Halle Berry bounces back

HOLLYWOOD -- Halle Berry believes in the resilience of the human body and the human spirit.

This has been a disconcerting year for the Oscar-winning actress who had her arm broken in May and her heart in September.

Berry was filming a physically and emotionally demanding scene in Montreal for her new thriller Gothika when she snapped a bone in her forearm.

In Gothika, which opens Friday, she plays a psychiatrist with amnesia who finds herself in a hospital for the criminally insane accused of butchering her husband.

Robert Downey Jr., who plays a fellow psychiatrist, was helping to subdue Berry in a scene where her character was thrashing at staff members trying to administer sedatives.

PAIN WAS REAL

"I was screaming and yelling for the scene when I heard the snap and felt the pain. Then I was screaming and yelling for real," says Berry, who insists she does not blame Downey who was restraining that arm.

"I didn't think then and don't think now he'd do something like that on purpose. We were struggling with each other and it was just one wrong turn on both our parts."

Berry says she's not pussyfooting around the Vancouver set of Catwoman, where she plays the leather-clad avenger.

"I'm going all out for the stunts. People keep reminding me that I just broke my arm earlier this year and I answer 'So what?' I love action stuff. It's great fun. It's really exhilarating."

In September, Berry announced that she and singer Eric Benet have officially separated after nearly three years of marriage.

"Eric and I have had marital problems for some time now. We tried to work things out, but feel we need time apart to re-evaluate our relationship," says Berry, whose first marriage to Cleveland outfielder David Justice ended in divorce in 1996.

"I believe in love, romance and marriage. I always have and still do. I'm looking upon this as an important learning experience.

"Life is a series of learning experiences, just as it is a series of ups and downs. I've certainly had my share of both and I'm happy to say I'm doing well."

She says her mother, who raised Berry and her sister, taught her daughters "to be strong as nails.

"That's what she told us when we were growing up and that's what she tells me today."

Berry says it's easy for her to put her marital problems in perspective.

"Unless you are starving and cannot get food, or have medical problems for which there is no help, you don't really have a serious problem. You have a life lesson and I'm going through an important life lesson at the moment."

Her touchstone during this difficult time is Benet's 12-year-old daughter India, whom Berry officially adopted last year.

"Right now I'm very much about being a mom. She is a wonderful girl, who needs me right now. She's at that age where she has a hundred questions only a mother can answer.

"She's noticing boys. Boys are noticing her. Men are noticing her. That's very scary to me, so she has become the most important relationship in my life right now.

"I know romance will come back into my life in the future. I'm in no rush now. I have my career. I have my daughter."

In Gothika, Berry's psychiatrist encounters a ghost that may be malevolent.

The actress had her own encounter with such an entity when she was filming her TV movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge in 1999.

"When I was preparing for the film, I borrowed a dress that belonged to Dorothy for inspiration. I didn't wear it or anything. It was in a protective plastic bag in my den."

One night, Berry and a friend were having tea in her living room when they heard rustling noises coming from the den. The women went to the room to check on the noises.

"The plastic on the dress was rattling. No kidding. It was actually rattling. (My friend) and I both hauled our butts out of there and fast."

Berry is convinced it was the spirit of the troubled actress who died at age 42 in 1965 of a drug overdose.

"That was just the first of several incidents that happened while I had the dress. My housekeeper and I would hear noises in my bedroom and find that my vanity chair had moved and the refrigerator door would fling open by itself.

"It was really weird and scary."

Berry had the opportunity to buy the dress but refused.

COULDN'T TAKE THE HAUNTING

"As much as I loved the dress, I just couldn't put up with the haunting, so I returned it and everything stopped as soon as it was out of the house."

Berry is currently on the cover of the men's magazine FHM, whose readers voted her the sexiest woman in the world.

Her interview is accompanied by a provocative photo layout.

"I'm not just comfortable with it, I like it.

"I'm finally OK with my body and my sexuality," says Berry, whose Oscar win for Monster's Ball included several nude scenes.

"There was a time when I felt that in order to be taken seriously as an actress I couldn't really express that part of my personality.

"But that is an important part of who I am."

Berry says her decision to bare her breasts for Swordfish was the important turning point.

"That was a very difficult decision, but ever since I did that scene in Swordfish, I have been a lot more comfortable with my sexuality.

"I can still do sexy photo shoots, be sexual on screen and have an Oscar at home. That makes me feel really good about myself."

Berry scary movie

HOLLYWOOD -- Halle Berry's psychological thriller Gothika, which opens Nov. 21, is the fourth film from Joel Silver's Dark Castle Entertainment company.

Its predecessors, which include The House on Haunted Hill, Thirteen Ghosts and Ghost Ship, were all released for Halloween.

"We weren't all that ready with Gothika for Halloween and then when we saw that (horror spoof) Scary Movie was coming into the same slot, we knew we had to stay away," says Silver.

