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Some naysayers wonder if winning an Academy Award really has that much impact in terms of box office, prestige or even being remembered a few months later, but no one at the studios seems to be listening, since the battle for Oscar gold continues to be a frenzied, all-consuming process, littering multiplex battlefields with also-rans and subjecting audiences to a year’s worth of “prestige” movies in a six-week period.

Yes, after months of mediocre and uninteresting Hollywood product, here comes the tidal wave of Oscar bait some of it will be mediocre and not worth the trouble, yes, but many of these titles will wind up being the most ambitious and challenging non-indie American movies of the year.

Tags: academy award, audiences, battlefields, best picture, box office, contenders, hollywood, hollywood product, naysayers, oscar bait, oscar gold, prestige, tidal wave, worth the trouble

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LAST WEEK, a TV show redefined what we mean by the Glamorous Grandmother. Where once she wore a starchy satin gown, a string of pearls and a bouffant hairdo much like Yootha Joyce’s magnificent coppery fright-wig in George And Mildred in the 1970s, the new generation, shown through Britain’s Youngest Grannies, wore skinny jeans, crop tops and multi-streaked highlights like Everyone Off The Telly because they were approximately 36 years old, the result of two generations of teenage pregnancy.

A speedy one week later and the Glamorous Grandmother is being redefined once again, a grandma who might be the traditional grandma’s age - over 60 - but who is doing everything in her considerable economic power to look like someone’s 36-year-old daughter. Or even 16-year-old granddaughter. We’ve entered, say cosmetic surgery giants Transform, the era of the Botox Granny, where 20% of Botox clients are now over 60, while breast implants for the same age range are up, as it were, by 31%, with full face-lifts also stretching upwards by 35%.

Their inspirational role models, say the clinic, are the ever-twinkling Dame Helen Mirren (63) and the ever-fabulous Joan Collins (75), right, a staggering irony considering both these women are ever-dwindling voices in the anti-surgery fightback. Dame Helen, famously, turned down an offer of free Botox for the 2007 Oscars where she won her gong for The Queen. “I’m very vain,” she twinkled beforehand, “but I’m not fond of all those needles and scalpels. I’ll try to get away with make-up, jewellery and a nice frock.” She was, of course, the globally swooned-over belle of that year’s ball.
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Joan Collins, meanwhile, ascribes her ever-glowing cartoon glamour to “proper food“, “activity” and “a happy gene” (plus world-class wig), as someone who tried Botox in its infancy, 10 years ago, and hated it. “It was unbelievably painful and it didn’t do anything,” she balked in 2006 before lamenting the now everyday Hollywood procedure. “They stick 300 shots of poison into your face,” she scoffed. “It’s hideous and makes you look like a chipmunk. The plastic surgeons want to make you look young but I don’t want to look young, I just want to look good.”

A doctor over in America, meanwhile, has now decided the ageing process is something we can literally halt with no needles and scalpels involved. “I truly believe ageing is a progressive inflammatory disease that occurs at a cellular level,” averred holistic dermatologist Dr Nicholas Perricone this week, skincare evangelist to the likes of Cate Blanchett, Uma Thurman and Julia Roberts. “And as such,” he added, “you can fight it.”

“If you look at Angelina Jolie,” he marvels, “she has these beautiful apples in her cheeks they’re the result of the muscles in the face. Using electro-stimulation I can give anyone this sort of a look.” And that would appear to be that. Follow this advice and 12 weeks later we all wake up and bear an uncanny resemblance to Angelina Jolie.

Those of us with a bloke lying next to us, meanwhile, will find chances are he still bears no resemblance whatsoever to Brad Pitt, as nowhere in any of this week’s anti-ageing pronouncements did anything apply to that curiously unconcerned section of the ageing population known as men.

“Women over 50 already form one of the largest groups in the population structure of the Western world,” Germaine Greer reminded us the other year. “As long as they like themselves, they will not be an oppressed minority. A grown woman should not have to masquerade as a girl in order to remain in the land of the living.”

