NQUIRER EXCLUSIVE
Candidly, Courteney
By Marinel Cruz
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:53:00 04/13/2008
HOLLYWOOD�Courteney Cox-Arquette, who plays a tabloid mag�s editor-in-chief in FX Network�s �Dirt,� says the way to survive gossip is to be ignorant about it. Literally, if possible.
�Ignorance is bliss. If you�re not aware of it and don�t start looking for it, life will be so much easier,� Courteney says. �I don�t read any of these magazines, except [during pre-production work for the show]. It�s like candy. You can�t stop.�
Courteney has had her own unpleasant experiences with the paparazzi and tabloid press: �They call my publicist to say they�re going to write this or that. The latest one... I read in a magazine that I had just come out of my doctor�s office. It said I was going through menopause and that I was upset because I can�t have another child. I read lies like that all the time.�
�Dirt� revolves around Lucy Spiller (Courteney) and her long-time friend Don Konkey (Ian Hart), chief photographer and all-time Dirt manager. Together, they run the tabloid mag DirtNow, which exposes dark secrets of show biz celebrities.
The show�s second season opens with Lucy waking up to find her attacker, actress Julia Mallory (Laura Allen), dead and DirtNow in chaos.
�Dirt� is co-produced by ABC Studios and Coquette Productions, owned by Courteney and her husband, actor David Arquette. It is distributed outside the US by Disney.
Courteney and Ian take time off to talk to visiting foreign journalists about being targets, and how some stars provoke the paparazzi, including videographers, just to get publicity.
Do you feel like an expert in gossip now?
C: I do. I have a lot of stories to bring to the table (laughter).
Any of your own stories in there?
C: Well, it could be like, a story of a friend�s friend. We don�t copy anyone�s life per se. We take a little bit of everyone�s, add a twist and come up with something that you think you know but really don�t.
How do you juggle motherhood and work?
C: I�m an expert multi-tasker.
Who do you think is the easiest paparazzi target in show biz?
C: Easiest? I would say Paris (Hilton) or Britney (Spears).
Someone that �Dirt� would love to get a scoop on?
I: Brad Pitt and that tall young girlfriend of his. What�s her name? Angelina? (Laughter.)
What are Lucy�s redeeming qualities?
C: Her relationship with Don, I think, is...
Humanizing?
C: Yeah. Season 1 was all about printing the truth. She wasn�t going to print something that was made up. She was like, �Look! You chose this business and that�s the truth.� Her job is to put out a good magazine. This season, it�s mostly about her relationship with Don.
Did you deliberately look for a role that is completely different from Monica of �Friends?�
C: Yeah. I absolutely did. I was on �Friends� for 10 years. That was a very high energy, obsessive-compulsive character. I like to play someone who is a lot more, let�s say, grounded. Lucy is just more solid and less emotional. That�s fun and challenging to me. Now it�s more challenging to find ways to make her, you know, the person you love to hate.
Do you see the paparazzi differently now?
C: Not really.
I: They�re all impossible.
C: It�s just getting so much worse than it ever was. Now with the cameras, you can never say the right thing. I mean, it doesn�t matter what you say, it�s going to be misconstrued or put in the wrong way and you�re going to come off bad. The photographers are now� love them. It�s the videographers who are tougher.
What�s the weirdest place you�ve encountered them? Do you find them in your garden?
C: At the funeral of a son of someone very close to me. It was just horrendous. They followed me there! It was so inappropriate. That would be not the weirdest, but [certainly] the worst.
How do you handle them?
C: I just kind of get used to it. I went online [recently] and my God, it�s so brutal. It�s amazing how mean people are.
Do you think actors are in some way responsible for what comes out in the tabloids?
I: If you�re a 20-year-old girl in Minnesota and you get drunk, it doesn�t end up in the paper. If a 20-year-old actor gets drunk and it lands in the paper, did that actor do something more abnormal than the Minnesota girl? Not really. The responsibility ultimately lies with the journalist.
Now that you wear a producer�s hat, do you get a lot of pressure from the networks,?
C: Not really. The network is definitely very involved. [The people behind the show] are really smart and great to work with. We have a very tight budget, but they�re pretty great about letting us come up with stuff.
What�s goes through your head when you do love scenes?
C: It�s not a very comfortable situation to be in. Luckily, I�m friends with the guy I�m doing most of the love scenes with. I trust the crew so much, I know they�re going to shoot each scene in a way that I feel comfortable. The other actors are always nice and respectful.
Why was it decided that Ian�s character should be schizophrenic?
C: Matthew Carnahan, who wrote and created the show, was doing research for something else�about a schizophrenic guy. When we came to him about this idea... it just made for such an interesting, sympathetic character.
I: If you are schizophrenic, it allows you to view what�s going on from an audience perspective. It sort of comments on the morality of the situation. If everybody else is involved in it, it�s difficult for them to take a moral viewpoint. There are a lot of high functioning schizophrenics. The good thing about people with high functioning illness is that you don�t know that they�re mentally ill.
Do you think other celebrities provoke the paparazzi because they want to be in a magazine just for publicity?
C: That definitely happens.
Did you think you�d be in a TV show again after �Friends?�
C: I only wanted to be sure that this show is something I really cared about. If it didn�t work out, at least I had a great time doing it.
What does this show mean to you?
C: From conception, it�s something that I was a part of. The fact that we�re picked up for a second season is a huge accomplishment. It�s hard enough to make a pilot and get picked up.
Jennifer Aniston appeared in the show. What was it like working with her again?
C: We had a ball. It was really fun to come to the set and play completely different characters and just be together.
You had a kissing scene with her.
C: The kiss was not important. We did a lot of takes doing it but� I actually don�t kiss her longer than that.
I: You could.
C: They just made such a big thing out of it because maybe the way they filmed it�they went to the kiss and then away from the kiss. That extra second in there seemed�
Just like Britney and Madonna�s?
C: No. That was longer (laughter).
I: Had tongues in there, didn�t it?
C: They did? [We had] no time for that.
Will the �Friends� reunion ever happen?
C: I have a feeling it�s not going to. The longer we wait, the older we get.
�The Golden Friends�?
I: That�s an idea.
How did you get to be peaceful when others get driven crazy by the paparazzi?
C: What can you do? It�s going to happen even if you get upset about it.
You�re not upset at all?
C: As long as I look OK in the picture, I don�t care (laughter).
�Dirt� airs Sundays, 10 p.m., on the Velvet Channel.
Email
[email protected]
Moderator: Jen's Aquarius Friend
Joined: 19 Nov 2003
Posts: 6391
Location: D.C. Metro Area