He points out that a horror film for the holidays is not a unique concept.

"Scream did well in a holiday slot and Gothika is more like The Ring than it is like Ghost Ship or Thirteen Ghosts."

At $30 million US, Gothika has the biggest budget of any of the Dark Castle films.

"It wasn't intended to be a $30-million film until Halle came on board," says Silver.

"I was in preproduction for Gothika when I met Halle after her Oscar win. I asked her what she was doing and she said she didn't have anything lined up.

"I told her I had a script for her. She agreed to read it and the rest is history."

Silver says his company will be returning to its original format with next year's offering.

"We're hoping to do a contemporary version of The House of Wax, which was a 3-D film with Vincent Price.

"We want to do ours in 3-D as well, but we're trying to see how the process will transfer into home video."

Silver says he and his special effects crew have been studying director Robert Rodriquez's Spy Kids 3D and are looking at how it will be released to video and DVD.

Meow!

Bond Girl Berry becomes Batman's Catwoman

NEW YORK -- Oscar winner Halle Berry is set to play the felonious feline in Catwoman later this year, Warner Bros. said yesterday.

Berry has already shown her action chops since her Oscar-winning performance in Monster's Ball. She played James Bond's sexy partner Jinx in Die Another Day and reprised the superhero character Storm in X2, the X-Men sequel due out May 2 from 20th Century Fox.

She's about to star in the Joel Silver-produced Warner Bros. film Gothika with Robert Downey Jr.

Catwoman has been considered a dream project for actresses since Michelle Pfeiffer originated the sexy but loopy character in the Tim Burton-directed Batman Returns. That pair tried a spinoff that stalled.

While no deal has been made, Berry's expected to get her claws into the part quickly. She'd be the second black woman to play Catwoman, as Eartha Kitt did in the 1960s Batman TV series. The film was scripted by John Rogers and rewritten by Mike Ferris and John Brancato.

-- SUN Media

Halle Berry hooks up with Oprah

Halle Berry will star in a TV movie for Oprah Winfrey's production company, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Oscar-winning actress has signed on to play Janie Crawford, a woman whose quest for personal happiness doesn't sit well with the members of her small community, in the ABC movie based on the 1937 Neale Hurston novel, "Their Eyes Were Watching."

Berry picked up an Emmy and a Golden Globe in 2000 for her performance in the HBO movie "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," and received an Academy Award for her role in "Monster's Ball" last year.

The film is scheduled to begin production this summer and will air during the 2003-2004 season.

Drop-dead gorgeous

HOLLYWOOD -- Die Another Day is not just the name of Halle Berry's new Bond movie.

It's the philosophy she lives by.

In 1996, after her three-year marriage to major league baseball player David Justice collapsed, Berry contemplated suicide.

She took her two dogs into her car in the couple's garage and turned on the ignition. The fumes had begun to fill the garage when she opened the doors and rushed outside with her pets.

"I'm not proud of that moment in my life, but honestly, I was ready just to give up. The divorce was really hard on me," says Berry, whose Oscar-winning performance in Monster's Ball made her the first African American to win a best actress statue.

"My performance in Monster's Ball comes from all those real-life experiences that have taken me to dark, dark, heavy places. So, I'm grateful for them.

"I know that I will face many more valleys. I'll have to struggle my way out again. When I'm in those dark valleys, suicide won't be an option because I know that I can survive.

"And I know that's it's all for my good because it just makes my well deeper and I can use the experiences to make my life and my work better."

RUMOUR MILL

Berry has been dealing with rumours that her 21-month-old marriage to musician Eric Benet was on the rocks.

"I've learned you have to work hard at relationships. I'm also finding out that my life is food for (gossip) fodder, all the truths and untruths about it.

"... I've had to develop a tough skin and I'm really learning how to just sit within myself and not let it all really shake and rattle me as it once did."

It also helps that her highs this year have far outweighed the lows.

Her Oscar win for Monster's Ball in March was greeted with a standing ovation from her peers and was followed by accolades from around the world.

"I can tell you exactly how I felt the minute before my name was called but the minute after is a blur."

She recalls when Russell Crowe was listing the nominees for best actress she was biting her lip and thinking "dear God, when they don't say my name, just please let me be gracious. Don't let it show on my face that I feel disappointed."

The next thing she remembers was standing with Crowe and him telling her: " 'Just breathe, mate. Just breathe. You've got to just breathe.' Then I looked out at the audience and I saw everyone standing and that was the first time that I realized I had won.

"I didn't know how I'd gotten onto that stage. It was as if I had been teleported."

Berry has a few words for those naysayers who feel it is unfortunate she is following her Oscar win by playing a Bond girl.

"Die Another Day is the perfect movie for me to be doing at this moment.

