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Burning Qs: Keanu Demystified & Tintin Scoop

Sun., Sep. 14, 2008 1:00 AM PDT by Leslie Gornstein

Flynetonline.com

Does A-list status automatically apply to that actor's partner if he/she is also in the biz? For example, are Jada Pinkett-Smith and Katie Holmes also considered A-list just like their husbands? Thanks!
—T. Freckleton

No. A-list status comes only from a star's bankability and pay scale, not his or her partner in paparazzi-dodging. Otherwise Tony Parker would have his own prime-time soap opera.

Explain Keanu Reeves. If he's almost universally acknowledged as being a bad actor, why does he keep getting work?
—Finu

For the same reason Jessica Simpson keeps landing album deals and Dane Cook keeps doing stand-up. Because just enough people find Keanu sexy and charismatic and entertaining to keep him working. More importantly, his super-aggro agents happened to get him cast in a movie that turned out to be a series—The Matrix. Once people identified Reeves as Neo, he could ride that sci-fi gravy train to the tune of $30 million in take-home pay—and he did.

And besides, sometimes you just want some eye candy. And that's not me talking. "He brings no more or less than he ever does to his role," Variety wrote about the first Matrix movie, "which translates into agreeable eye candy for some and boredom for others."

Hey, I have a question. Do you have a scoop on the new Nick Frost and Simon Pegg movie, Paul? What about Nick's alleged involvement in the new Tintin movie? Given your love of swooshing upward hair, I thought you might have some privileged info.
—Shane

Paul starts shooting next year, directed by Superbad helmer Greg Mottola. The plot features two loser comic book fans on a road trip. Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) recently lamented that scheduling precluded him from doing Quentin Tarantino's upcoming film, Inglorious Bastards, but Pegg insists that the Paul shooting sked had nothing to do with it.

As for Tintin, nothing has been formally announced. But the very latest solid rumor is that Frost and frequent collaborator Pegg have been cast as identical twins in a planned trilogy of Tintin films, the first to be directed by Steven Spielberg. Which makes a lot more sense than casting him as Tintin.

"Spielberg thinks they make such an amusing pair that people will be happy to overlook their obvious physical differences," a source close to the production told the London Sunday Telegraph.

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