New Steve tv biography on A&E network


This is brand new and has some stuff not previously broadcast

Biography®
“Steve Martin ”

Rated: TVPG
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Genre: Documentary
Closed Captions: Yes

Upcoming Airings:
Friday, February 03 @ 8pm/7C
Saturday, February 04 @ 12am/11C
Saturday, February 11 @ 11am/10C

He was a "wild and crazy guy" and he starred in The Jerk--so who knew that Steve Martin was going to become one of Hollywood's most thoughtful performers, capable of stepping into Spencer Tracy's shoes and starring in a remake of Father of the Bride? This 2-hour profile of Martin chronicles his early career as a hilarious stand-up comic and Saturday Night Live host, and his later work in such sophisticated comedies and light dramas as All of Me and Shopgirl. We'll also look at Steve's other passions, which include collecting art and writing, and his latest film, a remake of The Pink Panther.
- posted by sookeyjane 1/29/2006 08:56:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

Steve and Messageboard controversy


http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/
Fishbowl Exclusive: Steve Martin's heavy fansite hand

An investigative report by Fishtern Jamie Frevele:

steve martin and anne stringfield.jpgHave you ever wondered if celebrities such as, let's say, Steve Martin, knew what was going on at their official fan web sites? Now that you have wondered, wonder further: Have celebrities ever actually taken issue with the extent of their fans' interest? FisbowlNY can indeed confirm that Mr. Steve Martin has done just that, calling for the ban of one poster on SteveMartin.com. After last week's story in US Weekly (which was covered by FishbowlNY last week) revealed record-holding SNL host Martin with the New Yorker's Anne Stringfield in St. Bart's, one poster going by the name "Gourmet Poker Club" was apparently banned from posting at the site after making speculative remarks about the unconfirmed romance, including a possible marriage upon the end of the trip. Other posters, including the webmistress ("Semidivine"), deemed some comments (including one about Ms. Stringfield getting a "Brazilian") to be "over the line" and one wanted the poster in question to be "killed off." (Webspeak for "banned," for those of you who aren't nerds.) Some posters did come to the newly minted exile's defense, and several posts on the message board are now claiming censorship (fore example, here and here).

So, is "waxing poetic" about Mr. Martin's beach romp the issue here? Maybe not. The comments may have reached beyond aesthetic activities and into the realm of privacy invasion. As a public figure, Steve Martin is bound to be photographed and has certainly acquired a loyal legion of fans who enjoy him. In turn, they want to know more about him and the people with whom he associates. In this case, the target was Ms. Stringfield. On the part of "Gourmet Poker Club," there was a great deal of internet research conducted on Stringfield's personal background -- looking up (and calling) a phone number found in the phone book and tracking down people who appeared to be Stringfield's parents. While all of this information may be available to the public, "Gourmet Poker Club" clearly went a bit too far out of the comfort zone of those running Steve Martin's site -- and Steve Martin himself.

According to Semidivine, the poster was "writing about extremely delicate and invasive things" that went beyond the casual, appreciative tone of the site, and that "it was Mr. Martin who wanted her privileges taken away." She added that despite the claims of censorship, the ban was "a unique situation" that had generated specific concern. "Mr. Martin loves reading all the posts on the board...but we don't hurt him or those he cares about, and that's final."

--Jamie Frevele
Posted by Rachel | 08:34 AM
- posted by sookeyjane 1/27/2006 05:05:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

The Martin Diet


http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/
martin%20recommends%20no%20bread%20diet_24_01_2006
24/01/2006 17:27
MARTIN RECOMMENDS NO BREAD DIET

Comic actor STEVE MARTIN has become a diet expert after shedding 25 pounds (11.3 kilograms) to make new movie SHOPGIRL.

Martin, who stars alongside CLARE DANES in the romantic comedy, couldn't believe critics actually thought he had put on weight when his efforts to lose it had really paid off.

He says, "I didn't change what I ate, I just started eating smaller portions.

"And I cut out bread - that's the real killer because I was eating half a loaf before dinner.

