MAY 2001
www.celtic-connection.com
Page 23
HOLLYWOOD PROFILE
Catherine Zeta-Jones - Coming of Age
GYPSY CELTS
STUNNING Welsh beauty Catherine Zeta-Jones has made an enormous impression on Hollywood since her arrival.
wood superstar Michael Douglas, whom she later married.
By
ROBERT WALDMAN
NE MUST give credit where it is due. Hollywood's brightest light, master director/producer Steven Spielberg scores another impressive victory for effectively "discovering" fledgling British starlet Catherine Zeta-Jones.
After the noted American director spotted the supporting actress in the British television miniseries The Titanic, her image stuck and he persuaded another Brit, director Martin Campbell (Goldeneye) to cast her in The Mask of Zorro in a pivotal role.
Once the much anticipated film opened, it was Zeta-Jones's beauty and acting ability that stuck in the minds of both audiences and critics, making her a mega- star in the process.
Taking the role of Elena Montero, the love interest of two rivalling men, was no easy task. Sandwiched between super-hunk Antonio Banderas (a young Zorro) and Sir Anthony Hopkins (a mature Zorro), Zeta-Jones showed both of them up, making her a household name and the real-life love interest to Holly-
The new Mrs. Douglas was born in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales in 1969 to humble parents. She earned her acting stripes, in BriUsh film and more importantly in British theatre.
Her first taste of the public limelight was in the London musical hit 42nd Street, in which she was in the chorus and an understudy.
Quite by chance she was asked to take over the lead and she made it her own starring vehicle for the next two years. Film audiences have not yet heard her sing, which will impress them again when this opportunity arises.
Like so many other British actors, both stage and television appearances played pivotal roles in her climb to movie stardom.
The big break came in 1991 when she was signed to play Marietta for a popular Yorkshire Television comedy/drama series called The Darling Buds of May.
Shordy afterwards she took to die stage under the direction of Anthony Hopkins for the 1992 Dylan Thomas play Under Milkwood.
Yet even before these successes Zeta-Jones appeared on screen, making her film debut in the 1990's Scheherazade, a film directed by France's Philip de Broca.
Before going to Hollywood she made one last British film, Blue Juice with Ewan McGregor and then appeared in a television adaptation called The Return of the Native.
Other creative endeavours this talented young 31-year old has graced include the title role in the miniseries Catherine the Great, the English National Opera's Street Scenes play, and parts in movies such as Paramount's
swashbuckling adventure romp The Phantom (with Billy Zane), Splitting Heirs and Christopher Columbus: The Discovery.
Acting superstar Sean Connery (James Bond) went toe-to-toe with the brawny buff beauty who used all her womanly talents as Virginia "Gin" Baker to put his passion for stealing on ice in Entrapment, a lavish high-tech blockbuster shot in Ireland.
Now happily married to superstar Michael Douglas, Zeta-Jones can pick and choose her projects without any worries. One example is her work in the highly acclaimed Oscar- winning Traffic.
Director Steven Soderbergh's gritty tale about drugs American-style was both a huge critical and box office success.
Playing the part of the wife of a reputed Latin American California-based drug kingpin earned Zeta-Jones rave reviews.
No longer is she just considered just another pretty face, hot figure, like so many other fledgling Hollywood "looker" starlets. Everyone now knows this lass can' act.
Already a favourite with die public, Zeta-Jones will age gracefully and make audience hearts pound faster with delight.
Sun Sets on Ireland's Favourite Village
DUBLIN - Fans of one of Ireland's longest running dramas have sadly said a fond farewell to the RTE television soap, Glenroe. For 18 years, life in the tight knit community of Glenroe became synonymous with Sunday night TV viewing in thousands of Irish living rooms.
During the program's run, the Irish nation witnessed nine onscreen weddings, three screen funerals, 16 pregnancies, one murder and two characters that returned from the dead.
From horticultural problems, to marital infidelity and a greyhound who fell pregnant to a Jack Russell, the show's storylines went from the mundane to the hilarious. The show was the brainchild of Wesley Burrowes and was first aired in September 1983.
- The Irish Independent
PADDY COLWELL
By DAVID ABBOTT
Desmond Acheson is an Irishman born in Africa of Belfast parents, who now works in the Philippines. Acheson is well travelled.
After graduating from The University of Ulster, Des moved to Vancouver and rapidly progressed up the hotel management ladder.
Today, he is general manager of the Pan Pacific Hotel in Manila. His mother still lives in Newscastle, County Down and his brother is a doctor in Belfast. Next time you're in Manila say hello, he loves to meet fellow Celts.
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All the way from Terenure, Dublin, University College Dublin zoologist Paddy Colwell has given more time to Australia's Great Barrier Reef than most.
The owner and creator of Reef Teach in Cairns, Australia, he unlocks the secrets of the reef for Australians and tourists alike. So before going out on a dive or snorkel check in for his lecture. His Scottish-born wife Isobel and their son and daughter love Paddy, the Celtic crusader, as do all the locals and tourists who meet him.
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