"Oscar night sort of presented me to the world, but so many people around the world didn't have a clue who I was because of what my body of work has been.

"What better film for me to be in now than a James Bond movie that goes around the world."

CLOSE CALLS ON BOND

Urban legend has it that Berry almost died twice filming Die Another Day.

The first incident was on a set in Spain.

Brosnan was shooting at a helicopter being flown by Rick Yune, who plays one of the film's villains.

The charges in the walls of a castle to simulate bullets hitting them shot dust into the wind stirred by the helicopter blades and Berry got an eyeful of dust.

Producer Barbara Broccoli, exercising caution, rushed her to a doctor to make sure there was no damage to her cornea.

Broccoli recalls Berry had her eye washed out and was given a clean bill of health but "the next thing we knew we were on CNN and made newspaper headlines around the world.

"Halle's mother called in panic because she heard the reports."

Berry's sex scenes proved breathtaking.

"We were naked and I was peeling a fig to feed to us. I took a bite and he said something that made me laugh and the fig got lodged in my throat and I couldn't breathe."

A naked Brosnan administered the Heimlich maneuver dislodging the fig.

"Seeing Pierce naked could have been the reason I choked because, as you know, no Bond has ever been this naked in any of the Bond movies."

It was an exciting flight

Hollywood's biggest superheroes had travellers marvelling yesterday when they blew into Calgary, led by Oscar winner Halle Berry.

The starlet, who became the first black actress to win a best actress Oscar this past spring, arrived from Los Angeles to finish shooting her role in next summer's highly-anticipated X-Men sequel, X2. Cameras are rolling on the blockbuster production in Kananaskis.

"It's great to be here. I'm excited about how things are going so far," the 34-year-old star of Monster's Ball and Swordfish told the Sun. "But I just got here -- this (the airport) is all I've seen so far."

In an interview in Hollywood where she was promoting her role in next week's new Bond movie Die Another Day, she told the Sun she was hoping to do some dog-sledding if her schedule allows.

Joining Berry on the star-studded flight was her X-Men co-star Patrick Stewart, X2 director Bryan Singer and, arriving for an unrelated film project, Baywatch star David Hasselhoff.

The human Hollywood cargo gave home-bound Calgarians a pleasantly unexpected surprise, one which Star Trek fan Grant Evaskevich won't soon forget.

Grant, 37, and his 35-year-old wife Kim chatted movie business with Berry and Stewart for the duration of the flight from L.A. "The conversation was very long. They were very nice," Kim said.

"I told him we had a Star Trek figurine of him that we hang on our Christmas tree, and he smiled and laughed," Grant said.

That tidbit prompted a chuckle from Hasselhoff, who sat in front of Berry and Stewart. "After Grant mentioned the figurine, (Hasselhoff) said, 'It isn't as bad as having an air freshener figurine of yourself,' " Kim said.

"They were actually very sweet. It was awesome."

As for Stewart, the knowledge that, somewhere in Calgary, his likeness hangs from a Christmas tree, will never fade. "It's one of the best things that's ever happened, you know," he told the Sun.

"As a big Christmas tree fan, to actually find yourself as an ornament -- I would say it comes just ahead of knighthood," he said with a grin.

For 16-year-old Janelle Murphy, the return trip from seeing her sister in L.A. was, well, a ball -- and she's got proof of it all for any non-believers at Springbank high school.

"One of the stewardesses went up and got me (Berry's) autograph," the Grade 11 teen beamed, one hand firmly grasping the prized piece of paper.

"I've never really seen a movie star up close. I was really excited," she said. "I'm a big fan."

Expected to join Berry and Stewart shortly on X2 are Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and Oscar nominee Ian McKellen.

Berry in talks for Bond spin-off

Halle Berry seems to have gotten lucky with her role as Jinx in the new Bond film, "Die Another Day."

The Oscar winner revealed that she is in talks about making a spin-off based on her character from the new Bond film, the BBC reports.

It would become the first Bond-based spin-off series in the franchise's 40-year history.

Jinx is a CIA agent who both rivals Bond and works with him to catch the movie's villain.

"Die Another Day" hits Canadian theatres on November 22.

Halle Berry set to invade K-Country

Hollywood -- There's a storm warning for Calgary.

Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry is set to blow into town this month to shoot the climax for X-Men 2.

"I have just two days of shooting time left, but some of the other cast members have up to three weeks of work left," Berry told the Sun yesterday in Los Angeles, where she was promoting her Bond film Die Another Day.

Over a five-day period, Berry did more than 100 television and print interviews for the spy film, in which she plays Jinx, the female spy counterpart to Pierce Brosnan's James Bond.

"I'll likely sleep the whole flight to Calgary."

Berry and her fellow X-Men 2 cast members will be filming the climactic battle sequence for the sequel to the 2000 hit on a closed set in Kananaskis.

