Tea Leoni, Hollywood's best-kept secret
Billie
For years, Tea (pronounced TAY-uh) Leoni would tell a story about how she
started acting. She was "an accidental actress," she'd say. She had left Sarah
Lawrence College, where she had studied anthropology - until her father, a
lawyer, suggested she go to a cocktail party full of anthropologists, whereupon
she decided that was not her field. She went to Italy and Japan and crewed on a
yacht in the Caribbean.In 1988, the girl who had lived on Park Ave. and
attended the elite Brearley School, was working as a model in Boston, when she
took a friend's dare to audition for a "Charlie's Angels" remake. After
standing in line with 2,000 other aspirants for a while, she realized she'd had
enough. She came up with a "hysterical explanation" for her departure - as a
child, she was a "brilliant liar" - but before she left, the casting director's
assistant took her name and snapped a Polaroid.
"I didn't have anything better to do with myself on a Saturday night," Leoni
would say. A few days later, the casting director tracked her down. Though the
projected series never happened, her role in the pilot brought her to Los
Angeles.
"I'm still wondering whether I should have gone to a nightclub instead," she
said the other day.
Now 37, the naturally talented Leoni is living in the Malibu Hills with her
second husband, "X-Files" heartthrob David Duchovny, and their two children,
Madelaine West, who will turn 4 this week and is called West, and 10-month-old
Kyd Miller, named after Thomas Kyd, the 16th-century English playwright.
(Duchovny, who studied literature at Yale, chose the name.)
Leoni's latest film, "People I Know," directed by Dan Algrant ("Naked in New
York") and starring Al Pacino, opens Friday.
Reminded of her career's serendipitous beginnings, Leoni laughed. "I feel so
far removed from that magic moment from where it all started," she said.
"There's been a renaissance. In the last four years, I've finally been enjoying
my career. There's more levity in it. The roles haven't necessarily gotten
better - it's my point of view that's changed, being married and being a mom."
As she was talking, she was wiping "goo off my shoulders," listening to baby
monitors, waiting to do the carpool, and making sure the yelping stray dogs she
sent her husband up into the hills to rescue that morning were safe. She was
also keeping an eye on her online Sotheby's auction to benefit breast-cancer
research.
"It's a bra auction," she explained. "I had this wacky idea. What if we teamed
up with Frederick's of Hollywood? They'd supply a basic bra - I'd ask
celebrities to decorate them. I thought I'd get 10 or 20 bras, but we got 50 or
60, from Rod Stewart, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julianne Moore, Ben Stiller, Sharon
Stone, Dustin Hoffman, Annette Bening. Lily Tomlin did a great one, with little
telephones: One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingies. My first call was to Garry
Shandling, who's a good friend. 'What if I send two yarmulkes?' he said. That
was great. Right now, his bra's on line for $3,000."
Leoni is funny. In "Bad Boys" (1995), she played the friend of a murdered
hooker, holding her deadpan comic own opposite Martin Lawrence and Will Smith.
In the TV series "The Naked Truth," she starred as a divorcee who rejected her
zillionaire husband's alimony and worked as a tabloid photographer to pay the
rent. Howard Rosenberg, writing in the Los Angeles Times, called her "that
leggy clown supreme ... who constantly rose above her material."
In "Flirting With Disaster" (1996), a comedy about a young man (Ben Stiller)
who's become a father but can't name the child until he finds his birth
parents, 胎eoni played an elegant but neurotic adoption counselor who sets the
plot in motion and causes general chaos. George Segal, who played Stiller's
adoptive father, called 胎eoni "the next Lucille Ball."
Woody Allen saw that performance and cast her as his ex-wife in last year's
"Hollywood Ending."
"Some actors can do a brilliant job of acting, but when you give them those
衍ittle one-liners to toss off the way Carole Lombard, Rosalind Russell or
Katharine Hepburn did, they can't," Allen told the Houston Chronicle. "But Tea
can."
