Sign InRegister

Stealing the scene

Sometimes it's the little things that have a big impact

By Todd Leopold
CNN

ON CNN TV

Watch "Showbiz Tonight" on CNN Headline News at 7 p.m. ET weekdays.

YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS

(CNN) -- Maureen Stapleton died Monday, eulogized as an Oscar winner and a fine actress. But even though she was known, she wasn't so easily remembered.

More than one reader, upon seeing The Associated Press obituary CNN.com ran, wondered why it didn't mention her role on "All in the Family." (That role, of course, was played by Jean Stapleton, and I can relate: My first reaction upon hearing of Maureen Stapleton's death was to think of "The Trip to Bountiful," confusing Stapleton with Geraldine Page -- who died almost 20 years ago.)

And one correspondent took umbrage with the AP writer's description of Ms. Stapleton as having an "unremarkable, matronly appearance," ignoring the next phrase about her outsize talent, as if having an "unremarkable appearance" -- as most of us do -- is an insult. ("Matronly," unfortunately, sounds worse than it is.)

The fact is, as has often been noted, in the movies there are two types of performers: actors and movie stars. The latter -- the beautiful people with the seemingly glossy personalities -- tend to sell tickets, appear on magazine covers and dominate coverage. But it's the former, often relegated to supporting roles, who give the movies their spark.

Sometimes those roles, despite a minimum of screen time, make for indelible performances.

Anthony Hopkins is on screen for about 16 minutes of "The Silence of the Lambs" but won an Oscar for best actor. William Hurt ("A History of Violence") and Beatrice Straight ("Network") get a few minutes each, yet their work looms large in those movies.

Being a villain, as with Hopkins and Hurt, helps -- as does playing against the straightest of straight men (or women). Kurtwood Smith and Ronny Cox got the best lines in "RoboCop" and Peter Weller had to talk in a monotone, so who is remembered? Cox's performance in one executive meeting -- in which a fellow executive gets killed -- is worth the price of admission. (As Smith's character says elsewhere in the film, "Give the man a hand!")

Of course, there are countless examples of scene-stealing: Jack Nicholson's quick (unbilled) turn as the anchorman in "Broadcast News." Kathy Bates stealing "About Schmidt" from Nicholson as a free-spirited earth mother. Cloris Leachman (neighhhhh!) in "Young Frankenstein." Anybody who's not Paul Newman, Robert Redford or Robert Shaw in "The Sting." (I'm particularly fond of Harold Gould's work.) Jack Black as the manic, almost unhinged record-store geek in "High Fidelity." Mickey Rourke's one scene as an arsonist in "Body Heat."

Howard Hawks once described a good movie as "three great scenes, no bad ones." Leave it to the Maureen Stapletons of the world to give you at least one of those great scenes.

And that's really remarkable.

Eye on Entertainment now looks to the week ahead.

Eye-opener

The mysterious V is trying to bring down the British government in "V for Vendetta."

"V for Vendetta," based on a graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, is about a dystopian England about 15 years in the future. Natalie Portman (who shaved her head for the film) plays Evey, who is saved by V (Hugo Weaving), a vigilante who wears the mask of a malevolently smiling, cavalier-like Guy Fawkes, the 17th-century man who attempted to blow up Parliament.

V is determined to incite revolution, and Evey becomes his colleague -- but what is she finally getting into?

The film was written and co-produced by the Wachowski brothers, of "Matrix" fame, and also stars John Hurt and Stephen Rea.

Early reviews, though on balance favorable, have been as widely divergent as the beliefs of V and the English totalitarian government. "A disastrous muddle," wrote David Denby in The New Yorker. "Someone should have thrown himself on this bomb," Newsweek's Jeff Giles said.

But Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper used adjectives like "brilliant" and "intriguing," and Rolling Stone's Peter Travers praised its "urgent filmmaking energy."

Regardless, the cantankerous Moore wasn't pleased -- he had his name removed from the credits -- and the Wachowskis have injected the film with "Matrix"-like philosophizing. That will attract some people and scare off others.

"V for Vendetta" opens Friday.

On screen

"She's the Man" stars Amanda Bynes, who disguises herself as her twin brother and falls in love with his roommate. It's "Twelfth Night" updated, complete with a school called Illyria Prep. The film opens Friday.

"Don't Come Knocking," with Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange, features Shepard as a film star who wanders off set to find his family. Directed by Wim Wenders. Opens in limited release Friday.

"Find Me Guilty" is director Sidney Lumet's new film, which stars Vin Diesel as a convict who decides to defend himself to avoid being made a government witness against a crime family. It opens in limited release Friday.

On the tube

"Saturday Night's Main Event" returns wrestling to the Peacock Network. 8 p.m. Saturday, NBC.

If you ever thought you could host a 30-minute show about making bouillabaisse, then you might want to tune into "The Next Food Network Star." Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Mario Batali, Alton Brown and Paula Deen take part in figuring out who should get a show on the comestibles channel. 9 p.m. Sunday, Food Network.

And, of course, "The Sopranos" came back with a bang

last week. What will happen now? 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO. (HBO is a unit of Time Warner, as is CNN.)

Sound waves

Ben Harper's new album, "Both Sides of the Gun" (Virgin), comes out Tuesday.

"Blood Money" (Interscope), Mobb Depp's new record, comes out Tuesday.

Elvis Costello's oddest album, "The Juliet Letters" (Rhino), gets a new edition on Tuesday.

Teddy Geiger is a 17-year-old singer-songwriter who's been attracting a lot of buzz for his first album, "Underage Thinking" (Columbia). He'll be on "The Late Show with David Letterman" on Wednesday; the album comes out Tuesday.

Chicago, the band, has now been around for almost 40 years, almost as long as Chicago, the city. The band's new album is yet another Roman-numeraled release, "Chicago XXX" (Rhino). This news will likely inspire two reactions: excitement from those who have been waiting for a new studio album from the band (not counting Christmas records, it's Chicago's first in 11 years); and lack of same from people who like to quote Lester Bangs' review of "Chicago IV: At Carnegie Hall" ("I like this album because it's on Columbia") and a scene from Mark Shipper's "Paperback Writer" in which an promotion man asks an executive to keep Chicago waiting ("How can you say that? Their albums still go gold." "People buy them out of habit, or else to get the complete set, like those annuals they make every year for encyclopedias"). The album, produced by Rascal Flatts' Jay DeMarcus, comes out Tuesday.

Paging readers

Phillip Lopate edits a compendium of great movie reviews (and reviewers) with "American Movie Critics" (Library of America). It's out Thursday.

Is the universe a giant quantum computer? the flap copy asks. Seth Lloyd -- a quantum computer scientist -- is just the man to ask. He takes a look at the cosmos in "Programming the Universe" (Knopf). It's out Friday.

A slave girl's journey to freedom is the topic of Susan Straight's "A Million Nightingales" (Pantheon). The book's release is Tuesday.

Journalist Gershom Gorenberg investigates the history of the Israeli settlements -- and why it played such a huge role in the politics of the world. His book, "The Accidental Empire" (Henry Holt), is just out.

Video center

"Capote," featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance as the "In Cold Blood" author, comes out Tuesday.

"The Squid and the Whale," which should have received an Oscar nomination for Jeff Daniels' performance, comes out Tuesday.

"Paradise Now," the controversial film about Palestinian terrorists, comes out Tuesday.

So you're one of those people who wait for Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" to roll around every Passover? Now you can watch it whenever you want: The DVD comes out Tuesday. It might not mean as much without the matzo ball soup, though.

Story Tools

Subscribe to Time for $1.99

Home Page

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN

CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.

Home Page

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN

CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.