Tags: angelina jolie, cars, cate, cate blanchett, Food, hollywood, spira, ups

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When I first saw Henry Jaglom’s latest film “Hollywood Dreams,” I was left laughing and crying. It’s a film that focuses on the craziness of Hollywood and after watching the film, I am reminded of the phrase “Hollyweird” being used when describing our industry. I love all of Henry Jaglom’s work; the famed director has produced some of the most thought-provoking films on the silver screen. What makes his work stand out is that Jaglom focuses on the characters he’s building a story around, and not on special effects. Special effects dominate storytelling today in Hollywood, which is why movies are so boring today. All movies except Jaglom’s. His are crafted with a brilliant technique only designed and built by movie making geniuses.

Tanna Frederick is a name that many across America don’t recognize, but I promise you, it’s a name you will become acquainted with. Get your autographs from the actress right now, before they become priceless. Almost like a lightning bolt, I was stunned to see the best actress in my lifetime come flying off the screen and into my heart. Not since Bette Davis or Barbara Stanwyck has any actress dominated a film that was an ensemble piece. Everyone knows I’m a very tough critic when it comes to actors today. Many care more about what they look like on the screen than what they convey to the audience. Most characters in movies are so one dimensional that you know how the movie’s going to end.

She is absolutely incredible to look at. The red haired ravenous beauty makes every man pay attention when she’s on screen. But women will love her too. That’s a knack you simply don’t see in Hollywood today. You can’t seem to find an actress who can transcend the sexes. She transcends the sexes, generations and is the must-get for any movie studio looking to revive women’s pictures. Jaglom, like George Cukor, has an edge with actresses that many directors don’t have today. He’s actually good with everyone. So is Frederick.

That is the way Frederick was in this film. I have rarely told people that when they see a movie, they will be absolutely shocked by the ending. Jaglom is a master of mystery and intrigue and wow, it’s the moment well worth waiting for. The only problem at the end of the film was that I immediately wanted another scene. I felt like I wanted to find out what happens to her next. I know what happens with Frederick. She gave me the news that a sequel to this film is in the works. I have one dream before I die: to work with Frederick in a scene and to be directed by the greatest movie maker since Cecile B. DeMille, Henry Jaglom. I’ll have to settle for seeing the sequel to “Hollywood Dreams” I suppose. I’ll do so with excitement and anticipation.

Being able to see Tanna Frederick act is like baking a cake. Just when it’s about to come out of the oven, you want to wait and make sure it’s the right time. The anticipation is just palpable. When interviewing Frederick, you realize the Iowa born native has a lot of life experience and dreams. But she manages to perform on screen as if she were born in the role she portrays.

The game of Hollywood is hers to play. Ms. Frederick will become one of the biggest icons on the silver screen, much like her legend and heroine Bette Davis. I never thought I’d live to say, Bette has been cloned. So The Times can say she’s Bette on crack. I will say she’s Bette incarnate.

Tags: actress, hero, hollywood, special effects

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Though the star-struck citizens of Toronto didn’t mind, there was heard a lot of grumbling last week at the Toronto Film Festival about how this venerable showcase for world cinema has been turned into a mere stepping stone for the Hollywood studios’ Oscar campaigns. With the likes of Jodie Foster, Brad Pitt, Keira Knightley, George Clooney and Tommy Lee Jones parading down Bloor Street, one could be forgiven for mistaking North America’s most influential film festival for an out-of-town Hollywood press junket.

It’s true that for a member of the press it was harder than ever to pursue hidden foreign gems such as the charming Israeli comedy “The Band’s Visit” or Mexican visionary Carlos Reygadas’s mesmerizing, demanding “Silent Light,” about adultery and transcendence in a Mennonite community. The pressure was to keep up with the fall’s major prestige items, such as “Atonement” or Ang Lee’s Chinese-language potboiler “Lust, Caution” or the Coen brothers‘ riveting film noir “No Country for Old Men,” their best film in ages.  