In "People I Know," Leoni plays Jilli Hopper, a promiscuous, temperamental
Hollywood starlet who is sleeping with Cary Launer (Ryan O'Neal), a selfish
actor contemplating a Senate race. Launer is one of the few remaining clients
of Eli Wurman (Pacino), a flack whose idealism was fueled in the 1960s and who
became a celebrated mover and shaker in New York City, but is now something of
a has-been.
Eli, while organizing what he hopes will be a celebrity-studded benefit for a
group of Nigerians detained by New York's mayor, gets a call from Launer to
bail 胡illi out of jail. So begins a whirlwind night of 衍imos, drugs, opium
dens and (almost) sex, and ending in murder. Soul-searching, deals, deceit,
betrayal, political 苞orruption in high places follow.
Eli, says director Algrant, is based on Bobby Zarem, the PR legend who's worked
for a slew of celebrities, including Alan Alda, Sylvester Stallone, Dustin
Hoffman and Arnold Schwarzenegger; he also originated the "I Love New York"
campaign.
Leoni "was probably the first person 苔fter Al that I wanted to have in the
film," said Algrant. "She's a firecracker. She's smart, sassy, beautiful. The
whole film spins on Eli's encounter with Jilli Hopper. She's a poster child for
decadence, but you have to care about her. It's a high-wire act of being very
self-destructive, but also someone you can understand. She's desperate for
fame, but she's attracted to the simple life. Tea manages to deliver it all.
Now she's attached to being a mother, but she brought a certain understanding
to the character; she must have intuited something in Jilli."
Eli's job is to get Jilli on a 6 a.m. flight to L.A., and they go to her hotel
room to pack. On the set, a little improvising started.
"He says, 'Let's just take a nap,' and gets on the bed," recalled Algrant. "She
dumps a cigarette in her coffee and jumps on top of him. Then she says, 'I can
do romantic,' and starts to perform [a sex act] on him. Tea brought that to the
scene. While Jilli is terribly shrewd, she's also terribly naive."
Even though Leoni was Algrant's first choice, "she wasn't the obvious choice,"
he said. "She's a high-class girl. But that adds a layer to the role - you
understand why Jilli's dissatisfied with Launer, but then you wonder why she
can't leave him. Is it some father-figure thing?"
The shoot was "strenuous," for the low-budget film, said Algrant, and the
Pacino-Leoni scenes were done quickly. "She 訃eally went toe to toe with him,"
he added. "They were very fond of each other."
And apparently enjoyed the scene on the bed.
"I approached [Pacino] all sorts of ways - very physically one time, with
indifference another, then with passion," recalled Leoni. "It was a lot of fun
to play around like that and be supported. It's like playing tennis with
someone where you can fall into the net, you can hit the ball with your knee,
and the ball always comes back. It's fun - oh God, is it fun." Directors,
fellow actors, critics all sing her praises. So why isn't she Hollywood's
hottest female ticket?
"She has the looks, the ability, the brains," said Jeanine Basinger, who wrote
the book "A Woman's View: How Hollywood Spoke to Women, 1930-1960" and heads
Wesleyan University's film studies department. "She can do action heroes,
serious drama, comedy; she can do elegant, she can do tart.
"But she hasn't found that one role that allows her to create a persona, to
connect with the public and make them believe she is that person in some
fundamental way," Basinger continued. "Julia Roberts did it with 'Pretty
Woman.' Meg Ryan with 'When Harry Met Sally.' Stardom is an accident of fate in
many cases. The heavens have to conspire: You have to get the right role, be
noticed by the critics and discovered by audiences who then feel they own you.
It's a coming together of factors, and two out of three won't cut it."
Leoni acknowledged that her "career's been peppered with action and calm.
Anytime, as an actress, you have a baby, it's considered you've gone far, far
away, so 'comeback' is the term that's used. I was talking with my manager the
other day, negotiating for an upcoming film, and I said, 'Just give them a
quote [for her fee].' You know how it works, they come back with a quote and so
on. He said, 'But Tea, you don't have a quote.' It's like an expired credit
card. Good thing I found it humorous."
