Who'll suck the most blood from 'Interview with the Vampire,' theconflict-ridden movie of Anne Rice's moody novel? It may be magazineeditors, who have kept the 'Interview' drama very undead since Ricecrusaded against casting Tom Cruise as her tall, blond, androgynoushero, Lestat. With the movie opening Nov. 11, a renewed siege ofpromotion is grabbing hold, and there's no shortage of trendy storypossibilities in sight. There's the youth-market acting trio ofCruise, Brad Pitt and Christian Slater, who replaced the late RiverPhoenix. Or the enigmatic director, Neil Jordan, who helmed 1992'smost-talked-about movie, 'The Crying Game.' There are also articleson the magic of effects wizard Stan Winston, powerful producer DavidGeffen and the histrionic secrecy during 'Interview' filming, as acovered passageway connected Cruise's trailer to the movie set amidrumors of his platform shoes.
If you're Movieline, you don't bother choosing one angle. TheNovember issue has three 'Interview with the Vampire' features -- acover profile on Slater and conversations with Jordan and Winston.Furthermore, each piece contains an elaborate, knee-jerk homage toCruise. Slater: 'He commands such respect on the set. I lovedthat.' Jordan: 'I've never worked with a better or more willingactor. He gives every possible thing to a role.' Winston: 'The manis as hard-working an actor as I've ever worked with. He doesn'tphone in a single beat.' Take that, Anne Rice! US for November alsogoes with a cover story on Slater, a generic profile that could beexchanged with the Movieline piece, and Premiere, as usual, toucheson all the 'Interview' angles in its epic November cover story.
One of the best regular features in Premiere is LibbyGelman-Waxner's film column, 'If You Ask Me,' in which Cher's tattoosand Daniel Day-Lewis' buns are far more relevant than MartinScorsese's vision or Robert Altman's cultural criticism.Gelman-Waxner, a cosmetically enhanced and militantly superficial NewYorker, submits to an interview with play-and-screen writer PaulRudnick in New York for Oct. 31, and the result is a big giggle.Gelman-Waxner, who says her readers are 'people from all walks oflife and all dosages of Zoloft,' states her credo: 'I join with NaomiWolf and Erica Jong and Shari Lewis in saying yes, I am a woman. Ihot-oil, I exfoliate, I crave several of the Baldwin brothers and theWonderbra.' For the record, Gelman-Waxner out-and-out denies therumors that she doesn't exist and that she might be a pseudonym foranother writer, someone like, say, maybe Paul Rudnick.
This month's Ray Gun, the 'bible of music + style and the end ofprint,' has a typically cool-looking but hard-to-read piece on theBoston music scene, or 'unscene.' As the original location of actslike the Lemonheads, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Juliana Hatfield,Throwing Muses and Morphine, Boston is certainly a hospitable townfor indie rock. But unlike Seattle, there is no Boston 'sound,' justa 'cacophonous plurality of subcultures that isn't easilymass-marketed according to gender, politics or threads.' As anational take on a local phenomenon, the article is worth a gander,though get ready to wrestle: Ray Gun is the magazine you sometimesmust hold sideways and upside-down. It's the magazine your parentscouldn't read if they would.
SHORT CUTS: List-o-maniacal Entertainment Weekly features itsannual 'Power 101,' with Rupert Murdoch at No. 1, and in descendingorder Viacom's Sumner Redstone, Time Warner's Gerald Levin, StevenSpielberg, Disney's Michael Eisner and Ted Turner. Tom Hanks comesin at No. 16, David Letterman at No. 18, Tom Cruise at No. 22, BarbraSteisand at No. 31 and Roseanne at No. 60. Also, at No. 101,Letterman's mom, who lifted her son's ratings and landed an interviewwith Hillary Rodham Clinton. Oh yes, and at No. 101.5, God, whosepower is seen in a spiritual revival marked by products like 'ForrestGump' and the Chant album. Hmmm.
The Halloween issue of The New Yorker has a short story by StephenKing, about a boy who meets the devil himself a year after hisbrother died. Also, The New Yorker has a business piece called'Grand Illusion,' which looks at the collapse of WhittleCommunications and delves into the company's questionable tax andaccounting practices. Conclusion: 'What few people discuss publicly. . . is the simplest explanation for the failure of WhittleCommunications: Whittle himself.'
Men who want to be women have gotten lots of press in recentyears. In its November issue, Details takes a good look at FTMs,female-to-male transsexuals, the increasingly visible people who feelthey do not belong in their female bodies. . . . The new PremiereSpecial is a theme issue of Premiere about 'New York and theMovies.' It's a thorough look at the town in which more movies areset than anywhere else in the world, the town that LibbyGelman-Waxner lovingly labels 'Cin City.'