The spirit of Terry Malick (”Badlands,” “Days of Heaven”) hovers over “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” a poetic, melancholy, leisurely reverie on the last years of the legendary outlaw’s life. Brad Pitt is terrific as the manic Jesse, alternately charming and paranoid, and Casey Affleck superbly creepy as the callow Judas who grabs fame with a bullet. New Zealand-born writer-director Andrew Dominik’s uncompromising, ’70s-style Western, like Penn’s sprawling odyssey, turns its back on the fast-cutting, action-dominated style in current fashion.

Though it courts tedium at times, it’s clearly the work of an immensely talented filmmaker. Much more audience-friendly but equally indebted to the ’70s (think of such paranoid thrillers as “The Parallax View”) is Tony Gilroy’s dense, gripping anticorporate thriller “Michael Clayton,” with George Clooney as a law firm “fixer” attempting to staunch a corporate scandal, and risking his life in the process. Coproducer Clooney, who has often proclaimed his love for ’70s American films, seems determined to revive the socially conscious genre movies of that era.

Tags: brad pitt, brother, ford, hollywood, zeal

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When ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ opens the year is 1957 and we find our hero has been taken prisoner by a group of Soviets who have infiltrated the US Army’s notorious ‘Area 51′ looking for something the army has secretly stored there.

After Indy helps them locate what they’re looking for he expedites a ‘high speed’ escape before falling into the clutches of the US Army, after almost getting caught in the middle of a major nuclear weapons test.

After all this excitement Indiana returns to teaching only to be told, by his college principal, that because of the FBI’s ‘interest’ in him he is going to be suspended.

As Indy is about to head off on a trip to England he meets a young man  who asks for his help to find his mother, and his old professor, who have gone missing in South America.

Before the professor went missing he was searching for the mythical Crystal Skull of Akatar and this, along with the arrival of a number of KGB agents, prompts Indy to agree to help young Mutt and the pair head off in search of this elusive archaeological treasure.

Shortly after arriving in Peru Indy picks up the trail left by his old friend and he soon finds himself in an old graveyard where he discovered a hidden chamber where he locates the Crystal Skull.

However, the pair have been followed and, once again, Indy finds himself captured by the Russians, led by Cate Blanchett.

Aside from a few more wrinkles, and a tendency to wear his khakis a bit high at the waist, Harrison Ford rolls back the years to reprise one of the roles which made him a Hollywood megastar.

The film is directed by Steven Spielberg and rolls along at a pretty hectic pace. The opening half hour is non-stop and highly watchable although I felt a chase sequence through the jungle looked like it was all done in front of a blue screen, or on a computer.

If ‘Crystal Skull’ has an Achilles heel and it does it’s the story. The plot starts off fairly interesting but turns into complete hokum as it develops, and would be more at home in an episode of ‘X-Files’ than in a Indiana Jones movie.

What you do get with ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ is some excellent chase sequences, lots of high speed action, some exotic locations and the re-introduction of one of the big screen’s favourite characters to the movie going public.

And while the movie is very enjoyable, and well put together, the plot is very weak and unfortunately lets down what is otherwise a very enjoyable adventure romp.

Tags: achilles heel, archaeological treasure, area 51, cate, cate blanchett, chase sequences, clutches, college principal, crystal skull, ford, harrison ford, hectic pace, hero, hokum, hollywood, indiana jones, indy, kgb agents, khakis, megastar, mutt, nuclear weapons test, old graveyard, pace, romp, soviets, spielberg, steven spielberg, us army

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Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, has signed a deal with radio’s Nova Network to dish the dirt on the celebrity world every morning on stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

In his first Australian media partnership, Hollywood’s most feared blogger who isn’t afraid to let loose on Nicole Kidman and Cate Blanchett, but can’t say a bad word about Kylie Minogue, will join Nova stations from Monday broadcasting from his Los Angeles bunker.

