Junket notes

by Scott Tobias
October 20th, 1999

The Onion occasionally attends lavish, studio-sponsored press junkets, which usually include a free plane ticket, a night at a five-star hotel, and a healthy per diem for lobster bisque, lobster chili, and other lobster-based foodstuffs. In addition to seeing a new movie—in this case, Antonio Banderas' directorial debut, Crazy In Alabama, a drama set in the South during the civil-rights era starring wife Melanie Griffith—The Onion joins about a dozen other entertainment journalists in a roundtable session with the stars, the director, and other assembled talent. But every once in a while, it has the misfortune of sharing a table with junket regulars: year-round circuiteers who whine about their accommodations, refer to celebrities they've barely met on a chummy first-name basis, and stumble over each other to ask questions so insipid that in any other setting, they wouldn't dignify a response. Griffith, however, was gracious enough to indulge them.

Journalist: Melanie, you've had the last laugh, haven't you?

Melanie Griffith: Huh?

J: You've had the last laugh, haven't you?

MG: What do you mean?

J: People said it wouldn't last—you couldn't do this, you couldn't do that—and you've done it and it's lasted and it's going well.

MG: It's still going.

J: Do you feel good about that?

MG: Yeah. But you know what, Jane Fonda said to me when I got nominated for an Academy Award, she said, "Just be prepared. You're going to have many ups and you'll have many downs." I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but she was right.

MG: It was like pie to work with Antonio. It was a joy. I think everybody would tell you that.

J: What flavor of pie? Apple pie? Cherry pie? What? How would you characterize it, just for fun?

MG: Key lime pie. [Laughs.]

J: Ooooh... [Laughs.]

J: What was your orientation with racism growing up?

MG: I was raised very liberal, believing that we were all created equal and no one was better than anybody else.

J: Did you witness any horrible stuff in your neighborhood?

MG: No, I mainly grew up in Sherman Oaks and the Valley and Greenwich, Connecticut. So... [Laughs.]

J: If [someone] didn't know you were married to the director of this film, you would think he's in love with you from the way he allowed you to be photographed. I want to ask him this question, but what do you think it is in you the camera captures?

MG: I would hope that it would be having an open heart. At least, that's the only thing I've tried to make an effort to do.

J: You seem to have a fragility, too.

MG: Frigidity, or...?

J: Fragile. Fragility, you're fragile... You've had to have a lot of courage to go through your life the way you have.

MG: You think? Really? I mean, isn't life hard for everybody?

J: It takes a strength to make hard choices and you've made them. Give yourself credit.