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The Anniversary Party

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Jennifer Jason Leigh and I wrote, produced and directedThe Anniversary Party. We also play the central characters, Joe and Sally Therrian, recently reunited after a 9-month separation, and throwing a sixth wedding anniversary party to prove to themselves as well as their friends that everything is all right. 

The other cast members include Kevin Kline, Phoebe Cates, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Beals, Jane Adams, John C. Reilly, Michael Panes, Mina Badie, Parker Posey, John Benjamin Hickey and Denis O'Hare.

Jennifer and I first met while she played Sally Bowles on Broadway in Cabaret. The idea for the story came from Jennifer and I getting to know each other. We thought it would be nice to make a film with friends, and so, partly influenced by the experience she had had working on a Dogma film in Africa we set out to make a film that would feel real, with a crossover of who we all are in real life and who we all are in the film and to make it about grown-up issues and dealt with in a grown-up way i.e. not perfectly and a little messy.

Here's a video diary I made during the course of the film, and some interviews we did about it...

The film premiered at the Cannes film festival in 2001 and was released shortly after. We won a National Board of Review award and were nominated for two Independent Spirit awards for Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay

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Talk Shows

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Here I am on Regis and Kathie Lee plugging The Flintstones movie, except Regis was off and it's Howie Mandel instead.

There's a compilation with several interviews including an appearance on The Conan O'Brien Show when I hosted Saturday Night Live and other items about The Flintstones and God, the Devil and Bob,

Then I'm plugging Titus on MTV's Hot Zone, Regis and Kathie Lee again (though it's Regis' wife Joy instead of Kathie Lee -  do you sense a pattern here?), something from The Flintstones on Fox 11.

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Josie and the Pussycats

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Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont wrote and directed this live action update of the cult cartoon, Josie and the Pussycats, about an all girl pop group. I played Wyatt Frame, the band's manager, who has an evil agenda for our three heroines. 

I was in the middle of editing The Anniversary Party while making this film. I was back and forth from LA to Vancouver all the time. Parker Posey and I are the two baddies. We were absolutely shameless. It's some of the most shameless acting I've ever done, and that is saying something 'cause I've done some shameless acting in my time. I also have this big hunk of plastic roast beef from the set in my house.

The film stars Rachel Leigh Cook, Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson as the eponymous heroines. 

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Investigating Sex

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I flew to Berlin to play Sevy, a painter, involved in a discussion of sex and sexuality based in a real-life investigation in the 1920s in the film, Investigating Sex.

Alan Rudolph directed, and the film also stars Neve Campbell, Nick Nolte, Robin Tunney, John Light, Tuesday Weld, and Til Schweiger.

I went to The Kit Kat Club when I was in Berlin. It was very racy. Just as racy as it is in Cabaret. I love going to places where I'm totally in a different culture. I crave that. It's nice to be in a place where you understand nothing or very little. You work very hard to understand the customs of the country.

I love this film and wish it had been seen by more people. Some dispute with German producers or something or other let it languish in litigation. It was released on DVD in the US under the rather tacky name Intimate Affairs.

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Webby Awards

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I was the host of the 2000 Webby Awards, the oscars of the internet. And boy, what a swanky affair it was. This was at the height of the internet bubble and there was a feeling of great and lavish confidence. Then of course, the bubble burst.


I hosted the awards the following year too, but they were not so lavish, and there was a feeling of contriteness and lots of jokes about former internet entrepreneurs becoming yoga teachers.  Also, to illustrate the lack of lavishness, the guy who booked me for the 2001 awards ran off with my cash and still owes me a sizable sum.

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Spy Kids

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Robert Rodriguez directed the family spy romp, Spy Kids, about two kids whose parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugina) are captured in a mission, and they have to go and rescue them. I played the mad genius Fegan Floop, who has captured Mum and Dad, and will turn them into characters on his TV show if the kids don't get there soon. The film was shot in Austin, Texas and I loved every second of it. Floop is such a great part, and I got to rush around my castle being mad. I also got to sing a song that Danny Elfman wrote, which was amazing.

Spy Kids and Floop really connected with kids and I love the way that they still, as adults, come up to me to tell me how magical they found this movie.

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Saturday Night Live

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I hosted Saturday Night Live in February of 2000.

OMFG. Talk about scary!! Not just that you have so little time to rehearse and there are new bits of sketches right up until transmission, not just that it is LIVE, but also because it is such a landmark thing to do, to host SNL! I stopped telling people I was going to do it because their reactions made me feel even more nervous. But I loved it. It was such an adrenaline rush, and I had all my New York friends in the front row of the balcony cheering me on. Plus I got to say 'Jennifer Lopez is in the house!' and 'Give it up for Jennifer Lopez!' which made me very happy.

There were some hilarious sketches.  I took part in the regular ones like Dog Show and The Culps with Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer, and also did a Lennon/McCartney fast food fantasy with Jimmy Fallon, a Siegfried and Roy one with Chris Kattan, and a Home Shopping Network segment on sunburned dolls with the amazing Ana.