Hilton launched his hugely popular gossip site four years ago, and has since expanded his media reach through his reality television show, What Perez Sez, and syndicated radio shows in the US and Canada.

Tags: adelaide, bad word, blogger, brisbane, canada perez, cate, cate blanchett, celebrity world, dirt, gossip, hollywood, kylie minogue, mario lavandeira, media partnership, nicole kidman, perez hilton, perth, reality television, signs, sydney melbourne, syndicated radio

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Indiana Jones survived his first perilous outing in the Kingdom of Critical Knives on Sunday, winning a friendly round of applause at a press preview at Cannes and respectable reviews.

The world premiere of the fourth and latest installment in the adventure series, and the first in 19 years “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is the hottest ticket at this year’s Cannes film festival.

A packed crowd of hundreds, many wearing Indiana Jones hats, waved and cheered as Harrison Ford, 65, and co-star Cate Blanchett, who plays the villain, walked Cannes’ famed red carpet for the official world premiere.

Set in the late 1950s of the Cold War era, the two-hour movie sees its swashbuckling archeologist hero racing against Soviet agents to recover a mysterious pre-Colombian skull in the wilds of Peru.

The plot had been kept strictly under wraps and promotional stunts kept to a minimum as Hollywood heavy-hitters Steven Spielberg and George Lucas awaited the response to what is arguably this year’s most-anticipated movie.

“Smart, Sleek, Familiar,” ran the headline of an early review in Time magazine’s online edition, which offered an approving appraisal of the film’s veteran lead.

“Ford looks just fine, his chest skin tanned to a rich Corinthian leather; he’s still lithe on his feet, and can deliver a wisecrack as sharp as a whipcrack,” it said.

The Los Angeles Times said fears that the latest outing would prove an embarrassingly geriatric addition to the Indiana Jones franchise had proved unfounded.

“It turns out it’s one of the good ones, and everyone involved can breathe a sigh of relief,” the Times said, while People magazine concluded: “The magic is still there”.

London’s Telegraph critic David Gritten was less enthusiastic, however.

“It’s not that (it) is bad, exactly. But it’s undeniably creaky,” he said.

“He doesn’t wear the fedora with quite the same jaunty angle, his bullwhip doesn’t crack as smartly — and Harrison Ford looks all of his 65 years.”

Ford insisted on doing his own stunts, saying audiences could tell the difference between an actor and a stunt double.

“It needs to be an emotional event, like every moment on screen needs to be invested with real emotion, or pretend emotion,” he told reporters.

“That’s why it’s so gratifying that we were all happy to do the stunt sequences or the action sequences old-school. Human scale.”

Spielberg credited Ford with reviving the Indiana Jones juggernaut when the actor told him in 1994, after he presented the director with an Oscar for “Schindler’s List”, that he would be willing “to put the fedora back on”.

The director called Ford his “secret weapon” in making the movies.

“He’s concerned about the whole, he’s concerned about the story and other characters and he is a collaborator in the entire process of telling the story,” Spielberg, 61, said.

“That takes a lot of pressure and weight off my back to have this kind of a partner in the trenches every single day shooting the picture.”

Ford said he was less concerned with what the critics said than with the opinions of movie-goers round the world.

“This kind of film, it is such a celebration of the movies,” he said.

“I know that we made this movie to reacquaint people with the pure joy that can happen in a dark room with a bunch of other people seeing something that they haven’t seen before that will just kick your butt.”

This fourth adventure begins in 1957 as professor Jones returns to his US college to find he is under suspicion from the anti-Communist administration and is about to be fired.

On his way out of town he meets young Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), a bike-riding knife-flicking James Dean lookalike, who takes him off on a mission to find the Crystal Skull of Akator and to rescue his mother.

