when a friend suggested he try
writing. Within a year, he had
a manager and a project labeled
"Untitled Teenage Sex Comedy
That Can Be Made for Under
Ten Million Dollars Which
Studio Readers Will Hate But
We Think You Will Love."
"Pie 2" Producer Warren Zi de, Executive
He wrote the pie scene after
Producers Chris and Paul Weitz and Executive
reflecting that "warm . apple
Producer/Screenwriter Adam Herz on the set
pie" is the kind of metaphor a
of 1999s 'American Pie." Zide, who grew up in
naive teenage boy might use
Southfield, is head of one of the leading literary
for "third base. ,,
management firms in the business. Herz,
Herz was 25 the day his Pie
a
1996 University of Michigan graduate
script went out to five studios
pom
East Grand Rapids, wrote his screenplay
on Jan. 23, 1998. Hours later,
based on his Michigan upbringing.
he'd made $650,000.
Though a Pie sequel was a
because you see your friends every day,"
no-brainer, Herz was initially reluctant
says
the writer, who's also Pie 2's execu-
to write it. "The last thing I wanted
tive producer. "After you go away to
was to get pegged as 'that teen comedy
college, the relationships take work."
guy,'" he says.
Herz will explore his current dating
He caved in when his schedule
pet
peeves in an untitled project he's
cleared and another scribe fell
slated to write and direct for
through; for inspiration, he put his old
Universal. "In high school and college,
fake IDs on his writing desk. He also
you
can date with impunity," he
recalled the summer after his freshman
explains. "But in your [late 20s],
year of college, when he painted hous-
there's the pathos and the desperation.
es with his old high school buddies
"It's like, 'Can I pleeeeease buy you a
and daydreamed about sexy hausfraus
sandwich?'
I just hate that." ❑
inviting him inside for lemonade.
His characters come to the same real-
American Pie 2, rated R, opens
ization as Herz did that summer: "In
today in area theaters.
high school, friendships are automatic,

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past the disco two days later,
there was still blood on the side-
walk. "But the Israelis were get-
ting on with their lives, so we felt,
We must get on with our vaca-
tion,'" says Biggs, who was often
approached for autographs.
"They were impressed that we
would show solidarity and come
at a time like this to see their
country."
He spent the rest of his 12-day
trip doing touristy things like
snorkeling in Eilat, visiting
Hebrew University and learning a
smattering of Hebrew.
He was amused to learn that
the Israeli Domino's Pizza was
giving away promotional copies
of the Hebrew-language video of
American Pie.
Back in Los Angeles just before
the release of Pie 2, Biggs was
wearing his Hebrew University T-
shirt and recalling the day he made
pop culture history with pastry
He was on the Pie set in 1998
when the assistant director
yanked down his shorts and made
him do the infamous pie-nooky
scene in his undies.

"Pie got everywhere," he recalls.
"It was pretty slim-y."
The actor was hesitant CO do
the sequel, however. "I thought so
highly of the original that I didn't
want to mess with it," he says.
He was swayed by the funny
script, in which Jim comes home
from college and at one point vis-
its "band camp" — the almost
mythical place that was obnox-
iously touted by his prom date,
Michelle, in the original movie.
He's seeking sex-ed from the
experienced Michelle, who begins
every other sentence with the
annoying phrase, "This one time,
at band camp..."
In real life, the sequel's band
camp sequences were filmed at
Camp Shalom in Malibu.
"At the end of the second day
of filming, my girlfriend asked
me which camp it was and I was
like, 'Oh, it's Camp Shalom,' and
she goes, 'No way, I went there
for four summers!'" Biggs says.
"I was just relieved that at no
point has she ever said, 'This one
time, at Camp Shalom...'"
— Naomi Pfefferman

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2001

71