An Oscar--By Special Delivery When Harrison Ford accepted the best-director Oscar on behalf of Roman Polanski at the Academy Awards in L.A. last March, he promised he'd deliver it in person to the director of "The Pianist" as soon as he could. Last week, at the Deauville Film Festival in France, Ford kept his word.
"Delivery for Roman Polanski! Delivery for Roman Polanski!" called the star as he strode into the bar of Deauville's swanky Hotel Royal, carrying a small brown carton under his arm. Polanski, president of the festival jury, was chatting with Jack Valenti, chief of the Motion Picture Association. The filmmaker laughed and gave Ford a big hug. With a swarm of paparazzi waiting outside the hotel, Ford opened the package to show Polanski the golden statuette. "You're going to take it out of the box, right?" Polanski asked. "Look," Ford said to Valenti, "he's directing me." "That's what I do," cracked Polanski, who did direct Ford in the 1988 thriller "Frantic."
"Now, how do you want to play this?" Ford asked. "How about I play the Harrison Ford role and you play the Roman Polanski role?" With that, the pair strolled out onto the lawn as the cameras flashed, and Polanski finally got his Oscar.
"Maybe we should kiss with tongues," Polanski quipped, referring to the lip lock Adrien Brody gave Halle Barry when he won best actor for starring in Polanski's film.
Photo op over, the director went back to the bar. Polanski, 70, who fled the States 25 years ago after he pleaded guilty to statutory rape but before he was sentenced, lives in Paris. "It's nice to have the Oscar," he told NEWSWEEK. "I think I'll put it in my office with my other statuettes--I have a few, you know. Maybe next to the Palme d'Or"--the Cannes prize he also took home last year.
--Dana Thomas
Q&A: Berkeley Breathed
The world's most famous penguin, Opus, can be found almost everywhere--greeting cards, kids' books--except in the newspaper comics pages where he was born. But come November, Opus will be back, starring in his own strip. NEWSWEEK's Brad Stone traded e-mails with Opus's creator, Pulitzer Prize-winning "Bloom County" cartoonist Berkeley Breathed.
It's been eight years since you left the funny pages. Why return?
The women and the money. Alas, money is sparse in today's underheated newspaper world, and the only woman is a little beauty named Sophie-Bean Breathed [his daughter], who can recite the entire first line of Mister Rogers's "Neighbor" song--in a belch.
Tell us about the new strip, "Opus."
It's a Sunday feature hand-painted by me. One tries not to sound snarky--but I can tell you that all other comics are colored in Bangkok by child slaves and orangutans.
You're demanding papers run "Opus" at half a page. Are you trying to incite a revolution?
Yes, revolution. The curious should contact their local paper's editors and suggest they give the heave-ho to all the comic strips that (a) outlived Strom Thurmond or (b) are produced by people that are either hired lackeys, distant relatives to the creators or (c) dead. Then fill the space with comics drawn by still-breathing artists.
How will fatherhood color the new strip?
One grim suspicion: more toilet humor. Which is fine, as I'm pulling back the political stuff.
In an age of flight-suit presidents and body-building candidates, how can you resist?
With the assistance of an unbreakable four-week lead time for publishing. Mr. Bush could start and finish a ground war with San Francisco in that window.
I miss the old political "Bloom County."
"Bloom County" was a bit of pop flotsam for its time. Opus is now content to quietly carry on the far side of his career arc waddling about in a little out-of-the-way corner of the Sunday funnies section. As long as it's a full half-page.