Hot on their heels is icy-cold but devastatingly beautiful Soviet agent Blanchett, who is also after the eerie skull which she says Stalin always dreamt of finding to wage “psychic warfare”.

Action-packed with car-chases, waterfall rides, man-eating ants and the usual secret underground temples, the film is chock-a-block with throw-away lines and droll quips.

Its “third dimension” style finale features a Spielberg-fathered ET character surfacing in a Mayan temple — an ending some critics said tested the audiences’ patience.

Tags: 1950s, action sequences, adventure series, applause, bullwhip, cannes, cannes film festival, cate, cate blanchett, crystal skull, david gritten, ford, franchise, george lucas, harrison ford, hats, heavy hitters, hero, hollywood, indiana jones, indiana jones hats, jaunty angle, liar, los angeles times, mutt, people magazine, red carpet, rich corinthian leather, secret weapon, shia labeouf, soviet agents, spielberg, steven spielberg, time magazine, whip, wilds, world premiere

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Indiana Jones received louder applause going in than he did coming out.

His latest adventure, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” earned a respectful though far from glowing — reception Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival, avoiding the sort of thrashing the event’s harsh critics gave to “The Da Vinci Code” two years ago.

Yet Indy’s fourth big-screen romp is not likely to go down as one of the most memorable. Some viewers at its first press screening loved it, some called it slick and enjoyable though formulaic, some said it was not worth the 19-year wait since Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Harrison Ford made the last film.

“They should have left well enough alone,” said J. Sperling Reich, who writes for FilmStew.com. “It really looked like they were going through the motions. It really looked like no one had their heart in it.”

Alain Spira of French magazine Paris Match found “Crystal Skull” a perfectly acceptable “Indiana Jones” tale, a sentiment echoed by the solid applause the movie received as the final credits rolled.

“It’s good. It’s a product that is polished, industrial, we’re not getting ripped off in terms of quality,” Spira said. “You know what you’re going to see, you see what you get, and when you leave you’re happy.”

The applause was louder at the outset, though. Fans at the early afternoon showing, which preceded the film’s glitzy formal premiere with cast and crew Sunday night, cheered and clapped wildly at an announcement that the screening was about to start. Some even hummed the Indiana Jones fanfare as the lights went down.

The applause at the end was more subdued.

Cast and crew were unconcerned about how critics might dissect the film.

“I’m not afraid at all. I expect to have the whip turned on me,” Ford told reporters after the screening. “It’s not unusual for something that is popular to be disdained by some people, and I fully expect it.

But, he said: “I work for the people who pay to get in. They are my customers, and my focus is on providing the best experience I can for those people.”

The filmmakers kept the movie shrouded in secrecy, skipping the rounds of press screenings often held for big studio movies and going for a big blowout at Cannes.

Spielberg said he and his collaborators decided “that the fair thing to do and the fun thing to do would be to view it where the entire world is come together every year at this wonderful festival, and we thought that was the best place to introduce Indiana Jones to you again after 19 years.”

The film received none of the derisive laughter or catcalls that mounted near the end of the first press screening for “Da Vinci Code.”

There were a few titters from the “Crystal Skull” crowd early on over co-star Cate Blanchett’s thick, Boris-and-Natasha accent as a Soviet operative racing against Indy to find an artifact of immeasurable power. The rather corny romantic ending also drew a chuckle or two.

In between, the film packed a fair amount of action, though some viewers found the middle portion dull. Conchita Casanovas, of Spain’s RNE radio, said she was “bored to death.”

The new movie hurls archaeologist Jones into the Cold War in 1957. He survives a nuclear blast in the desert in typically creative fashion and is reunited with “Raiders” flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).

As speculated, the film has an alien connection, though far more subdued than the “Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men From Mars” story Lucas once envisioned.

There are melancholy nods to Sean Connery, who played Indy’s dad in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” but declined to return for the new movie, and the late Denholm Elliott, Indy’s college dean in two of the previous movies.

