PRODIGAL DIRECTOR RETURNS TO 'SWEETHEARTS'.Byline: - Glenn Whipp How does a director whose biggest movie was ``Revenge of the Nerds 2: Nerds in Paradise'' get to make ``America's Sweethearts Sweethearts may be:
 This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling.You can assist by [ editing it] now. ? In the case of Joe Roth, easy. Start your own production company. Of course, Roth's post- post- word element [L.], after; behind. post- pref. 1. After; later: postpartum. 2. Behind; posterior to: postaxial. ``Nerds'' resume includes stints running the movie divisions of Disney Dis·ney , Walter Elias Known as "Walt." 1901-1966. American animator, showman, and film producer. Noted for his creation of the cartoon characters Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, he produced the first animated film with sound, and Fox, so the man knows a thing or two about film. That didn't did·n't Contraction of did not. didn't did not didn't do mean he wasn't nervous when he walked into rehearsals for the first time. Remembers Roth: ``I thought, 'OK, there's Julia; she's going to win the Academy Award and she just worked with Steven Soderbergh. There's Catherine, she just worked with Soderbergh. And there's John Cusack, who has worked with every major director of his generation. What am I doing?' Thank God the script was so good.'' That script, written by Peter Tolan and Billy Crystal (who has a part in the film as well), follows two bickering bick·er intr.v. bick·ered, bick·er·ing, bick·ers 1. To engage in a petty, bad-tempered quarrel; squabble. See Synonyms at argue. 2. Hollywood megastars (Cusack and Zeta-Jones) whose marriage must survive one last press junket to promote their latest film. Roberts plays a frumpy frump n. 1. A girl or woman regarded as dull, plain, or unfashionable. 2. A person regarded as colorless and primly sedate. (in flashbacks, she's seen in a fat suit) assistant who tries to help but ends up falling for Cusack. Roth, familiar with the business of promoting movies, felt it was the right subject to return him to the director's chair. ``I didn't have to spend nine months researching the movie in Afghanistan,'' Roth says. ``I knew the world and felt comfortable with it.'' Still, Roth wondered whether all the Hollywood insider jokes might fly over some audiences' heads. When he found out that Roberts' ``Notting Hill'' press junket scene drew that movie's biggest laughs, he was sold. ``It used to be an axiom not to do movies about Hollywood, but now people can't know enough about what goes on,'' Roth says. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: `AMERICA'S SWEETHEARTS' (JULY 20) In an awkward moment for the triad of Catherine Zeta-Jones, standing Julia Roberts and John Cusack in the romantic comedy, ``America's Sweetheart's.'' |
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