She said she is often handed a script in which there is the role of the "very
苔ttractive scientist" or "the attractive goofball, who's always clipping the
inside of doorjambs."
"'Strong' tends to be in there, too," she added. "Maybe it's my voice, maybe
it's my broad shoulders."
The actress excused herself for a 衫oment to say goodbye to Duchovny. "He's off
to box, my little pugilist husband," she said affectionately. He will 苓irect
her in her next part, in a movie he wrote, which will be filmed in New York
this summer "It's a sweet coming-of-age story, with Robin Williams," Leoni
said. "The star is a 13-year-old boy. I'll play the mother.
胖avid's not a yeller, so that will be really fun." She paused. "You know, I've
been sleeping with him long enough, it's only right that I got that part."
Tea Leoni is routinely compared with Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn and
Lucille Ball. Leoni's cool blond beauty, her comfort in her own skin, her wry
delivery and her ability to transcend class boundaries align her with Lombard
more than the haughty, androgynous Hepburn or the more working-class Ball,
whose greatest gift was for physical comedy. It is intriguing to imagine Leoni
at large in the screwball '30s, duking it out with such callow suitors as James
Stewart, Gary Cooper and Henry Fonda. There's little doubt who would have
triumphed in their verbal skirmishes and sexual badinage.
Back then, the marriage of beauty and offhand wit reached its apogee in
Lombard's great performances in "Twentieth Century" (1934), "Hands Across the
茅able" (1935), "My Man Godfrey" (1936), "Swing High, Swing Low" (1937),
"Nothing Sacred" (1937), "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" (1941) and "To Be or Not to Be"
(1942). At the age of 34, she widowed Clark Gable when she was killed in a
plane crash on a tour to sell war bonds. She has never been equaled - but Tea
Leoni comes close.
Star File: Tea Leoni
Born: Elizabeth Tea Pantaleoni on Feb. 25, 1966, in New York City.
Parents: Anthony, corporate lawyer (b. 1939); Emily, nutritionist (b. 1942).
Brother: Tom, antique-store owner (b. 1963).
Education: Putney School, Vermont; Brearley School, New York City; Sarah
Lawrence College, Bronxville, N.Y.
(psychology and anthropology major; dropped out).
Marriages: Neil Tardio Jr., commercial manager (1991-95); David Duchovny, actor
(married 1997).
Children: daughter Madelaine (b. 1999); son Kyd (b. 2002).
Key TV: "Santa Barbara" (1984), "Angels '88" (never aired), "Flying Blind"
(1992-93), "The Counterfeit Contessa" (1994), "The Naked Truth" (1995-98).
Key films: "Switch" (1991), "A League of Their Own" (1992), "Wyatt Earp"
(1994), "Bad Boys" (1995), "Flirting With Disaster" (1996), "Deep Impact"
(1998), "There's No Fish Food in Heaven" (1998, also executive producer), "The
Family Man" (2000), "Jurassic Park III" (2001), "Hollywood Ending" (2002),
"People I Know" (2003).
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Peter J.
>
>Tea Leoni is routinely compared with Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn and
>Lucille Ball.
By who? Tea Leoni?
VPaterno
>>Tea Leoni is routinely compared with Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn and
>>Lucille Ball.
>
>By who? Tea Leoni?
The Tea Leoni story that ran in the Daily News entertainment section today had
a small Lombard sidebar, as well as a pic of Carole. While Leoni is a fine
comedic actress, in terms of talent or sex appeal she's no Lombard (nothing to
be ashamed of, mind you). Neither is Tea's closest contemporary counterpart
among leggy funny blondes, Jenna Elfman.
V
"There is no such thing as accident. It is Fate--misnamed."
--title card, Erich Von Stroheim's "The Wedding March," 1928
Ambrose Meineke
"Peter J." <rhfan...@aol.comhatespam> wrote in message
news:20030420232510...@mb-m21.aol.com...