"Considering we're in the heart of the Rockies, we can't go skiing while we're in Kananaskis for fear we'll break a leg. It's in a contract that we can't. I'm hoping I can do some dog sledding. That's what I really want to do if I actually have some free time."

In the X-Men films, Berry plays the mutant Storm who has the power to alter and even create weather fronts.

Berry says the sequel was part of the original Twentieth-Century Fox contract she signed four years ago.

She arrived on the Vancouver set having won a best actress Oscar for her powerhouse performance on last year's Monster's Ball.

"Having won (the Oscar) did not impact in any way on my return to X-Men. The great thing about this sequel is that I got a chance to reconvene and sort of pick up where we left off. That was the really fun and rewarding part of the sequel."

She said actors rarely get such a chance because "normally when you seem to be finding your groove with a group of people and really starting to gel, it's time to stop and say goodbye. My reunion with all these people was wonderful."

Though she remained evasive about plot details and her character in X-Men 2, she did promise fans: "Storm gets to present a point of view about what her emotional life is like, which is something I didn't get to do in the first one."

The only change she can admit for certain is that Storm will have a new hairstyle.

"When we returned, it was a big discussion about her hair because everyone felt there was something that desperately needed to be changed from the first movie.

"(Director) Bryan Singer and (producer) Lauren Shuler Donner wanted to get it right this time around."

The first action movie was filmed in Toronto. Except for the climactic battle scenes, the sequel was filmed in Vancouver.

Berry explains she enjoyed shooting in Vancouver much more than she did in Toronto because she was "raised in Cleveland, so I went up to Toronto quite a bit.

"It was a big whoop for me being in Vancouver for several reasons. I like the smallness of Vancouver, the quaintness and charm of it, which is a lot different from Toronto."

Best of all for Berry was the proximity to her home in Los Angeles, which she shares with her husband, R&B musician Eric Benet.

Halle Berry set for 'Squall'

Halle Berry is set to play a rape victim in the drama "October Squall."

The film, which is based on a true story, will see Berry play a woman who keeps her rapist's baby and becomes a loving mother, Variety reports.

She begins to suspect her son's taking after his father once he hits puberty.

In addition to taking the lead role, Berry will also serve as the film's producer.

Halle Berry will star as a Bond girl in "Die Another Day," which hits Canadian theatres on Nov. 22.

Halle Berry to remake '70s cult flick

Oscar-winner Halle Berry ("Monster's Ball") will be producing and starring in a remake of Pam Grier's 1974 cult hit "Foxy Brown", about a woman bent on avenging the murder of her boyfriend, reports Variety.

"We're going to take some license in updating the character," MGM production prexy Alex Gartner told Variety.

"We're going to take all the positive aspects of Foxy as a powerful, empowered woman, and we're going to create a larger-than-life vehicle for Halle."

Berry is also up for "Brown-Eyed Girl", a smaller film that follows the ups and downs in the love life of a contemporary woman. The project has been in development for several years, Variety reports.

Berry is currently filming the 20th instalment of the James Bond franchise "Die Another Day". She will then head to Vancouver to begin filming on "X-Men 2".

Hacker defaces Halle Berry's website

Halle Berry has learned the hard way that even an Oscar can't insulate against racism.

New York's Daily News reports that a hacker broke into the "Monster's Ball" star's website (www.hallewood.com), defaced her picture with a moustache and beard, made a reference to rival Nicole Kidman, and left a reference to the racist Ku Klux Klan.

Berry's webmaster took down the site and added additional security measures to prevent further hacking. On Thursday, the site appeared to be back up and running as normal.

For her part, Berry was unconcerned about the cyber attack.

"It sounds very juvenile and child-like," her representative told The Daily News.

"It's like what we used to do as children with Magic Markers."

Halle's 'Monster's Ball' coming to DVD

Special editions of Oscar winners "A Beautiful Mind" and "Monster's Ball" are both coming to DVD.

Halle Berry's Oscar-winning turn opposite Billy Bob Thornton in the bleak "Monster's Ball" will be in stores June 11. It will include audio commentaries by Berry, Thornton and director Marc Forster, as well as deleted scenes and outtakes, the DVDfile.com reports.

Meanwhile, Davisdvd.com reports that "Monster's Ball," which includes an uncommonly graphic sex scene between Berry and Thornton, will be issued in R-rated and unrated DVD versions. And director Forster told the website he hopes the disc will convey Thornton's unusual working method.

"Even though it's a drama and it's often very intense -- the scene on the set was very light and funny," Forster told Davisdvd.com.

"Often, (Thornton) cracks jokes and entertains the entire crew and everybody's laughing. When you say action, his face changes and he becomes something totally different. It's fascinating to watch."

Despite previous reports, no date has been set for the DVD release of "A Beautiful Mind," but director Ron Howard told Davisdvd.com that the set will come with featurettes and deleted scenes, including one featuring his father, Rance Howard.

