NatalieWood Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Growing up in Los Angeles as an admittedly shallow, callow youth in the 70s, I always wanted a stylish hot rod so I could attract the girls who liked guys in fast cars. Alas, I had to be content with puttering around in very practical, somewhat beat-up used cars (1964 Chevy Corvair, graduating to a 1965 Ford Falcon), but dreams die hard. Even though I'm still driving a very practical, somewhat beat-up used car, I still yearn for a sizzling hot motor vehicle and an attractive lady passenger urging me to go faster, faster.

These thoughts are prompted by the imminent release of the hot rod-loving Fast & Furious, due in theaters tomorrow, which features the return of the gorgeous Jordana Brewster and the equally lovely Michelle Rodriguez, two talented ladies who have a definite need for speed. (Oh, yeah, Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are back, too, and so is director Justin Lin.) In their honor, we present our seven favorite, fabulous hot rod girls.

1. Tracie Thoms, Death Proof

Tracie Thoms packs an unbeatable combination of brains, beauty, and bravado as Kim, a stunt woman in Quentin Tarantino's twisted ode to 70s car chase movies and 80s slasher flicks. Kim is rowdy and rambunctious with her girlfriends, but her hot rod heart starts beating fast when she revs up the engine of a borrowed 1970 Dodge Challenger, with Zoe Bell precariously perched on the hood. Smashing!

All Charlie's Angels film rights remain solely with Columbia Pictures. California courts decided this today putting a close to Robert Wagner's lawsuit against Columbia Pictures. Robert Wagner and his late wife Natalie Wood -- whom I still adore with all sincerity -- collaborated with the now late Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg to create the hit television series Charlie's Angels. I learn something new everyday. I had no idea that tragically destined Wood and her husband Wagner had any part in Charlie's Angels' conception, let alone development.

Robert Wagner was fighting for compensation from Columbia Studios for all revenues the film accumulated. During the Angels' television days, Wood and Wagner received 50% of all profits that Spelling-Goldberg Productions made. Now here's the tricky part: Spelling-Goldberg Productions sold all of their rights to Charlie Angel's to Sony Pictures Television years back. Whether Wagner was a part of this decision I'm not sure, and whether Wagner received any of the money that Spelling-Goldberg Productions sold it for is another gray area. Either way, due to the court's decision it leads one to believe that at the point of sale, Wagner was freed of any rights or obligations to Charlie's Angels. If that's the case, then it makes sense that Wagner would not receive any money from the success of the films, leaving him no reason to go after Columbia Pictures in the first place.

Here lies the conundrum. Why do people sell the rights to their work in the first place?! There must be something that I don't get. The biggest example of unreasonable sales is The Beatles selling the rights to their music to Michael Jackson. Yes, Charlie's Angels isn't The Beatles but if it's your work, your baby, then no amount of money should replace your artistic marriage to your creation. Therefore, don't sell your work unless you are certain you want nothing to do with it if someone resurrects it into another profitable success.

This is Part Two of a two-part interview with screenwriter Stewart Stern, who wrote the screenplays for Rebel Without a Cause, Sybil, and many other films. Part One of the interview covered Stern's career.

CINEMATICAL: Stewart, let's start by talking about your childhood, which profoundly impacted your writing. You and your mother never had a good relationship.

STERN: She did her best - she and my father never intended to have a baby so soon. They went on their honeymoon - boom! - she was pregnant; they never even had a chance to know each other, really, before they became parents. My mother was creative, she wanted to be an actress. She didn't really want to have a baby then. Her own mother, my Grandma Kaufman, was 47 when my mother was born; she had already used up most of her affection on the nine children she had before my mother. So my mother never learned how to be...how to be that way.

But when I made clay figures, my mother would run them off to a ceramic studio and get them glazed and fired. (Stern goes to his desk and pulls a small, green clay figure out of a drawer) This is an alligator I made as a kid...just a little clay figure, and look - she had it glazed and fired. (He hands me the figure to examine)

CINEMATICAL: It says on the bottom you were nine years old. This is remarkably well done for a nine-year-old.

STERN: I was always artistic. Marjorie (his younger sister) wasn't. She wanted to be, she tried so hard, but she just wasn't.

Stewart Stern had a enviable career in Hollywood for over a quarter century. He was the nephew of Paramount founder Adolph Zukor, and spent much of his childhood at Zukor's Mountain View Farm near Nyack, NY, where he played with his cousin, Arthur Loew Jr, who would later help Stern start his career in Hollywood. But Stern's childhood was far from idyllic; he had a difficult relationship with his emotionally distant parents, which would later shape much of his writing.

Stern wrote the screenplays for Rebel Without a Cause, Sybil, The Ugly American, and Rachel, Rachel, among others. He had unprecedented access as a screenwriter to the sets of his films, and counted some of Hollywood's biggest names - Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Natalie Wood, James Dean - among his friends.