And the film reveals the relationship between Indy and his new sidekick, an angry young motorcycle rebel played by Shia LaBeouf.

As with “Da Vinci Code,” which went on to gross $758 million worldwide, “Crystal Skull” is so hotly anticipated that it will be virtually immune from critics’ opinions. The film is expected to put up blockbuster box-office numbers when it opens globally Thursday.

“The movie was absolutely effective enough to score with audiences everywhere,” said Anne Thompson, deputy editor of Hollywood trade paper Variety. “This played way better than ‘Da Vinci Code.’ No one was gunning for it. They were excited going in, hooting for it in a positive way.”

Dozens of fans prowled outside the Palais, the Cannes headquarters, holding signs saying they needed tickets for “Crystal Skull.”

Amelia Sims, a 19-year-old University of Georgia student studying abroad, held a sign reading “I (heart) Indy.” She managed to get a pass to the press screening and loved the movie.

“I guess I’ve been waiting 19 years for this,” Sims said. “You could say I’ve been waiting my whole life.”

But Christian Monggaard, who is reviewing “Crystal Skull” for Danish newspaper Information, said he grew up with the “Indiana Jones” films and came away from this one disappointed, finding the climax an “overblown special-effects extravaganza.”

Tags: applause, archaeologist, cannes, cannes film festival, cast and crew, cate, cate blanchett, crystal skull, da vinci code, early afternoon, fanfare, filmmakers, ford, french magazine, george lucas, going through the motions, harrison ford, harsh critics, hollywood, indiana jones, indiana jones and the last crusade, indy, karen allen, last crusade, last film, marion ravenwood, outset, romp, sean connery, shia labeouf, signs, sperling, spielberg, spira, steven spielberg, whip

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No, this buzz is all about hot new Hollywood in the shape of a 21-year-old actor whose name confuses the most intelligent reader, Shia LaBeouf.

So when he eventually bounds into the hotel where we’ve arranged to meet, it’s something of an anticlimax to find that he’s, well, just a 21-year-old guy, who’s desperate for a smoke. He immediately asks that we move all conversation to the patio, so he can puff.

“Yes, I smoke,” he admits shamefacedly. “It’s probably the worst thing I do. I leave wet towels on the floor, too. I don’t think I’m the Find Cate Mandigo quintessential guy to look up to right now because I’m still building myself.”

He shouldn’t be too concerned, though. Films such as I, Robot, Disturbia and last year’s smash-hit, Transformers, have already built the foundation for what looks to be a career in a million. His role in Crystal Skull could catapult him into rarefied Brad Pitt or Will Smith territory, although, right now, he’s intriguingly not at liberty to say exactly what that role is.

Rumour has it he plays Indiana Jones’ son (albeit under the name Mutt Williams), but he simply takes another puff and says, “I can’t confirm or deny that.” What he can confirm – most vocally – is that working with Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and Cate Blanchett has been the most incredible ride.

His bond with Harrison is particularly interesting, with LaBeouf talking fondly and Find Cate Mandigo reverently of him as a father figure.

The actor’s own French-Cajun father, Jeffrey, was a clown from San Francisco who was also a heroin addict.

Their relationship was non-existent until LaBeouf landed a role on US TV series Even Stevens when he was 13 and needed a legal guardian onset. He says wistfully, “I had to rent my father back.”

Bad though it sounds, drug-free father and son now share a deep bond, formed over the nine years LaBeouf has spent playing the role of family breadwinner.

“He’s not necessarily the father I wanted, but I wouldn’t want anybody else,” he reveals. “He’s my best friend – as is my mother – they’re both wise people. But pain is the foundation of my father’s growth and I draw from him every time I do what I do.”

Cigarette smoked, LaBeouf asks to move inside. Looking all-American in his navy-blue, long-sleeve T-shirt and low-slung jeans, he takes a long gulp of vitamin water from the bottle he’s been carrying.