The disc will also examine the techniques used to visually convey central character John Nash's mental affliction.

"Some of the epiphanies did entail visual effects and took a fair amount of planning, not only on the visual effects side, but conceptually," he told the site. "I wanted them to be subtle on the one hand but have a relationship with each other, as well."

Ball rolling for Halle

HOLLYWOOD -- For Halle Berry, beauty once proved to be an albatross around her neck.

At 17, the Ohio native was named Miss Teen All American. A year later she was crowned Miss Ohio USA and went on to be the first runner-up for Miss USA.

It was her status as a model that got Berry her roles on TV series such as Knots Landing.

Parts in Jungle Fever, Losing Isaiah and Bulworth were overshadowed by more glamourous roles in The Flintstones, Executive Decision and Solomon & Sheba.

It was not until her critically acclaimed performance in the TV movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge that Berry finally received a hint of the respect she was seeking.

"Playing Dorothy Dandridge and winning a Golden Globe helped me achieve some critical acceptance. I think I had this monkey on back for so many years," says Berry.

"I had to prove I was more than a model and that I could really act. That role freed me up to do things I'd always wanted to. Without Dorothy Dandridge behind me, I'm not sure I'd have had the courage to go after Monster's Ball."

Emotional toll

In this racially charged drama that opens Feb. 15, Berry plays Leticia Musgrove, the wife of a man on death row in a Georgia prison.

Leticia has been faithfully visiting her husband, who is played by Sean Combs, for 11 years until the day of his execution.

Trying to raise their artistically gifted but troubled son Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun) on a limited income has taken its toll emotionally.

Leticia is tired and vulnerable when she becomes the lover of Hank Growtowski (Billy Bob Thornton), the man who headed the death team that executed her husband.

The film features several sexually explicit nude scenes between Thornton and Berry.

"I wanted this role desperately and I fought for it because I was not (director)Marc Forster's first choice. I wasn't any of his initial choices for that matter."

Berry is grateful that, once she won the role, Forster gave her final cut on the racy sex scenes. "I knew the nudity and violent nature of the sex scenes were essential to the story. Just knowing I had a veto freed me to go wherever we had to when we were filming."

Colour blind

The nudity in Monster's Ball follows fast on the heels of Berry's much ballyhooed topless scene in Swordfish.

"The big difference between the nudity in these two films is that in Swordfish I didn't need to be naked. It was my choice."

She is adamant that money did not play a role in that choice.

"I was not paid an additional $500,000 US for the topless scene. Those rumours made for great publicity which the studio exploited but they were totally not true," says Berry who received $2.5 million US for starring in Swordfish.

Berry has been married to R&B musician Eric Benet since January 2001. Benet came to the marriage with a daughter, India, born 1991.

"We have a very strong relationship, so when my movies require love scenes, Eric is not the least bit insecure. He's very much about letting me fly. He's not some ball-and-chain."

For years Berry has prided herself in winning roles that were not written for an African American actor. "I think the (film) business is less colour blind, but I think it's still a struggle to believe it's OK to cast me in everything."

Berry says colour was just one issue she had to deal with when she decided to become an actress. "Just being a woman in Hollywood is something to overcome. Being a woman and black can be pretty rough.

"Sometimes you capitalize on your looks. Other times, as in the case of Monster's Ball, you put it behind you and get out there an fight for what you want."

Berry is currently shooting the next James Bond movie in which she plays the villain Jinx.

On April 23, she'll fly into Vancouver to reprise her role as Storm in X2, the sequel to X-Men.

Halle Berry signs for romantic comedy

Halle Berry will follow up her action turns in the upcoming James Bond film and "X-Men" sequel with the romantic comedy "Nappily Ever After," Variety reports.

Based on the novel by Trisha Thomas, the film casts Berry as a woman who tires of waiting for her boyfriend to marry her and dumps him -- only to find he quickly hooks up with a new flame.

Variety said a writer is being assigned to have the project ready as soon as time opens up in Berry's busy schedule. On Thursday, she leaves for London to star opposite Pierce Brosnan in the 20th Bond film. After that, she goes directly to reprise her role as the weather-controlling superhero Storm in director Bryan Singer's "X-Men" sequel.

Berry has earned raves this year for her breakthrough dramatic performance opposite Billy Bob Thornton in the death-row romance "Monster's Ball."

Berry, Berry happy

HOLLYWOOD -- Halle Berry is monstrously happy these days.

She's scheduled to reprise her role as Storm in the sequel to the popular X-Men, and will play one of the villains in the new James Bond film, which begins filming this month. There's also that little matter of a Golden Globe nomination for her powerful and uncompromising performance opposite Billy Bob Thornton in Monster's Ball.

This racially charged film opens next month after the Golden Globe ceremonies on Jan. 20 because there is wide speculation Berry will be nominated for an Oscar and that could of even greater help in marketing the film.