Something is weird. This kind of effusive praise began even before her
clumsy attempt at a sitcom came on the air. At the time the annoying Jenny
McCarthy's lame comedy show was on and it was actually funnier than Leoni's
show, but why the critics (rightfully) trashed McCarthy, they heaped praise
on Leoni like she was the new "Luci' or something. Something stinks. Maybe
she's like Bruce Willis or Jon Bon Jovi or the many others who have their
career because of help from the olive oil and concrete goombas.
Ambrose
Peter J.
>
>> >Tea Leoni is routinely compared with Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn
>and
>> >Lucille Ball.
>>
>> By who? Tea Leoni?
>
>Something is weird. This kind of effusive praise began even before her
>clumsy attempt at a sitcom came on the air. At the time the annoying Jenny
>McCarthy's lame comedy show was on and it was actually funnier than Leoni's
>show, but why the critics (rightfully) trashed McCarthy, they heaped praise
>on Leoni like she was the new "Luci' or something. Something stinks. Maybe
>she's like Bruce Willis or Jon Bon Jovi or the many others who have their
>career because of help from the olive oil and concrete goombas.
> Ambrose
I've never understood it either. The Naked Truth, to me at least, was never
that funny, and she was a big reason why. Her voice is grating and her
performances were out of sync with those around her. Yet the press said she was
the next Lucy.
Wasn't she sleeping with the creator/producer of that show? Was he married at
the time? And now she makes headlines because she's married to David. I think
it is a great insult to compare her to Carole/Katharine/Lucy because of a very
minor tv career consisting of 2 flop sitcoms and a minor film career where she
usually plays wives or girlfriends, with most of her characters sounding and
acting exactly the same. Carole worked her way up from slapstick silent films
to musicals to first-rate screwball comedy, and was beloved by most of the
industry. Katharine managed to get through acres of public and press scorn
during the 30's and endured for decades after. Lucy fought constantly in her
attempts at a film career, in her radio show, her tv show, Desilu, etc. These
women earned respect, they did not marry someone and suddenly get respect.
DustBunny
"Ambrose Meineke" <ambrose...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:va71s61...@corp.supernews.com...
It is weird -- Tea Leoni is ok, but she's not that much better than other
actresses. The critics periodically seem to go crazy over the same person --
before Tea Leoni is was what's-her-name -- the actress who played Bob
Newhart's daughter on his last tv show. I read at least 4-5 different
stories at the time about how she was the best thing since Lucille Ball.
Evelyn
Frederick
Willis and Jon Bon Jovi have Mafia ties? Who else?
Maybe Tea Leoni is being hyped because of her marriage to David
Duchovny. Wasn't she married or to a gf of someone in the industry
prior to Duchovny?
eezycheezey
I thought she had an affair with Chris Thomson, her producer on The
Naked Truth? And didn't he end up leaving his pregnant wife for her? I
also read she said she had 'no regrets' about the affair.
marlene steinberg
"Peter J." <rhfan...@aol.comhatespam> wrote in message
news:20030420232510...@mb-m21.aol.com...
No not by Tea Leoni. Some people have said that.
marlene steinberg
"Whatfor444" <whatf...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030420231550...@mb-m19.aol.com...
> x-no-archive: yes
>
>
> say has she had breast enhancement ...reason i ask is during her two
shlort
> lived comedy series her breasts didn't seem all that big but now...must be
the
> childbirth that did it huh....now what else has she done? and that voice
oh my
It could have been the kids. I know i went up two breast sizes after my
kids. Thank the lord my weight stayed the same:)
Marlene
marlene steinberg
"eezycheezey" <eezyc...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:38ed80e1.0304...@posting.google.com...
Why does the women always get the blame? It takes two to tango.
Marlene
CliffB
rhfan...@aol.comhatespam wrote on 4/21/03 7:43 AM:
In recent photos she's looking a little beyond prime. At least it can be
said she's better at comedy than her squinting, uni-expressioned hubby. Did
he go to the Renee Zellweger school of poop smelling?
marlene steinberg
"CliffB" <fl...@gosympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:BAC9B278.663D%fl...@gosympatico.ca...
