Two weeks ago Hillary Clinton met Nobel winner Aung San Suu Kyi, housewife-turned-opposition-politician of Burma (now called Myanmar), head of the country’s National League for Democracy, leader of its people, just released from decades of house arrest.
Malaysia’s Michelle Yeoh, from the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies” and Oscar-winning “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” says: “I’d read about this Asian woman and the love story with her foreign-born late husband without whom she could do nothing but had to keep out of the limelight because he was British.”
Enter Paris-based Luc Besson, award-winning director who’s done more than 50 films, and to whom she went to make the movie about Aung San Suu Kyi. As he munched cookies and she sipped tea in my home, they told their story.
Michelle: “The film is called ‘The Lady’ because that’s how she’s known. In Burma you cannot even say her name.”
Luc: “We shot in China, London and, secretly, 17 hours in Burma where it’s forbidden. In a T-shirt, pretending to be a tourist, not a professional, I’d say loudly, ‘Is it allowed to take a picture here?’ I photographed with a small disc. I had 12 on me. My first visit I scouted locations. When one of our team of three saw another in the market, we pretended not to know one another. Risking as I did was an example of either commitment or stupidity.”
Michelle: “Took a year. Principal photography was in Thailand. The silk and cotton costumes are Burmese.”
Luc: “From family we have 200 pictures of her house. From the sky’s Internet satellite images, we measured everything and rebuilt her house to the exact replica. The same millimeter. The orientation’s precise — even where the sun rises and sets on it.”
Does The Lady herself know of “The Lady”?
Michelle: “Yes, we met once while she was under house arrest. I said, ‘We want to help you.’ Her only message was: ‘Use your freedom to promote ours.’ Getting through to her takes two months. The film’s banished in the country. Hopefully, she’ll see it under cover. She knew we’re making it. She’s happy but never read the script nor asked to. To protect her, we made it very clear she didn’t participate.”
Luc: “If she gets out of the country, they will never let her back in. She’s such a symbol of nonviolence that they can’t kill her. She knows she cannot leave. For cracking jokes, one Burmese comedian was sentenced to 65 years in jail.”
Michelle: “Hillary wanted to see the film. We sent her a DVD. She saw it on her plane en route to Burma.”
Luc: “Michelle is an Oscar possibility for this, which is a Cohen Media Group release. Studios in the Academy Award race wanted to wait another year before opening it. We would not wait a year. [Cohen Media Group head] Charles Cohen loved this story and opened it a week ago.”
PROFESSOR Jeffrey Laurence of Weill Cornell Medical College’s Laboratory for AIDS Virus Research said Elizabeth Taylor’s idea to fight the disease was to air-drop condoms in Africa. Bad idea, said the doctor. Areas lacking garbage control caused cattle, ingesting grass littered with these discards, to die. Elizabeth was dissuaded from her idea.
The subject came up at socialite Jill Spalding’s holiday party because Taylor’s auction proceeds go to her AIDS foundation.
FANCY black-tie soignée gala in Paris. Glamorous Ivana Trump arrives in an orange backless frontless number. With her a young good-looking dude dressed improperly in a plain suit. To ID this lover du jour, photographers asked, “Who’s the guy?” Said Ivana: “I don’t know.” Whether she’d annexed him someplace just to have an escort for the evening, who knows? When photographers asked again: “What’s his name?” Ivana replied: “I don’t know who he is.”
LET us speak of Paramount’s fully animated 3-D movie “The Adventures of Tintin,” which opens the 21st and will — so I am told because what do I know — change the future of 21st-century storytelling. Lest there breathe some unknowledgeable human, Tintin, 82 in cartoon years, is spoken through actors’ voices. A pop-cultural phenom, it’s an epic great adventure globe-hopping quest of hidden mysteries, menacing criminals and ancient secrets.
Translated into 100 languages, with more than 250 million copies sold, Tintin is now — through efforts of producer Peter Jackson and director S. Spielberg — an 18-karat movie star.
WHY hustle to be president? Be a football coach. Ohio State’s Urban Meyer’s six-year deal is $4 mil per. Plus $500,000 if he stays two years. Another $1.2 if it’s six years. A performance-driven extra $300,000 and $400,000 yearly bonus. Also, $1,200 monthly auto stipend and golf-club paid membership. Why’s anyone picking on Wall Street?
Only in Ohio, kids, only in Ohio.