"I'm trying really hard not to take myself to that whole Oscar thing," says Berry. "It's too overwhelming a thought for me to even comprehend right now. I'm still trying to cope with the Golden Globe nomination and the acknowledgement from the National Board of Review.

"I just hope these mentions for me will help people want to go and see this movie because it's a small film and often independent movies don't have too much success at the box office."

Berry points out, "the Oscars have eluded black women for so long, so it would be an incredible honour for me.

"I've never selected roles thinking as far ahead as an Oscar nomination. My goal has always been to find roles that don't call for a black woman, but that they'll let a black woman play."

Berry says she believes Hollywood has become less colour-blind this past decade but adds: "It's still a struggle for some directors to believe it's OK to cast me in everything.

"Right now, it's still about taking little steps, hoping eventually directors will realize we can be just people and that colour doesn't have to matter all the time.

"In some stories, like Monster's Ball, it does matter, but there are so many stories where it does not."

Halle Berry up for new Bond film

Halle Berry is in talks to become the latest Bond girl, Variety reports.

Berry is eager to play the villain opposite Pierce Brosnan in what will be both the 20th Bond film and the 40th anniversary of the enduring spy franchise.

The only stumbling block appears to be scheduling. The Bond film is to begin shooting in January, but Berry is committed to reprise her role as the weather-controlling mutant Storm in director Bryan Singer's upcoming sequel to "X-Men."

Variety said Singer is to begin shooting his movie early in the new year but hasn't come up with a shooting schedule. Until that happens, Berry can't commit to Bond.

Berry's last on-screen appearance was opposite John Travolta in "Swordfish." Her next role is in "Monster's Ball," which opens Boxing Day.

Meanwhile, The BBC reports that a threatened actors strike in the U.K. won't effect production on the Bond film. The actors union has struck an interim deal with the movie's producers that will carry through any forthcoming work stoppage.

Actors there are deadlocked with producers over repeat fees. To clear the way for a start on the Bond film, Eon Productions has agreed to pay a percentage of DVD and video worldwide sales once 30% of the film's production costs have been recouped, The BBC said.

A similar interim deal has recently been signed to permit production on the second "Harry Potter" film, the report said.

The BBC said the new Bond film is rumoured to be entitled "Beyond The Ice."

Halle Berry joins hit-man film

"X-Men" star Halle Berry will join Ben Affleck in writer-director Martin Brest's "Gigli," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The project, which was first announced months ago by Brest, casts Affleck as a hit man hired to kidnap a mentally handicapped brother of a district attorney.

Berry will play a woman who joins the plot, but is mistaken by Affleck to be a hit woman.

Novice actor Justin Bartha -- a recent graduate of New York's Tisch School Of The Arts and co-host of a recent MTV pilot show entitled "The Dustin And Justin Show" -- has been cast as the district attorney's brother.

Affleck's recent spell in alcohol rehab won't effect the production, the report said.

Hooray for Hallewood

HOLLYWOOD -- Actress Halle Maria Berry has created her own cutsey Web site, a place called 'Hallewood' where fans can e-mail her, meet her dogs Polly and Willy, look at her baby pictures, get beauty tips, peek into her clothes closet and groove to her favourite foods.

Those choices include a dinner of grilled tuna with garlic mashed potatoes, a junk food treat of salt & vinegar chips, or an indulgence of butter pecan ice cream.

On a more serious level, we learn that her mom Judith Berry -- who raised her and older sister Heidi in Cleveland after her father Jerome Berry left when Halle was four -- counts among her life's inspirations.

Significantly, on that list Mom joins Oprah, Jodie Foster, her fifth grade teacher Yvonne Sims and Dorothy Dandridge, the bi-racial, Oscar-nominated singer-actress whom Berry played so memorably in the 1999 TV film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Dandridge committed suicide in 1965.

Berry's own traumas -- including a failed marriage to baseball star David Justice and a hit-and-run accident last year as well as a litany of other troubles before she met and married musician Eric Benet -- had her thinking about suicide, too.

Yet there is something naive and charming about www.hallewood.com. So much so that it is difficult to reconcile that with the Halle Berry who goes topless and later parades around in provocative panties-and-bra in Swordfish, Hollywood's No. 1 boxoffice attraction this week.

But the 32-year-old Berry, a former model who vaulted into the public eye in beauty pageants, says it is all a matter of freedom. The freedom to express her potent sexuality.

"I've never really explored that part of myself on screen before. For so many years, I said: 'No, no, no, no!' A lot of it was about being uncomfortable with myself and being afraid and wondering what people would think. After the last couple of years of my life, I've finally shed myself of those worries."

