| When the actors and directors arrived at the retreat last Thursday,
sliding off the ice slick parkway somewhere near Armonk, they were greeted with a taste of
winter. What had been freezing rain down south was sodden snow up north. The trees were
covered, like they were decked with giant cotton balls, and the estate at which the
retreaters were staying looked like a movie set. "It’s as if we had 1500
scenics working all day!" Kim said.
No doubt if Sherri had been there she would’ve
been obliged to point out that "we have no budget on this picture for snow."
The concept of the retreat was simple: To give all the actors a chance to get to know
one another before they arrived at work in January. First there was a tour of the grounds,
then wine was poured and a fire was built.
There was an informal read through of the script, the group sitting around the cozy
fire, and then they had bar-b-que chicken and steak and burgers. Shalom ate some kind of veggie burger that seemed to be done
when it turned light gray.
Afterwards, games were played, though the tennis court and indoor pool were shut down
for some reason. Kim went off off to bowl with Aleksa,
and reports they were not very good. She did say that she almost got a strike, once.
"It went well," Jon said. "Everybody got
to know everybody else, and they got to hook up with the people they’ll be working
with most. Shalom and Jake. David
and Gil. Heather and
Aleksa. And we got everybody in the same place on the script. It was fun."
Jon also asked me to report that when it came to the long-green felt of the billiards
table, he was a master and Joe sucked.
The first flurries of publicity have started to come out. Thursday the New York Post
did a small piece about Shalom signing with the United Talent Agency, and mentioned that
her first starring role is Cherry.
And on Monday Daily Variety’s Paul Karon reported that "Harlow Picks
‘Cherry’ Role." Very clever.
Peter Kreutzer |