For someone that is that bad at comedy he was able to win an American Comedy
Award. He was up against the likes of Mel Brooks and Jim Carey and some
other big names that i can't remember.
Marlene
CliffB
wrote on 4/21/03 5:48 PM:
yeah, compared to the comedically brilliant, lemon-puckered DD, Mel Brooks
and Jim Carey are just pikers ;-/
Ambrose Meineke
"Frederick" <ar_fre...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:38848402.0304...@posting.google.com...
> "Ambrose Meineke" <ambrose...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:<va71s61...@corp.supernews.com>...
> > "Peter J." <rhfan...@aol.comhatespam> wrote in message
> > news:20030420232510...@mb-m21.aol.com...
> > > >pusss...@aol.com (Billie ) wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > >Tea Leoni is routinely compared with Carole Lombard, Katharine
Hepburn
> > and
> > > >Lucille Ball.
> > >
> > > By who? Tea Leoni?
> >
> > Something is weird. This kind of effusive praise began even before her
> > clumsy attempt at a sitcom came on the air. At the time the annoying
Jenny
> > McCarthy's lame comedy show was on and it was actually funnier than
Leoni's
> > show, but why the critics (rightfully) trashed McCarthy, they heaped
praise
> > on Leoni like she was the new "Luci' or something. Something stinks.
Maybe
> > she's like Bruce Willis or Jon Bon Jovi or the many others who have
their
> > career because of help from the olive oil and concrete goombas.
> > Ambrose
>
Oh there are a lot I've heard rumors about, Danny Aiello, Willem Dafoe and
his friend Peter Weir. Singer Eric Carmen. Marilyn Manson, who always
includes drug freindly references once had a Cleveland based manager with
mob connections. Mob types own or control a number of popular Goth acts. On
the flip side, Kid Rock supposedly had Detroit organization management help.
Ambrose
marlene steinberg
Well obviously you don't care for Duchovny so i'll stop right now:p
Marlene
>
Kristi Coulter
wrote:
>>"Ambrose Meineke" ambrose...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>
>
>>
>>> >Tea Leoni is routinely compared with Carole Lombard, Katharine Hepburn
>>and
>>> >Lucille Ball.
>>>
>>> By who? Tea Leoni?
>>
>>Something is weird. This kind of effusive praise began even before her
>>clumsy attempt at a sitcom came on the air. At the time the annoying Jenny
>>McCarthy's lame comedy show was on and it was actually funnier than Leoni's
>>show, but why the critics (rightfully) trashed McCarthy, they heaped praise
>>on Leoni like she was the new "Luci' or something. Something stinks. Maybe
>>she's like Bruce Willis or Jon Bon Jovi or the many others who have their
>>career because of help from the olive oil and concrete goombas.
>> Ambrose
>
>I've never understood it either. The Naked Truth, to me at least, was never
>that funny, and she was a big reason why. Her voice is grating and her
>performances were out of sync with those around her. Yet the press said she was
>the next Lucy.
>
I agree about The Naked Truth, but she *was* really funny in her
first, even shorter-lived sitcom, Flying Blind. The show was no great
shakes, but she definitely had something. And IMHO she's wonderful in
Flirting with Disaster--great screwball-comedy instincts. I just think
she's a square peg in most studio films.
explorer
Tea Leoni isn't a big secret. We all know about her. We just don't care.
Jess
Is that the royal we?
Jess
> This is ridiculous PR. If anyone could lay claim to being the Carole
> Lombard of this generation it would have to be Meg Ryan. As annoying
> as she is now, she was wonderful in Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in
> Seattle. She has had a CAREER.
>
>
> Tea Leoni? what has she ever done?
Meg Ryan is the same in every film she's ever done.
I don't know about Tea Leoni being the next
whoever-people-are-whining-about, but I've seen most of her films and
she's a very good actress.
Kenji
Leoni's had breast implants.