Don't Miss This Very Special Event!

At The Movies

27th Ann Arbor Winter
Art Fair

Oct. 21 & 22, 2000

Saturday, October 21 10am to 6pm
Sunday, October 22 11am to 5pm

`The Contender'

Audree Levy presents 160 of the finest
artists and craftspeople in the country.

In Rod Lurie's new political thriller,
a female U.S. senator's bid for the vice presidency
is jeopardized by controversy over a sexual scandal.

Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds

5055 Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. • Ann Arbor, MI

Indoor Show
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sculpture

Exit 1-94 at Ann Arbor-Saline
Road, turn south and
follow the signs.

Admission

Visit our web site to
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and sign up for the $100.00
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tions of sexual scandal.
Allen loved the screenplay, but there
was fallout from Lurie's old days as the
most reviled critic in town. "Some
ack when Rod Lurie was the
actors I wanted for The Contender want-
meanest film critic in L.A.,
ed nothing to do with me," says the for-
he used to gush about actress
mer reviewer, who once dubbed
Joan Allen on his KABC
Whoopi
Goldberg a race traitor for
radio show. The guy who once called
playing
too
many domestics.
Danny DeVito a "testicle with legs"
Fortunately,
Gary Oldman and Jeff
lauded Allen as "the greatest working
Bridges,
both
Allen
fans, eagerly signed
actor in the world."
on to the film. When studios pressured
"I'd manage to slip that in every other
Lurie to drop Allen for a bigger-name
week," admits the Israeli-born critic-
actress, he declined and made The
turned-director, whose debut film,
Contender as a low-budget indie.
Deterrence, revolved around a Jewish
Lurie was shocked, after production
U.S. president in crisis.
wrapped,
when Steven Spielberg tele-
Allen had heard all about the fawning
phoned:
Turns
out DreamWorks was
critic, so she was receptive when he
interested in purchasing the movie as its
offered to write a screenplay for her in
very first acquisition. Spielberg request-
1998.
ed a private screening
3 at his house, along
with Lurie's home
telephone number.
"I put Schindler
§ List on the VCR, so
when he called me,
he'd hear it in the
background," the
director sheepishly
admits.
By 8 a.m. the next
morning, Lurie had a
deal; now he's been
signed to direct
Writer/director Rod Lurie, left, goes over a scene with
another DreamWorks
Mariel Hemingway, right, as Joan Allen, far left, looks on
film, a prison thriller,
during the filming of "The Contenden"
and to develop an
FBI-related TV
series.
He's
glad
for
the opportunity to
The former Los Angeles magazine
work
on
something
other
than a politi-
reviewer immediately set out to pen a
cal
thriller,
though
he'll
no
doubt return
refuse;
watching
couldn't
script Allen
to the genre.
news of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair
"Maybe I'm there because I'm a cow-
gave him a juicy idea.
ard," he concedes, sounding a bit like
"I thought, 'We have such a double
Woody Allen. "Because not many other
standard in this country,"' said Lurie,
directors are working in the genre,
the son of famed Israeli political car-
there's no competition."
toonist Ranan Lurie. "We can stomach
So can the tough ex-critic take what
sexuality in our men, but not in our
he used to dish out?
women. And I wondered, 'How long
"I'll try not to read The Contender's
would a female politician last if she were
reviews, because it will be too painful,"
caught having sex with a male intern in
he admits. "Every barb will sting." El
the Oval Office?'"
The result was The Contender, a
political thriller about a female U.S.
The Contender, rated R, opens
senator who is nominated for the vice
today.
presidency, only to encounter allega-
,,„

NAOMI PFEFFERMAN
Special to the Jewish News