"All you have to do is that - then you can drink all you want."
- posted by sookeyjane 1/26/2006 01:18:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

More on Steve and Anne


this also has a pic of the magazine spread

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/magazines/
the_new_yorker_its_just_like_us_31142.asp
fishbowlNY
Friday, Jan 20
The New Yorker - it's just like Us!

This is pure, unadulterated gossip, but it's cute and fun and unites two of the city's favorite magazine success stories, The New Yorker and Us Weekly (though their geneses have been somewhat, er, different). As this week's intrepid Us Weekly reports, movie star/frequent SNL host/New Yorker contributor Steve Martin, 60, was snapped on a romantic beach getaway in St. Barts with "off-again on-again girlfriend, New Yorker staffer Anne Stringfield, 33" (emphasis ours) who bears an uncanny resemblance to Kristin Davis of Sex and The City fame, like so:

No doubt she loves and appreciates his crispy chest hairs. They make a very cute couple and look like they're having fun. Hooray for young love!

Sharing the Us Weekly "Love Lives" page are the Canadian Evangeline Lilly and the Hobbit Dominic Monaghan of Lost, and Beverly Mitchell of Seventh Heaven, whereon she played Lucy, the boring annoying Camden kid. Sorry, make that the most boring annoying Camden kid. It all went to hell when Mary left town. Full page after el jumpo.

Posted by Rachel | 07:48 AM | Magazines
- posted by sookeyjane 1/22/2006 11:27:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

Steve on SNL and A&E


Steve will do SNL on the 4th and A&E will have a brand new Biography of Steve on the 3rd. Happy February.


http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/
1,1002,271%7c99625%7c1%7c,00.html
Steve Martin Adds to 'SNL' Record
Thursday, January 19, 2006
12:30 PM PT

Steve Martin, who's hosted "Saturday Night Live" more than anyone else in history, will add to his record next month.

Martin, who last hosted the show in September 1994, will take his 14th turn as frontman for the venerable NBC comedy show on Saturday, Feb. 4. He'll be joined by musical guest Prince, who'll be making his second appearance on the show -- almost 25 years after his first.

As so often happens, both host and musical guest have things to promote via their appearance. Martin is starring as Inspector Clouseau in a remake of "The Pink Panther" due for release the week after his "SNL" gig, and Prince is set to release a new album, "3121," in March.

Martin helped give "Saturday Night Live" its identity in the mid-1970s, teaming with Dan Aykroyd to create the Festrunk brothers, two "wild and crazy guys" from behind the Iron Curtain, and fronting the classic King Tut sketch, among many others. He has made uncredited cameos on the show a couple of times in recent years but hasn't stepped out to host in more than a decade.

Prince last appeared on "SNL" in February 1981, during his "Little Red Corvette" days. He has, of course, since gone on to become one of the more revered, and enigmatic, figures in pop music.
- posted by sookeyjane 1/20/2006 03:04:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

Steve on writing movies


The New York Times
January 15, 2006 Sunday
Late Edition - Final
Section 2A; Column 3; Arts and Leisure Desk; THE OSCARS; Pg. 10
For Those Who've Tired of Glory and Riches
By ROSS JOHNSON

IF the current awards season produces a Cinderella story, it may have less to do with Ron Howard's still-slugging ''Cinderella Man'' than with Dan Futterman.

Mr. Futterman had never written a screenplay before he optioned a book by Gerald Clarke about Truman Capote, the writer and bon vivant. By trade, Mr. Futterman was an actor, best known to television audiences as Amy's brother in the CBS series ''Judging Amy'' or through appearances on WB's ''Related.''

Yet Mr. Futterman's screenplay for ''Capote,'' an intricate character study that stars his friend Philip Seymour Hoffman, has already won a couple of critics' awards and is clearly in the Oscar race.

While Mr. Futterman might seem to have come from nowhere to a favored position in the scramble for writing prizes, he is hardly alone as an actor taking control of the writer's craft.

