Hooray for Hollywood

Jan. 12, 2006

Dear Pat,

Hollywood came to Cape Girardeau this week. Scenes from "Killshot," the movie, are being shot downtown. Restaurants and nightclubs are buzzing with extra patrons and rumors.

Everybody in town to seems to have a Johnny Knoxville story, most of which begin or end with "He's a really nice guy." Thomas Jane, the handsome leading man, was seen drinking a beer at Buckner's, our brew pub. Diane Lane, who in her recent movies has had a thing for charming strangers, has been noticeably absent from our nightlife.

She and Jane play a couple in the federal Witness Protection Program sent to Cape Girardeau to live in obscurity. Instead of being offended by Elmore Leonard's notion that Cape Girardeau is a Timbuktu, most Cape Girardeans seem excited about having the filmmakers and actors here.

Few people over 35 are familiar with the Knoxville oeuvre, but he is renowned to Gen Y for his stunts and pranks in the MTV series "Jackass." One prank had both his arms in casts so he could ask people -- both men and women -- if they'd unzip his pants so he could relieve himself. In one of his stunts, professional hockey players pummeled him with undefended body-checks in the middle of a rink.

One night here Knoxville and some of the "Killshot" crew members ate at Mollie's, a chic downtown restaurant. Afterward he played pool and did shots at Breakaways. Visits to the Rude Dog Pub and Jeremiah's followed. No damage was done except to brain cells.

He was last seen late that night shambling down Main Street amid a throng of young female fans.

Nothing in the way of bad-boy behavior to call the Hollywood Reporter about.

DC and some of our friends applied to be extras or stand-ins on the film. Incredibly, all but one were passed over. Dealing with rejection is said to be the hardest part about the acting game.

DC, who intends to become a character actress in her old age, sent the moviemakers a picture of herself and our beagle Alvie. Hollywood's snub, I reassured her, was due to my picture-taking skills and not her charms.

The producers did draft our friend Charlie for duty. On Monday his glamorous job was to drive his sister's gray pickup -- the filmmakers rejected his car because it's red -- back and forth downtown as part of the scenery. He did that for three or four hours.

Charlie thinks the filmmakers might be considering him as a stand-in for one of the new arrivals on the set, either "Third Rock from the Sun" star Joseph Gordon Levitt or Mickey Rourke.

Rourke was the arsonist in "Body Heat," the seducer in "9 1/2 Weeks," the private eye ensnared by voodoo in "Angel Heart," the poet Charles Bukowski in "Barfly," and plays a hit man in "Killshot."

"Stand-in for Mickey Rourke" would be something to put on a resume.

Rourke is one of the baddest boys Hollywood ever produced. Cape Girardeau could get a little more interesting for a few days.

Back in the 1990s, Rourke quit the movies for years to try professional boxing. Now that's a bad boy.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.