimed director of Closet Land. It will be filmed on locations in England. Off balance sheet financing is being provided by Banque Paribas. Kushner-Locke is the worldwide distributor of the film.

Slater (The Flood, Broken Arrow, Interview With the Vampire, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), plays Bob Mannion who manipulates a covert marriage between Basil and Clara for the self serving purpose of destroying Basil's aristocratic father. Leto (Prefontaine, How To Make An American Quilt) plays the role of Basil, a sensitive and vulnerable young aristocrat. Forlani (The Rock, Basquiat) plays Clara, a mysterious, sensuous woman from a working class family. Jacobi, one of England's most distinguished actors (Hamlet, Looking for Richard), plays Basil's authoritarian father.

Basil is produced by Bharadwaj and Slater, with Peter Locke, Donald Kushner and Gregory Cascante executive producing.

The Kushner-Locke Co. is a leading independent producer and distributor of feature films, direct-to-video films, television series, made-for-television movies, mini-series, infomericals and animated programming for theaters and network and cable television.

Delphi NewsCenter


Friday February 7 1997 9:28 PM EST
Claire Forlani as Heartbreaker

Fresh from Basquiat, Claire Forlani is jumping into another high-profile picture. Variety says she'll join Christian Slater and Jared Leto in Basil, which will be directed by Radha Bharadwaj (Closet Land). Basil is based on a British classic about an aristocratic young man who risks his future and the wrath of a controlling father by falling in love with a woman who doesn't love him and leaves him penniless. Forlani plays the heartbreaker and the film starts production in London in March.

Reuters/Variety


Saturday January 25 1997
Smelling 'Rats

UTAH - Claire Forlani's strong performance in last year's Basquiat and the Sundance '97 feature The Last Time I Committed Suicide make it hard to fathom that this is the same actress who made her debut in Kevin Smith's dismal Mallrats. It's a bit strange to Forlani, too, but she can laugh about it now. When informed that Smith's third film, Chasing Amy, which premieres here tonight, is considerably better than Mallrats, the actress breathed a sigh of relief: "Thank God it was better than Mallrats! Let's just pray it was better than Mallrats. That was diabolical." There are several reasons Mallrats didn't work, according to Forlani: "I think Kevin is a real talent, but I think he was doing a commercial film and trying to please a studio, when that's not where his true talent lies." She's also willing to shoulder part of the blame herself. "You can ask anybody I work with, they say I turn everything into a drama," she laughs. Mallrats "was a comedy, and I didn't manage to do anything funny. Maybe it could have been really comedic if I'd played it right." Alas, the world will never know.

Mr. Showbiz


Thursday January 23 1997
The Last Time I'll Go Snowboarding

UTAH - Actress Claire Forlani is in town with the American Spectrum entry The Last Time I Committed Suicide, in which she plays beat icon Neal Cassady's suicidal girlfriend. It turns out that Forlani's penchant for self-destruction isn't limited to the screen: she's currently sporting a cast on her right wrist, courtesy of a nasty spill she took during her maiden voyage on a snowboard last weekend here in Utah. "I got on it for ten minutes and almost killed myself, and hairline-fractured my wrist," says Forlani, adding that her first snowboarding experience will likely be her last. "I just have no affinity for it; why should I have the worst three days of my life trying to learn how to do this? It's just not worth it." To her credit, Forlani hasn't let the injury keep her off the slopes--just off of a snowboard. "The skiing here is the best," she reports. "Yesterday we skied from nine until five--straight. I've done that every day since Friday."

Mr. Showbiz

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