This year's field is peppered with writers who happen to hold down day jobs as performers -- some of them as seasoned as Woody Allen, with ''Match Point,'' and Steve Martin, with ''Shopgirl''; others as surprising as Mr. Futterman or the actor Grant Heslov, who joined George Clooney in writing the script for ''Good Night, and Good Luck.''

In the long view, actors who write can lay claim to a tradition dating at least to Shakespeare, and they are a perpetual favorite of academy voters. Mr. Allen, for instance, has been nominated for 13 Oscars as a writer and has won twice, for ''Annie Hall'' and ''Hannah and Her Sisters.'' The actress Nia Vardalos was nominated for ''My Big Fat Greek Wedding,'' as was Sylvester Stallone for ''Rocky''; Billy Bob Thornton won the Oscar for adapted screenplay for ''Sling Blade.''

Particularly charming, of course, is the thought of a struggling actor writing his or her way to stardom from a Hollywood or New York tenement apartment.

Witness the oft-told tale of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who wrote the script for ''Good Will Hunting'' and sold it on the condition that they play the lead parts. Mr. Damon and Mr. Affleck won an original-screenplay Oscar in 1998, and, like Mr. Stallone and Mr. Thornton before them, almost immediately disappeared from the screenwriting business into pop culture stardom.

What makes this year's contenders unusual is that their work is not full of monologues -- often the trademark of actor-written scripts, as with ''The Apostle,'' which got Robert Duvall an acting nomination, though no writing nod, in 1998.

And with the exception of Mr. Martin, the actors who wrote the screenplays drawing attention this year don't even appear in the films.

Mr. Futterman, for instance, felt that Mr. Hoffman was the perfect choice to play Capote during the years the author researched and wrote ''In Cold Blood.''

Mr. Futterman, 38, said his years as an actor helped him immeasurably when he finally took up the pen. ''I was in touch with what would be fun to play about Capote,'' he said. ''There's something inherently dramatic when someone is manipulative and self-serving, and I just knew that Phil Hoffman could bring a clarity to Capote.''

Mr. Futterman said that he had no illusions about the comparatively modest money to be made in Hollywood as a character actor, and that he was looking forward to any artistic and financial opportunities that come with being a sought-after Hollywood writer.

By contrast, Mr. Martin, who adapted ''Shopgirl'' from his 2000 novella and previously wrote the screenplays for films like ''Roxanne'' and ''L.A. Story,'' will not be abandoning on-screen stardom any time soon -- though he regards writing as a primary pursuit.

''One of my first jobs in Hollywood was as a staff writer on 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,' '' Mr. Martin said in a recent interview. ''It's all part of the same process for me, and I'm always amazed that a nonactor can write so well for an actor.''

As he explained it: ''Actors need great lines, but actors also know that in film acting, a look or an attitude can sometimes take the place of a line. And actors know that sometimes all an audience wants is a simple moment of truth, and that truth can move the story along as well as any plot point.''

There is often a purity about the filmmaking process when actors have written the script, said Todd Garner, a former production president at Disney Studios and Revolution Studios and an executive producer of the upcoming ''Little Man,'' which was directed and co-written by the actor Keenen Ivory Wayans.

''If an actor gives you a script that he wrote for himself, you're either going to make that script with that actor or you're not,'' Mr. Garner said. ''You're not going to waste a lot of time developing the story with other writers, and that's often a good thing.''

Mr. Allen, who is being promoted by some critics as a favorite in the Oscar race for original screenplay for ''Match Point,'' declined, through a representative, to be interviewed. But when he spoke to a ''Match Point'' screening audience at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif., last month, he discussed how he was helped as a writer by understanding the importance of casting the right actor.

Mr. Allen noted the predicament of his film's tortured lead character, played by the Irish actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. ''Jonathan is an actor who turns going to the corner drugstore into a Eugene O'Neill moment,'' Mr. Allen said. ''You can't write that.''

FOR Mr. Heslov, the co-writer of ''Good Night, and Good Luck,'' an opportunity to audition for a part in a Woody Allen movie 10 years ago led to a career change; he wrote and directed ''Waiting for Woody,'' a short film about the audition experience.

