GETTING INSIDE THE STEPFORD WIVES

Somewhere in the woods of Connecticut is the sublime town of Stepford. It's the perfect community; the well-heeled men bring home the bacon and convene on weekends at the country club, and their wives are contented blonde beauties dedicated to pleasing their hubbies in both the kitchen and the bedroom.

Such is the setting of Frank Oz's new satirical thriller, The Stepford Wives, an update of the 1975 classic that warned about the twin dangers of suburban life and runaway misogyny.
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It's all very idyllic, but when high-flying TV exec Joanna (Nicole Kidman) and her spouse Walter (Matthew Broderick) move in, she can't quite believe how the women's lib movement never made it over Stepford's white picket fences. With the help of her neighbor, the tart-tongued Bobbie (Bette Midler), Joanna sets out to investigate - and discovers there's much more to the town's wives than meets the eye.

"The theme of the movie is that happiness is not found through perfection," Nicole Kidman tells VH1, "or even trying to achieve perfection. I'm nowhere near perfect and I'm not ever trying to be. The thing that I find most attractive in people is their flaws."

At a New York press conference to promote the film, Kidman, Midler and Faith Hill, who plays one of the gorgeous wives, weren't quite sure if they lived up to the domestic ideals of Stepford in their home lives.

"What I'm good at?" Kidman asked. "I like cooking. It relaxes me, so I don't see it as work. But otherwise forget it. I can't sew. I'm a very poor knitter. Actually, I can wrap Christmas presents very well."

"I'm a good Southern cook," added Hill. "I'm a good piddler. I enjoy piddling. Do you know what that means? Piddling is just kind of floating around the house and dilly-dallying, doing mindless things."

"I'm very good at opening beer and wine bottles," joked Midler.

The original movie was made from a novel by Ira Levin. But where that Nixon-era cult film was a thriller, writer Paul Rudnick (In & Out) and director Oz (The Score) set out to have their spin provide both laughs and chills. Oz says he actually faced the challenge of convincing his actors to assume the Stepford stereotype - certainly a sign of how much the times have changed.

"I had to tell them how to be Stepford wives," he said. "They had to be vapid. They had to be pleasant. They couldn't have any highs. They couldn't have any lows. They had to speak only in a very pleasant manner. They couldn't speak about politics or religion - that's man stuff. And they had to smile all the time. It's very difficult for women today to do that!"

Midler isn't so sure how far we've come towards accepting people for who they are, rather than trying to make them over as the men of Stepford, led by Christopher Walken, attempt to do in the movie.

"Things are so wacky," she said. "I never thought I would live to see the day that you'd see a reality show based on plastic surgery. People watch them like they were seriously written shows. They're not. When you really strip them down, they're all Queen for a Day. Somebody who has nothing is suddenly going to have something for a day.

"There's a cheesiness about it and a cheapness about it," she continued. "Because it assumes that if you look okay, you're going to be overjoyed, that you're going to be happy person. You'll be happy for a while, but eventually gravity will take its toll once again and you'll have to be back under the knife. So it's best that you make some sort of peace at some point!"

The Stepford Wives opens June 11.

GET READY FOR NAPOLEON DYNAMITE

Napoleon Dynamite tells the story of a high school boy so geeky even the geeks don't want to be his friend. Growing up in a small town in Idaho, Napoleon loves the less popular things; moon boots, Hammer pants, one-man tether ball, and ligers - which of course are a mix of a lion and a tiger.

Director Jared Hess made the movie in his actual home town of Preston, Idaho and even had Napoleon attend the high school that Jared graduated from in 1997. He asked his pal Jon Heder to play the lead. Heder told VH1 he never really expected to be in front of the camera.

"I never really thought about being in front of the camera," he said. "In college I acted in a few student films. I was always a kind of dorky, funny guy. Then this came along …So I am like ‘Holy crap! This might happen!' I was like ‘Dang!'"

If you like a good tale about an underdog beating the odds, check out Napoleon Dynamite, in theatres Friday, June 11.

SEE RIDDICK RUN

Vin Diesel's new film The Chronicles of Riddick continues the tale of the darkly seductive anti-hero of the 2000 smash Pitch Black. Diesel once again plays Riddick, a guy fighting an imperialistic nation determined to destroy all planets. As well as the expected action sequences, the film draws the audience deeper into the ruthless killer's world.

"Part of the fun of playing Riddick is that the audience is able to invest in the character's spiritual growth," Diesel told VH1. "To me, that's what was so fascinating about this guy."

To see Diesel strut his stuff check out The Chronicles of Riddick, opening Friday, June 11.

SUPER-SIZE MY WALLET

Morgan Spurlock's Super-Size Me cost just $65,000 to make, but has already taken in $6.2 million. The documentary chronicles Spurlock's deteriorating health as a result of eating nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days. The physical results were soaring weight and cholesterol, a rebelling liver and a deteriorating libido.

His bank account, however, looks a lot healthier. Spurlock financed the film himself and remarkably, for a movie showing on less than 200 screens, it spent three weeks in the Top 10 at the U.S. box office.

The former MTV host is now hot property in the industry. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Spurlock has a pilot deal with FX for a reality show called 30 Days, which will place an individual in a completely different lifestyle for a month. He also has a book deal for a fast food-themed work, and Super-Size Me has now surpassed the 200- screen mark.