Helen Hunt Does Double Duty at Weekend Box Office; Steven Soderbergh Takes on 'Traffic'
JIM MORET, CO-HOST: Hi everyone, I'm Jim Moret in Hollywood. Laurin Sydney is in New York. It's been a very Merry Christmas for Tom Hanks. Moviegoers put $41.5 million under his tree as they turned out to see "Cast Away." It's the best opening ever for a Hanks film. Mel Gibson, meanwhile, came in second for the holiday weekend with his comedy, "What Women Want." It earned another $21.5 million.</s>LAURIN SYDNEY, CO-HOST: Helen Hunt was in competition with herself this weekend, co-starring in the No. 2 and the No. 1 films. Sherri Sylvester talked with one of Hollywood's hardest working women.</s>SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Helen Hunt is one woman who knows what she wants and that apparently is career overdrive. Since her jump from sitcom to silver screen, the Oscar- winning actress has been working nonstop with Oscar-winning co-stars. In this film, they're Marisa Tomei and Mel Gibson. Her next, "Cast Away" stars two-time winner Tom Hanks. Add "Pay it Forward" with best actor Kevin Spacey, and earlier this year "Dr. T and the Women" with A-list director Robert Altman.</s>HELEN HUNT, ACTRESS: Just try to find a movie that I'm not in. Go ahead, try, just try. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WHAT WOMEN WANT") HUNT: Don't fall for a guy at work. Don't fall for a guy at work.</s>SYLVESTER: To prepare for "What Women Want." she watched "Woman of the Year," the 1942 Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn film. Hunt did no other homework.</s>HUNT: I felt like what I could bring to it rather than a lot of homework was just a sense of fun, you know, just try to have fun on the set.</s>SYLVESTER: While there was fun to come, Mel Gibson was apprehensive early on about his first romantic comedy, fears Hunt says were unfounded.</s>HUNT: This is a guy who can play the depth of drama that he played in "The Patriot" and can do action movies and then do "Hamlet." I didn't think, you know, running around with me in a romantic comedy was going to be the thing that brought him down. I was not surprised. He did a good job.</s>SYLVESTER: She did bring him down to the ground while filming a kissing scene in a restaurant booth.</s>HUNT: You and I made out. And if I may, it was...</s>MEL GIBSON, ACTOR: Sexy as hell.</s>HUNT: At one point, we twisted so much that I fell off the chair. So that wasn't so slick. Beautiful lyrical central moment -- bang.</s>SYLVESTER: Since the film is based on Gibson's ability to hear women's thoughts, it depends on perfectly-paced reactions. That required a third performer off camera. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WHAT WOMEN WANT") HUNT: Oh, god, I looked at his crotch. I hope he didn't see me. Oh, I just looked at it again. Stop it.</s>HUNT: We would rehearse once where I would say the inner thoughts as well as what I am saying to him. And then this actress, on the second time through, would say the inner thoughts while I filled the time somehow.</s>SYLVESTER: Off screen, Hunt keeps her private life private, saying nothing about her separation just after their marriage. In interviews, she's all work talk but does laugh about a scientific study claiming men listen with only half of their brain.</s>HUNT: I kind of want to jump out of a window, but I'm trying to hang on. What are they doing with the other half? But really, what is it doing, just sitting there?</s>SYLVESTER: This season, the other half may be watching a Helen Hunt movie. Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.</s>MORET: Helen Hunt is not in one movie opening Wednesday, and that is "Traffic." Steven Soderbergh's drug war film is earning some of the best reviews of the year, just a few months after he hit it big with "Erin Brockovich." Paul Vercammen talked with the team caught in "Traffic." (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TRAFFIC") UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: We need to take down one of these cartels.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: I want the principal witness against my husband killed.</s>UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: It's all about the money.</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Steven Soderbergh criss-crosses three tales of the drug trade in "Traffic". The director and "Traffic" are stacking up awards, including best movie by the New York film critics and five Golden Globe nominations. Soderbergh received nods for directing "Erin Brockovich" and "Traffic".</s>STEVEN SODERBERGH, DIRECTOR: Where were your hands?</s>VERCAMMEN: Soderbergh filmed almost every frame of "Traffic" himself, often hand-held.</s>SODERBERGH: The crew was very small, actually, and when you've got sort of the camera on your shoulder and you're just kind of running around, it felt like a huge student film.</s>VERCAMMEN: "Traffic's" look is often raw, stripped of color, especially scenes where Benecio Del Toro plays policeman in Mexico.</s>SODEBERGH: At some point we were like a bad country band doing some sort of southwest, you know, tour, you know, spending the night here, working the next day, then getting in the car and moving to another place to shoot a little scene.</s>VERCAMMEN: Del Toro received a best supporting actor Golden Globe nomination. So did Catherine Zeta-Jones as the wife of a jailed drug trader living in San Diego.</s>CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, ACTRESS: She's not letting anybody bring down the walls of her palace or take away from her children something you know, that she never had. (</s>BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "TRAFFIC") JONES: I'm not bringing a child into the life that I was born up into.</s>VERCAMMAN: Soderbergh and Jones agreed to incorporate her real- life pregnancy into the plot --- further raising the stakes for her character and increasing pampering on set.</s>JONES: It's the best it ever gets. You've got like -- at beck and call. You have them running around with stools and things for your feet, and ice packs for your ankles, and a little massage, shoulder massage here, and a toe rub there.</s>VERCAMMAN: At home, that's Jones' husband, Michael Douglas', job, and being dad to a baby boy.</s>VERCAMMAN: Do you change diapers?</s>MICHAEL DOUGLAS, ACTOR: Oh, sure. That's the easy part. You know, he's not eating solids yet.</s>VERCAMMAN: In "Traffic", Douglas plays the nation's new drug czar.</s>DOUGLAS: A very ambitious, conservative, squeaky clean, going to Washington, being indoctrinated into our government's drug policies, and then at the same moment discovering that his 17-year-old daughter is spun out of control on drugs. "Traffic's" different spins on the drug war are good bets to capture several Academy Award nominations. Paul Vercammen, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.</s>SYDNEY: "Survivor" captivates viewers this year. How big will reality TV be in 2001? And Ricky Martin knocks them dead on tour to promote his new album.