''I realized that the rest of my life could be spent scraping around for bit parts,'' said Mr. Heslov, who plays the CBS newsman Don Hewitt in ''Good Night.'' ''Or I thought I could try to create stuff that I had some control over. Just trying to get that control can be an empowering experience.''

Mr. Heslov and his co-writer, George Clooney, define the two ends of the actors-who-write spectrum. Mr. Clooney is a matinee idol who put the ''Good Night'' screenplay in motion because of a long-held interest in the life of Edward R. Murrow. Mr. Heslov, who first met Mr. Clooney 23 years ago in an acting class, described himself as a longstanding member of a virtual floating tribe of character actors pounding out scripts.

''You go onto any set in Hollywood, and there's a character actor writing a script in between setups,'' said Mr. Heslov, who is now developing an HBO project with Mr. Clooney's company, Section Eight. ''And some of those actors eventually get a lot more money and success writing, and they dump acting. But I don't think anyone ever really loses the acting bug.''

One of those who hasn't lost the bug is Mr. Futterman, who has found that his growing renown as the writer of ''Capote'' has created a pleasant and supportive stir on the set of ''Related.'' Still, he said, it has also had unforeseen effects on his work as an actor.

''You need tunnel vision to act,'' Mr. Futterman said, laughing. ''Now I find myself reading the whole script and looking at things besides my part.''

''It's just a disaster,'' he added, ''because I can't put the blinders on and worry just about what my character wants.''
- posted by sookeyjane 1/17/2006 06:11:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

Anne Stringfield is the St. Bart's babe, not Kristin Davis


The Kristin Davis-Steve Martin rumor has surfaced again because a photographer on St. Bart's mistook Anne Stringfield, Steve's 33 year old girlfriend of three years for Kristin.

The original gossip online to spread the rumor is here. But the original source of the pics is here, and this site first spread the pics and called it Kristin, but then acknowledged the woman in Steve's arms is Stringfield.

Scotch one rumor.
- posted by sookeyjane 1/12/2006 01:12:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS

 

Steve talks about his lovelife -- a bit


The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
January 6, 2006 Friday
FEATURES; FILM ON FRIDAY; Pg. 26
Yes, I had an affair with a shopgirl. Probably Steve Martin tells John Hiscock his new film isn't based on himself, but he has some romantic confessions to make
JOHN HISCOCK

Steve Martin is reminiscing about a long-past love affair. It happened, he says wryly, "when I was still a celebrity'', and he and the woman talked about it later. "I asked her why she had slept with me, and she said, 'So I can tell my friends,''' he says with a smile, although he does not seem very amused.

The talk has turned inevitably to the actor-comedian's love life because his new film Shopgirl, which he adapted from his novella of the same name, deals with a bittersweet affair between Ray Porter, a rich, handsome, middle-aged bachelor, and Mirabelle, a lonely shop assistant he meets at the rarely frequented glove counter at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, where she works.

A serio-comic tale about the difficulty of connecting in the modern-day world, Shopgirl stars Martin as the smooth, self-possessed Porter, who woos the endearingly vulnerable Mirabelle (Claire Danes) with courtly determination and expensive gifts; but, when she falls for him, he is unwilling to commit himself to a serious relationship.

Martin is not saying how much of it is autobiographical, but he cautiously acknowledges: "As a man I've had many experiences in my life, and I certainly draw upon them. I've had those relationships. I have some experience in that area, but this is a role. Anything you make is partly autobiographical, but the story is not based on me. It's based on anecdotes from others and a lifetime of observation. It's an accumulation of interests, conversations and experience.

"The movie is about people learning about life - and themselves - through love. Love is a test.

"I've been through many stages in my life, and certainly one stage was like Ray Porter - being emotionally unavailable and afraid of intimacy. It's a brief stage, but it's a potent one. I was essentially on the road from age 25 until I was 40, and it's a very, very lonely life. You're in a town for one or two days and you're always packing a suitcase and you sort of adapt to that kind of life.

