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NEWS OF THE STARS
EDITH M. LEDERER
Actor
Nicole Kidman arrivse for the premiere of The Human Stain. (CP /Tobin Grimshaw)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Oscar-winning actors Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn have been filming their new movie, The Interpreter, on location in the United Nations and many ambassadors are mad, because all the diplomats in the movie are impostors. Kidman met dozens of real UN ambassadors at a jam-packed reception Monday in the visitors' lobby of UN headquarters co-hosted by the ambassador from her native Australia, John Dauth, who said she was in the pantheon of the country's most famous people. But ambassadors haven't had luck landing cameo roles, the diplomats are being played by actors. Spain's UN Ambassador Inocencio Arias, who has appeared in some Spanish films, said he had lined up a part as a prime minister in the thriller and set aside the two weekends for shooting. "It was my dream that I was going to be in a movie with Sydney Pollack directing. He's one of my heroes in the movie industry. But then the day before the shooting they called and said the union had some reservation, some qualms," he said. "I wasn't even going to charge any money. If they had to give me some money, I was going to give it to research, or to AIDS," Arias said. "It's ridiculous. So my opportunity to have a nomination for the Oscar next year went away because of some stupid regulation of the unions." Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid Al Hussein had wanted to keep up a family tradition: His parents got a chance to be extras when they were in Italy during the filming of Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which came out in 1963. He had hoped for the same chance in The Interpreter.
"It's a great shame we weren't allowed to have bit
parts in this movie because we're very familiar with the setting," said the
prince. "We're very familiar with the work of interpreters. God knows there
have been enough mishaps on occasion, not too frequently thank goodness but
with open mikes, and we feel well attuned to do that sort of thing." "After
all, this is the great stage and we are part of the theatre here, the
permanent theatre," he said. There was some confusion over just why the
diplomats can't be actors for a day. Pollack, an Academy Award-winning
director, initially said "it's a UN decision not mine. . . . If they let one,
they have to let all 191" ambassadors perform. But UN Undersecretary General Shashi Tharoor said: "We're very happy to have the ambassadors play themselves
and do whatever they want. It's up to them, their governments and the
filmmakers.
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