Playing Dandridge was a watershed, she says. "That helped because I finally got some critical acceptance. I think I had this monkey on my back for so many years to prove I was more than a model. So, with that (awards for the Dandridge film), it freed me up to try some of the things that I always wanted to do. But I had this burning desire to prove something first."

Berry, as reported last week in The Sun, has denied she was paid an extra $500,000 to go topless in Swordfish, although producer Jonathan Krane does claim she was given a bonus, an increase from $2 million to $2.5 million, just for that. Regardless, Berry says the topless scene was in the script and she overcame her fear to do that and other provocative scenes.

"I don't think nudity is ever necessary," she says. "I think you can make every single movie and never show anything and it's fine. I think it's a choice you make and it's a bold choice on our part."

She would do it again in another movie. "Absolutely, I will do it again if a part that inspires me calls for it." Ditto for sex scenes, which prompted her to refuse big roles in the past.

As for the topless controversy, it is no surprise, she says. "Nope, I knew it would happen. I expected it and you (the media) have not let me down."

Far more interesting to her, says Berry, is the colour-blind casting. Berry, whose mother is Caucasian and whose father is African-American, calls herself black and says the role of Ginger in Swordfish could have gone to a woman of any race.

"That's what made me really excited and that's what made me get over the nudity really quickly. I saw this as an opportunity to take a black woman to another place where we haven't gone before. Because that has been my struggle: To just be a woman in a movie and not let the fact that I'm black hinder me from getting parts that my white counterparts are able to play. So this was a big step in that direction."

As for the personalized Web site, Berry says it's a thrill.

"You guys (the media) have always been pretty kind to me, so that's not a bad thing. But it's nice to have an outlet, to have a voice, that's uncut and unedited and I can say what I want to say in its entirety. So it's a really good release for me."

On the Web site, Berry introduces herself in a dreamy letter to fans: "Hallewood is a positive place. It's a place where we can love each other, support one another and offer friendly advice to all those in need. And, if you hang around long enough, it's a place where dreams can come true."

Now, Berry says, her own dreams are coming true.

Berry's hubby shows his love in song

How does he love her?

Check out the songs.

In January, Halle Berry married musician Eric Benet.

Benet is working on a new CD and credits Berry with inspiring at least six of the songs.

"There are a lot of love songs on this CD and just a lot of songs about people coming together and what that feels like,'' said Berry, during recent interviews for her new film Swordfish, opening in theatres today.

"There are other songs about starting a new life together. All the songs are very lovely,'' adds Berry.

Berry divorced her first husband, New York Yankees slugger David Justice, in 1996 after three years of marriage.

Berry credits Benet with giving her the confidence to take the part in Swordfish, her edgiest role to date. She has her first brief partial nude scene, which has been the talk of Hollywood with speculation - since denied by Berry - that she earned a $500,000 US bonus for agreeing to appear topless in one scene.

"I'm just a lot more settled in life these days. I think if I had not been married, maybe I wouldn't have made the choice at this time to do a role like I did in Swordfish.

"Eric is so supportive of who I am and where I am trying to go as an actress and as a black woman. It was refreshing to know he could look at my (nude) scene and say: 'God, that really looked beautiful.'

"He didn't feel the least bit insecure. He didn't try to be like a ball and chain like some men might. He's very much about letting me fly.''

Berry insists she is equally supportive of her husband's forays into acting.

"Eric is in All That Glitters with Mariah Carey. I haven't seen the picture but I know it's a small, small part. Still I know it was fun for him and I support him in whatever he wants to do, just like he does me.''

Berry denies extra pay to bare breasts

HOLLYWOOD -- Contrary to rumours, Halle Berry claims she did not get paid $500,000 to bare her breasts for a poolside scene in the new John Travolta thriller Swordfish.

"Totally not true," Berry said on the weekend. "I would sell these babies for way more money than that. Totally not true. But it's made for great publicity for the movie. I don't know where that came from. Nobody's owning up to it. But it's totally, totally not true."

Berry made the comments at a Swordfish press conference after flying in for the day from Louisiana, where she is shooting a movie with Billy Bob Thornton. Berry was dressed provocatively in a micro-miniskirt, a black bra and a see-through black blouse wide open except for a single button. She said she is becoming more confident about her sexuality and did not need a bonus to strip for the movie.

But one of the film's producers, eccentric Jonathan Krane, says that Berry did have her salary bumped from $2 million to $2.5 million and that the extra money was absolutely a bonus for what he thinks is gratuitous topless exposure.

"I felt it was kind of like old news," Krane said in an interview. "We had seen this before. But other people really wanted that. A lot of actresses turned it down on the basis of that -- and they should. I didn't think it was necessary in the movie. Neither did John (Travolta). She also didn't want to do this. But, somehow, and it had to do with a number of things (including money), she agreed to do it. I was hoping she would not agree to do it and we would hire her anyway so we would not have to have that scene. But she agreed."

