The Hollywood Exclusive

 

'Walk the Line' unlikely to change minds with DVD additions

BY MARILYN BECK and STACY JENEL SMITH

Back when the Joaquin Phoenix-Reese Witherspoon “Walk the Line” was released, Kathy Cash, one of the late Johnny Cash’s daughters by first wife Vivian, stormed out of a screening of the film over its depiction of her mother as, she said, “a mad little psycho who hated his career.” The extended edition of the critically-hailed film is now being released – and it includes more depiction of Cash’s happier times with Vivian, who died in 2005, and their four children.

Director James Mangold is, however, realistic about the chances for those enhancements to change anyone’s feelings. “She would never be happy with a film that’s structured around celebrating the love story of John and June,” he believes, referring to Cash’s second wife, June Carter Cash – the role that won Reese her Oscar. And, he notes, “It’s really hard when people see their lives put on screen.

Everyone has their own view. In a way, I was focused on making John and June happy. I knew John wanted the film made as close to the truth as possible.” Mangold became close to Cash, frequently chatting with the music icon, and even being there with him through June’s funeral, while writing the feature. “Then, too, people don’t watch movies to see positive scenes, they watch to see conflict. If you put in five minutes of scenes of happy times, you’d lose them,” Mangold adds. “They’d be out buying popcorn.” Still, in the new release, “There are some scenes that are snapshots of their family life before he went on the road and the marriage went south.” There’s also more music, other additional footage, and a slew of bonus features including a Johnny Cash jukebox and featurettes about his life and love.



VOCALIZING: Tom Kenny, who lends his highly elastic voice to everyone’s favorite yellow poriferan, Spongebob Squarepants, is getting ready for this Saturday’s (3/29) “Kids Choice Awards” with a mix of excitement and fear. “I liken it to sky diving where it’s kind of this scary adrenalin rush and then when it’s over and you’re still alive, it’s cause for celebration!” he explains.

Kenny announces the live show. “Most people probably wouldn’t figure out it’s me. I’m using my bombastic WWR voice.” He demonstrates: “‘Jack BLACK and Jessica ALBA when the KIDS CHOICE AWARDS RETURNS!’” “It’s fun to be there during the rehearsals and watch it come together – the insanity with trapezes and slime drops and confetti cannons.

Very few voice over guys get to participate in the live broadcast. It’s kind of a cool return to the golden age of television – very stressful, very loud, very intense with music and screaming. I’m off to the side, flipping through a giant binder of a script, and the director is going, ‘Cue announce…Announce! Announce!’” Kenny says he brings his little boy to the awards, but his daughter’s a bit too young yet for the excitement. And he’d like to bring his wife, actress Jill Talley “to the rehearsals. I think she’d be reassured by how these Hollywood hotties look in the morning when they come in. It would be great for her self-esteem. You find yourself saying, ‘Hey, she looks sort of like…Oh. It is her.””



DEPARTURE TIME: Amy Davidson is hoping her intense role as a runaway teen prostitute in “The Capture of the Green River Killer” will show the industry “I’m not just a sitcom actress. People will be able to see me in a different light.” Indeed. The former “8 Simple Rules” regular’s character ends up in the grips of Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer. “My character gets molested and just the thought of it was so disturbing because you have to put yourself in that place. I wouldn’t want any child to go through that. Walking away from that wasn’t easy.” She says after her most intense scene with Ridgeway (played by the mini’s screenwriter John Pielmeier), “I got home that night and I was trying to take the red makeup off under my eyes and it wasn’t coming off. I realized I had broken blood vessels under my eyes and behind my ears from that scene. My boyfriend goes ‘Awesome. Battle wounds!’” She adds the miniseries “is really, really good and very chilling. And it looks like a really expensive well-done piece of art.”

THE BIG SCREEN SCENE: Malcolm McDowell tells us he’s hoping “to be able to do the most extraordinary script I’ve seen in years, ‘Every Time We Say Goodbye,’ by Bo Goldman. Bo is going to direct it, his first time ever that he’s going to direct,” he says of the Oscar-winning screenwriter whose credits range from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” to “Meet Joe Black.” McDowell would play “a rare – very rare – commodity these days, an American gentleman…an American gentleman with Alzheimer’s who has two beautiful divorced daughters who live in the main house in a beautiful estate in the Adirondacks, while he’s in the boat house. It’s very beautiful. It reminds me of a Chekhov short story. I called Bo and said, ‘I want to do it. I’ve GOT to do it.’ We’ve been looking for the money ever since, and I think we’ve got it.”
With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster.