America's Sweethearts (2001)

A movie publicist deals with the messy public split of his movie's co-stars while keeping reporters at bay while a reclusive director holds the film's print hostage.

Director:

Joe Roth

Writers:

Billy Crystal, Peter Tolan

Stars:

Julia Roberts, John Cusack, Billy Crystal

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Julia Roberts	...	Kiki Harrison
Billy Crystal	...	Lee Phillips
Catherine Zeta-Jones	...	Gwen Harrison
John Cusack	...	Eddie Thomas
Hank Azaria	...	Hector
Stanley Tucci	...	Dave Kingman
Christopher Walken	...	Hal Weidmann
Alan Arkin	...	Wellness Guide
Seth Green	...	Danny Wax
Scot Zeller	...	Davis
Larry King	...	Himself
Steve Pink	...	Limo Driver
Rainn Wilson	...	Dave O'Hanlon
Eric Balfour	...	Security Guard
Marty Belafsky	...	Security Guard

Storyline

In the midst of a nasty public breakup of married movie stars, a studio publicist scrambles to put a cap on the escalating situation as the couple's latest film has found its only print kidnapped by the director.

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Plot Keywords:

love | breakup | film within a film | rain | media | 

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Taglines:

America's hottest couple has just broken up...it will take more than special effects to get them back together.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language, some crude and sexual humor

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 July 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

La pareja del año

Filming Locations:

Greystone Park & Mansion - 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$46,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$30,181,877, 22 July 2001

Gross USA:

$93,607,673

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$138,307,673

Company Credits

Production Co:

Revolution Studios, Face Productions, Roth-Arnold Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Hank Azaria and John Cusack worked together previously on Grosse Pointe Blank (1997) and in the animated Anastasia (1997).

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Goofs

As Kiki recalls her first romantic encounter with Eddie, the silhouettes of one or two crew members are reflected in Kiki's barrette.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: America first fell in love with Eddie Thomas and Gwen Harrison in the box office smash "Autumn With Greg And Peg". They had the most celebrated marriage in Hollywood. Who could forget how they hit one out of the park in "Requiem for an Outfielder"?

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Alternate Versions

DVD deleted scenes are:

• Extended scene of Hector in the bathtub; a girl had been fellating him under the bubbles
• Eddie calls the wellness guide, who's tooling around the Las Vegas Strip in a classic Cadillac convertible, about whether or not to meet Gwen for dinner
• After Eddie and Kiki wake up, Leaf shows up to rekindle the vengeance affair Eddie had with her on the set and comments on Kiki's weight loss
• Hal bickers about the lack of honesty in Hollywood to a Spanish-speaking tow truck driver in the desert after his car broke down
• Danny tries unsuccessfully to schmooze Hal in the auditorium after the film

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Connections

Referenced in Granada Reports: 8 August 2018: Evening Bulletin (2018)

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Soundtracks

All The Love In The World (Remix)
Written by Andrea Corr, Caroline Corr, Jim Corr (as James Corr), Sharon Corr and Robert John Lange (as R.J. Lange)
Produced by Robert John Lange (as Robert John "Mutt" Lange)
Performed by The Corrs
Courtesy of 143 Records/Lava/Atlantic Recording Corporation

User Reviews

An entertaining look behind the scenes of the movie star romances.

Normally, who is married to/engaged to/dating who in the movie world is something that I couldn't possibly care less about, and I still don't care, but America's Sweethearts manages to make that very subject amusing and entertaining. John Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones play Eddie Thomas and Gwen Harrison, two movie stars who have been tremendously successful working together and who have worked their way into the heart of the American public. The conflict comes from their highly publicized breakup, which has resulted in two consecutive box office failures for Gwen and some serious psychological problems for Eddie.

Stanley Tucci takes on a small but very effective role as Dave Kingman, the short tempered studio executive, furious with Christopher Walken's much more entertaining Hal Weidmann, the introverted filmmaker who sent Kingman the first print of his film (after charging $86 million of the studio's money), which consisted of nothing but titles and the hilarious message, `We could also do these in blue.' Kingman throws a predictable but very funny tantrum. We spend the rest of the film wondering why Weidmann is so cocky toward Kingman and so close-mouthed about the film, but we are rewarded in the final act.

Julia Roberts comes back in an ironic role when compared to her recent (and far superior) role in Notting Hill, in which she was America's Sweetheart who had fallen in love with a regular guy. Here, she is the constantly unnoticed sister of Gwen Harrison, her big movie star sister. Both women are perfectly cast as the famous movie star and the famous movie star's sister, but this is more a testament to their abilities as actors than it is to the ingenuity of the casting director. The acting was just excellent. Hank Azaria plays the part of Hector (`This is bull-chit!'), the over-the-top Spanish guy with the hilarious lisp that Gwen has been seeing ever since her rough break up with Eddie. Hector is an amusing character, but it is obvious from the first scene where we see him (in which he insists that he and Gwen will `go to the ‘hunket' together.') that he is an expendable character. He's funny, but he still badly mangled the Spanish accent as well as the lisp, coming off as amusing but impossible to take seriously.

The entire romantic subplot of the film was predictable from the very beginning, if only because it was given away in its entirety in the theatrical trailer. If you have ever heard of this movie before watching it, then you've already seen the emotional scene where Kiki (Roberts) tells Eddie that that woman that he saw standing by the spa that he had to spend the rest of his life with was her, and not her sister Gwen. From that perspective, America's Sweethearts is one of those movies where if you've seen the preview, you've seen the movie (take Pleasantville as another example).

Christopher Walken provides an excellent source of comic relief as well as one of the only really interesting characters in the film. He is the nutty filmmaker (indeed, the best films almost unwaveringly come from the people who are a little ‘off') who edits his films in the Unabomber's cabin, which he had moved onto his property, and who indeed created a truly memorable film, of which we unfortunately are only able to see a small portion. `The Blair Bitch Project,' as the press later calls it, is a kind of film that would be really interesting. The tabloids would have a field day.

There are a lot of sight gags and low brow humor in America's Sweethearts, and it is reported to bear a striking resemblance to Singin' In The Rain (although remains far inferior to that classic musical comedy), but it manages to keep the audience entertained if not hanging on every word. True film fanatics are sure to pick it apart for nearly feeding off of classic films and for following such a clear-cut formula, but there is definitely something to be enjoyed here.