“Finance is a big reason that my family split up and that’s not a worry any more, but Dad was gone for a long time. I was five when my parents separated. I hated him for a long time, but from 13 years old to this point – it’s now a love affair. I’m lucky, because supporting my family has been a blessing.”

The Los Angeles native comes from a long line of artists and performers. As well as a clown for a dad, his mum, Shayna, was a dancer who studied ballet with the famous Martha Graham.

LaBeouf’s dad used to dress up the family as clowns and the three of them would perform and sell hot dogs in LA’s Echo Park.

However, nobody called LaBeouf found any real success until Shia took up acting. He made the decision, aged 10, after talking to a boy in Malibu, who was wearing all the latest designer gear, thanks to a role on Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman. LaBeouf’s schoolboy yearning for brand-name clothing paid off.

“My lineage is constant artwork never seen by the public, or just fluttered out,” he explains.

“My great-grandmother was a piano player on Lucky Luciano’s gambling boat; my grandmother was a lesbian beatnik poet who used to run with Allen Ginsberg – her poetry was never discovered. My father is this amazing pantomime clown, but nobody has heard of him and my mother is this amazing visual artist who danced and nobody has heard of her. My career is a culmination of a lot of prayers and a lot of work.”

That said, he admits that he looks towards others to fill the more Find Cate Mandigo traditional roles in his life. Harrison Ford is the latest addition to LaBeouf’s role models, alongside past co-stars, John Voight and John Hurt.

“Harrison and I became close on set, but he’s the kind of guy where you have to earn the hug,” he smiles.

“The day I got my first hug from Harrison was a big day. The hug came about through work and results. It’s not easy making these kinds of action movies – they’re very physical and emotional.

“Finding the right tone is the hardest part and once you find it, Harrison’s all over you.”

An important lesson LaBeouf has learnt from Ford is to not give away too much. The original Indy is notoriously private where LaBeouf, until now, has been happy to spill his guts.

“I have to stop that,” he says, looking at the tape recorder. “When I was younger, I was happy to tell people stuff because I was anxious to please. Now I realise that my favourite actors don’t give much away; they maintain a level of mystery and I think I have to work on that.”

He has spoken many times about his past relationship with China Brezner, the daughter of The Greatest Game Ever Played producer, Larry Brezner, whom he met while shooting the movie in 2004. His first real love, they were together until early last year.

“I was very open about my relationship with China. I’m sure that’s hurt her so I’m going to stop talking about it. Sure I have time for girls, but nothing is very serious right now. There’s no specifics.”

Would he say he’s a romantic kind of guy? “Oh yeah, I get into poetry and songwriting,” he laughs.

“I’ve flown across the country with flowers to hand-deliver, and I’ve made trails out of rose petals and put on the Jodeci music. I’ve also been known to put on some Meatloaf, which is so cheesy. I won’t say if it worked or not, but it was very funny!”

Being the next big thing probably makes it easier to get the girls, but it comes at a price. (Although, when I mention his ‘next big thing’ status, LaBeouf is quick to point out “some days I’m the next big thing, some days I’m the next worst thing”.)

His brushes with the law are well-documented. He was arrested in 2005 after ramming a neighbour’s car and threatening him with a knife; the second was last November, for trespassing in a pharmacy in Chicago. No charges were pressed for either incident.

He simply says, “I’m at ease at this point. I’ve had my moments and I guess the biggest lesson I’ve learnt with the press is to never say never.”

He makes eye contact and says, “I’ve had a couple of run-ins, but I can definitely say that I don’t want that kind of life. I surround myself with good people, but I’m 21 and I make mistakes. I’m learning to cope. I didn’t get into this business to be Captain America.”

So does he take downtime? “Why would I?” he counters. “I enjoy every moment and the bad things come up when you’re not working. The negative aspects of this industry happen in the off-time.”