Krane, shaking his head in agreement to questions being asked about the incident, indicated he believes that Berry did get a bonus of $500,000 and that he thinks it is a sad commentary on Hollywood.

"I'm not going to make any statements out loud, guys. But I'm being real frank with you -- I don't like it. I've made 43 films that I have produced and I don't think I've had a naked girl in any of them until this."

Krane's version, however, is also being disputed by Krane's heavyweight co-producer Joel Silver, a Hollywood powerhouse for The Matrix. Silver said the nudity was necessary for the story and that Berry did it freely without any financial bonus.

"There was never a discussion about it. It's crazy," Silver said.

In the now-notorious scene, Berry -- a gorgeous model-turned-actress who co-stars with Travolta as his sexy sidekick -- is sitting in a lounge chair in a bikini bottom with a book over her chest. As actor Hugh Jackman approaches, Berry suddenly pulls the book away and shows her bare breasts, startling the character played by Jackman.

"The role was scripted as is. And she wanted to do it," Silver said of Berry. "She read the script and said, 'I'm in.' We did not pay her half-a-million to go topless. We made a deal with her and, whatever her deal was, was what she got. Can you imagine negotiating that? We paid her less than she wanted -- it's show business -- and we made a deal and that was it."

Swordfish opens across North America on Friday.

Halle Berry to star with Travolta?

Hot off her Emmy win for "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," Halle Berry is considering a role opposite John Travolta and her "X-Men" costar Hugh Jackman in "Swordfish," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Travolta stars as a spy who enlists a computer hacker (Jackman) to help steal $6 billion. Berry would star as a double-agent who works for Travolta's character, The Hollywood Reporter said.

-- JAM! Movies

Minding her X's and O's

Truth is Halle Berry wants to put the past few months behind her. Why?

She recently pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge in an L.A Superior Court after a Feb. 23 Sunset Blvd. car accident. Berry, who was put on unsupervised probation and ordered to pay $13,500 in fines, is also being sued by the driver of the other car.

On a more optimistic note, Berry is featured as the mutant superhero Storm in Bryan Singer's X-Men, which opens Friday.

It's the $75-million sci-fi fantasy version of the Marvel Comics series that was filmed in and around Toronto from September to February. In the picture, mutant good guys battle mutant bad guys as non-mutant humans fear them both.

X-Men good guys include the weather wonder distorter Storm (Berry), the optic-attacking Cyclops (James Marsden), the power-absorbing Rogue (Anna Paquin), the telepathic Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), feral-like, self-healing Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and the brains behind the X-Men operation, the wheel-chair bound Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart).

On the bad team ...

The bads? The master of magnetism Magneto (Ian McKellen) has his Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants -- the vicious mauler Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), the shape shifter Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and the agile Toad (Ray Park).

It is Wolverine's journey from the "Canadian" backwoods to enrolling in Prof. X's X-Men Academy which introduces moviegoers to the heroes and later the villains.

"I'm amazed they got it together so fast ," says 33-year-old Berry by phone from New York. "I feel like we just finished shooting."

In fact, it was just last year about this time Berry was up for the part, encouraged by the fact that stalwarts Stewart, McKellen and Paquin had already signed up.

"When I finally got it, I was embarrassed to say I didn't know much about X-Men, but then I found out nobody else in the cast did either," Berry recalls.

In the end, the lack of background helped the actors focus on their characters as defined by the script, not X-Men's complicated past developed since the comic first appeared in 1963.

"The characters have taken so many turns from good to evil, so for me it was helpful not to have all the back stories I wasn't using," she says. "I have heard that Storm's one of the most beloved characters. I feel the pressure. I hope I can do her justice."

Used to winter

So what about her mostly winter shoot in Toronto? "Hey, I grew up in Cleveland on Lake Erie, so I know all about Toronto weather," says Berry, who divorced baseball player David Justice three years ago.

Meanwhile, Berry is working as producer only on the pre-production for a Showtime telefilm, Band Of Angels. "I don't want to be the dancing bear all the time."

She's also considering a few high profile movie parts that start up in September, although she won't confirm what they are. Berry will say that her offers are getting better since her acclaimed HBO production, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.

"My acting life did change after doing Dorothy," she suggests. "I felt like I had a lot to prove. Now I think I get a different kind of respect."

The Dorothy Dandridge role also gave her the courage to try something like X-Men. "I would have felt that it was too risky for me before," she says. "Maybe a little too frivolous for a former model turned actress."

Now that she's immersed herself in the superhero world, what special powers would Berry like to possess?

"Being an actress," she says, "I'd like to read minds, to know what people are thinking in this industry, because there is so much dishonesty out there."

That's a truth, too.

Thursday March 16, 2000

Wednesday March 1, 2000

Sunday August 30, 1998

Saturday, August 22, 1998
 

October 4, 1996
 

March 12, 1995

The HALLE BERRY File