THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 10, 1994 TAG: 9408100018
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines
BEFORE TAKING off for last month's mixer thrown by the Video Software Dealers Association, Videomatic asked readers to come up with questions you'd like to have put to the celebs who would be in Vegas.
There were no guarantees. Being a first-timer, I didn't know who would have time to talk about what. Answer: not many. That's understandable; the VSDA is a gig for retailers (i.e., buyers), and the stars want to push their projects by meeting lots of people in a short time.
But La Toya Jackson, promoting her ``Celebrity Centerfold'' video, out today on the Playboy label, was doing interviews. Good thing, because you guys called with more questions for her than anyone else.
Becky of Virginia Beach: Do you have a close relationship with your family? How old were you when you started singing?
Jackson defers family questions - ``I'd rather concentrate on the present and future,'' she said - but growing up in a large, musical family, it's hard to say when she first started singing.
Professionally? She was 16. ``It was at the MGM. My father threw me on stage with my brothers.''
Jerome of Portsmouth: How did you get into singing country music?
``I grew up with country music,'' Jackson said. `` `Those Old Cotton Fields Back Home' was the first song my mother taught us, so it was always a part of my life, and I wanted to try it.''
She does on the forthcoming ``From Nashville to You'' (Mar-Gor Records). Cutting the album, which Jackson co-produced, was a different experience.
``I was in Europe and had a week off. They do it very differently in Nashville - live with a band. We recorded it in eight days.'' Jackson broke into a laugh and added: ``My producers would say, `Learn these three songs and come back tomorrow.' The band wanted to go out at night, but I had to stay in the hotel.''
Billy of Knotts Island, N.C.: Is it true you and Michael are the same person? You're never seen together.
Now, Billy was probably kidding, so I didn't ask, for two reasons: 1) Her beefy bodyguard; 2) Her Playboy video.
It's pretty soft, even by soft-core standards - Jackson looks uncomfortable prancing around topless in five music videos - but there's no way that's Michael. And the interview segments echo what she said in Las Vegas and what she revealed in her 1991 autobiography, ``La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family.''
Simply put: Life for the Jackson children wasn't the fairy tale it's been made out to be. And, like it or not, she's calling her own shots now. That doesn't mean the backlash hasn't been painful.
``People don't want to believe the truth, but in time, the truth will prevail,'' Jackson said. ``So in that sense, it absolutely hurts. I'm human, just like everyone else.
``I don't mind when people call me a rebel, because I have stepped over the boundaries. But as long as you believe in what you're doing and you do what's right for you, it will be OK.''
TOP TAPES (in this week's Billboard):
Sales: ``Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,'' ``The Return of Jafar,'' ``Mrs. Doubtfire,'' ``Yanni: Live at the Acropolis,'' ``Playboy: 1994 Playmate of the Year''
Rentals: ``Philadelphia,'' ``The Pelican Brief,'' ``Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,'' ``Tombstone,'' ``Grumpy Old Men''
The Couch Report
``Far Away, So Close'' (1993, Columbia TriStar). Like his ``Wings of Desire,'' Wim Wenders' sequel is a loving, masterful meditation on the human condition. Otto Sandler is memorable as Cassiel, an angel who falls to Earth in post-Cold War Berlin and only wants to do good. His touching performance, though, is part of a bigger whole: a poetic screenplay, daring cinematography and an innovative soundtrack - plus cameos by Mikhail Gorbachev and Lou Reed! Here, truly, is filmmaking as art. (In German with English subtitles.)
(CAST: Otto Sandler, Peter Falk, Nastassia Kinski, Bruno Ganz, Willem Dafoe. RATED: PG-13 for mild language and violence, but mostly themes)
``The Ref'' (1994, Touchstone). A black, black comedy that deserved better. Denis Leary plays a burglar who muffs a heist and ends up counselor to the dysfunctional couple from hell. The story says a lot about the way we are; it gets a considerable boost from a literate script and dead-on ensemble acting.
(CAST: Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey. RATED: R for language)
``My Girl 2'' (1994, Columbia TriStar). The sequel can stand on its own, but it picks up with young Vada flying to California to learn about her mom. Along the way, she learns about herself. A rarity that treats its subject honestly and with respect. Anna Chlumsky, wise and mature, is a delight.
(CAST: Anna Chlumsky, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis. RATED: PG for mild language)
``It's All True'' (1994, Paramount). With World War II looming, Orson Welles went to South America to make a movie as a goodwill gesture. It was never seen; RKO yanked his documentary before it could be finished. Discovered in 1985, the footage, especially the politically charged ``Four Men on a Raft,'' is billed as the great director's lost masterpiece. It's true.
(RATED: G, nothing offensive but it's more for adults)
``Chasers'' (1994, Warner). What could have been a standard road flick gets a little twist from twisted director Dennis Hopper. Tom Berenger is a by-the-books Navy chief who, with slick William McNamara, brings comely Erika Eleniak back to the brig. Local Navy types will eat up the color.
(CAST: Tom Berenger, William McNamara, Erika Eleniak. RATED: R for language and nudity)
``Knife in the Head'' (1978, New Yorker). Bruno Ganz is gripping as a scientist shot in the head by police during a raid on a group of radicals. As he rebuilds his life, both sides try to use him. Part-thriller, part-parable for the political climate in Germany. (In German with English subtitles.)
(CAST: Bruno Ganz, Angela Winkler, Han Christian Blech. UNRATED, includes violence, language and brief nudity)
``The Oak'' (1992, New Yorker). Another parable, this one for Romania as it emerges from the grip of Ceausescu. Nela takes the ashes of her secret police father and heads for the countryside, where she begins an affair with a defiant doctor. The mad, frantic pace captures a country trying to reconcile its past as it steps into the future. (In Romanian with English subtitles.)
(CAST: Maia Morgenstern, Razvan Vasilescu. UNRATED, includes language, nudity and rape)
Also: ``Intersection,'' in which Richard Gere models flashy clothes while he chooses between Sharon Stone and Lolita Davidovich (R); ``Beethoven's 2nd,'' proof all dogs don't go to heaven - they go to sequels (PG), and ``Accidental Meeting,'' betrayal and murder with Linda Gray and Linda Purl (R).
Next Wednesday: ``Schindler's List,'' ``I'll Do Anything,'' ``Hard Boiled,'' ``The Stand,'' ``Cyber Ninja,'' ``A Life in the Theatre,'' ``Ghoulies IV,'' ``Seduce Me''
Aug. 24: ``Blue Chips,'' ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' ``Like Water for Chocolate,'' ``Blue,'' ``A Man Escaped,'' ``Cheyenne Warrior,'' ``Night of the Demons 2,'' ``Raw Justice,'' ``Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone,'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CRAIG SHAPIRO
La Toya Jackson gives autographs and answers questions in Las
Vegas.
Photo
TOUCHSTONE PICTURES
Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis are a bickering couple who turn a
burglar into a mediator in the newly released ``The Ref.'' by CNB