But surely there has to be some time when he’s not onset? “I’ve spent more time at home recently because the last two movies I shot have been made in LA so, yes, I’ve had some time at home. I hang out with my dog, read and I’m into my sports. I have about five close friends and we sit and Find Cate Mandigo talk a lot.”

He shifts in his seat, before revealing that a lot of his old friends have fallen by the wayside. “You see, the people I’ve known for a long time, their mindset changed and they stopped being friends with me and started being friends with what I do.”

He pauses to contemplate the situation. “That’s been the hardest decision, losing friends and getting rid of the people who are bad eggs. But that’s what happens with transition. I could never have foreseen what was going to happen. Fame is a drug, it’s addictive. But this isn’t who I am, it’s what I do. You have to maintain separation or you lose your mind.”

Taking all that into consideration, is he prepared for what will surely be global Indiana Jones-mania?

“I don’t imagine things will change too much,” he says modestly. “I have a lot of people around me who keep me centred because I get haywire, too – but I’m pretty calm right now.” He laughs remembering how amazing it was to find himself on the set of such a hotly anticipated movie.

“Every day was like, ‘Omigod, I’m on the set of Indiana Jones!’ That feeling of excitement never went away, it just became something I would channel into the work. Steven (Spielberg) was amazing. He gives you a lot of room and trusts you to do exactly what he hired you for. There were never any bumps.”

Indeed, Spielberg, who suggested LaBeouf for the lead role in Michael Bay’s Transformers, returns the compliment, stating, “His talent has impressed not only his audiences, but the directors, producers and fellow actors who have worked with him.”

However, he remains tight-lipped on whether or not LaBeouf will continue to run with the Indy torch, saying simply, “We’ll see. He still has multiple Transformers films to do.”

The actor proved his commitment to Spielberg and the Indiana Jones franchise by going on a strict diet and fitness regimen, but his heart went out to co-star Cate Blanchett, who was pregnant while filming her very physical villain scenes.

“She’s kind, but the minute ‘action’ is called, she’s not Cate any more. She’s mean. She was pregnant and doing these crazy swordfights, but she held her own for hours. Honestly, she’s a bad ass.”

At 21, he has an old head on his shoulders. “I hope this year holds more of the same, and I hope that I have a lot more smiles and Find Cate Mandigo laughs. If it continues as it is now, I think I’m going to really enjoy my year.”

Tags: brad pitt, cate, cate blanchett, crystal skull, father and son, Find Cate, Find Cate Mandigo, ford, franchise, harrison ford, hero, hollywood, indiana jones, indy, mutt, rbi, shia labeouf, smile, spielberg, steven spielberg

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Paramount, the studio behind Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated epic, has not officially confirmed the news.While Cannes has long demonstrated an interest in commercial cinema alongside its rich appreciation of arthouse fare, the festival has only recently begun to exploit its potential as a platform for major Hollywood releases. The Da Vinci Code, Ocean’s Thirteen, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Dreamgirls have all benefited in recent years.Harrison Ford’s return to the fedora and whip, which he first picked up in Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, sees the story updated to the 1950s with the intrepid archaeologist taking on Soviet agents led by Cate Blanchett in a race for a priceless artefact.A Croisette premiere would also mean a trip to the Cote d’Azur for executive producer George Lucas and cast members Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent and Karen Allen, who reprises her role as Indy’s love interest Marion Ravenwood.Other high-profile films expected to be ready in time for Cannes are the big-screen version of Sex and the City with Sarah Jessica Parker and Steven Soderbergh’s two Che Guevara films, The Argentine and Guerrilla, starring Benicio del Toro as the South American revolutionary.

Tags: 1950s, archaeologist, cannes, cate, cate blanchett, da vinci code, ford, george lucas, harrison ford, hollywood, indiana jones, indy, karen allen, marion ravenwood, raiders of the lost ark, ray winstone, shia labeouf, soviet agents, spielberg, steven spielberg, whip

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