"Mirabelle is a pastiche of people I've known; and when you live in Los Angeles you drive around and you look at all these shop girls and kind of fantasise about their lives.''

Has he had an affair with a shop girl? "Probably.''

Steve Martin is notoriously uncomfortable in interviews and intensely dislikes talking about himself, so it is nothing short of extraordinary for him to be discussing, albeit reluctantly, past love affairs and emotional milestones in his life. But there are certain things that have to be done even if you're a celebrated actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, playwright and author, and Martin knows that if he wants Shopgirl to be noticed he has to put on a brave face and courteously answer questions he would far rather ignore.

It is difficult to reconcile the quietly spoken, sophisticated, 60-year-old actor-writer with the hyperkinetic comedian who won laughs by sporting a fake arrow through his head and coining the catchphrase, "Well, excuuuuse me!'' His home is now a rambling ranch-style home in the Hollywood Hills, where he keeps his extensive art collection and works at his other profession as a writer. And his play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, his collection of humorous essays, his novels and his contributions to the venerable New Yorker magazine have placed him among the ranks of the respected literati.

"You go through different periods,'' explains Martin. "Earlier on it was comfortable for me to be crazy. Then you get a little older and get a little more in-depth. It's maturity, age, self-examination, experience - painful experience - and thinking about life.''

Like those of his Ray Porter character, Martin's own private relationships have not all been successful. His seven-year marriage to British actress Victoria Tennant collapsed in 1993 when she left him for an Australian actor. Shortly afterwards, he entered a short and ill-fated love affair with Anne Heche, who later declared herself a lesbian and briefly moved in with Ellen DeGeneres. Since then he has dated a number of different women, most recently Patty Marx, a writer, and he insists he is now "in a solid relationship''.

He learned his trade working at Disneyland, selling guidebooks and doing magic tricks for visitors while studying towards his goal of becoming a philosophy professor. He changed direction when he was offered a writing job in the late '60s on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and soon began performing his own material in clubs and on television, later graduating to huge rock venues that would dwarf a less visual performer.

While his low-brow early movies gave little indication of career longevity, he developed into a leading comic and dramatic actor with films such as Pennies From Heaven, Roxanne, The Spanish Prisoner, Joe Gould's Secret and Novocaine. While comically manic in films such as The Jerk and All of Me, he was coolly unsympathetic in Grand Canyon and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Although he won a Writers' Guild award for his 1988 screenplay for Roxanne, and became a Hollywood hyphenate by producing, writing and starring in LA Story in 1991, his focus began to change in the early 1990s when he wrote Picasso at the Lapin Agile. The comic fantasy about a meeting between the celebrated painter and Albert Einstein in a Paris bar in 1904 shortly before they achieved worldwide fame became a hit in Los Angles and opened off-Broadway to respectable reviews and box office, confirming Martin as a significant new voice on the theatre scene.

Martin then took a three-year break from acting to concentrate on his writing. Having published a collection of his humorous stories under the title Cruel Shoes, he followed it with Pure Drivel, a collection of his absurdist essays, and then Shopgirl, which made it on to many bestseller lists.

His screen version of Shopgirl sees him explore not only the intricacies of human relationships and the loneliness of LA existence, but the twin themes of beauty and the arts, two subjects of great importance to him.

"In times of crisis like Hurricane Katrina, beauty and the arts seem very insignificant, but in times of calm, they become very important to us and give us a kind of secular reason to live,'' he says.

"Everybody has their own taste and what makes it all go round is there's somebody for everybody. I remember once I was in Texas doing a film with Liam Neeson. We were sharing a house, and we were going for a walk in the afternoon and two girls came walking by.

"By the way, this was 20 years ago,'' he hurriedly adds. "I said to Liam, 'Wow, I thought that girl was so beautiful,' and he said, 'I liked the other one.''' Martin smiles and shrugs. "That's the way it works.''
- posted by sookeyjane 1/07/2006 03:56:00 PM PERMALINK 0 COMMENTS