THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260029
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 124 lines
``I'M THE BOSS,'' Elizabeth Hurley was saying. ``If he gives any trouble, I'll cut off his paycheck.''
She was referring to her famous boyfriend, Hugh Grant.
She seemed to be joking, but she wasn't laughing. She wasn't even smiling.
In the relationship of romantic-comedy star Hugh Grant to model girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley, divine intervention has led to extreme measures.
Grant, an Oxford graduate and the heir apparent to Cary Grant's image as the dapper, romantic-comedy man of the world, seemed to have it all. Wealth. Fame. A beautiful girlfriend. The comedy ``Four Weddings and a Funeral'' made him an international star with a squeaky clean image that prompted women to choose him as the guy they would take home to meet Daddy.
Then, he took a ride on Sunset Boulevard one night in July of last year.
He ended up with a charge of lewd conduct with a prostitute. Divine Brown, who was hauled to Los Angeles Police Department with him, faced new charges of prostitution last week in Las Vegas.
But Grant is facing a new, quite different challenge. Opening Friday is ``Extreme Measures,'' his first serious-action movie.
Will the public accept him without laughs? ``Nine Months,'' which was released just after ``the incident'' was a hit, but it was a comedy. To add to the pressure, ``Extreme Measures'' is the first film produced by Simian Productions, a company jointly owned by him and Hurley. Much depends on the opening. The film's budget was $38 million.
He plays an idealistic young doctor who comes up against a rich and powerful doctor, played by Gene Hackman, who is using homeless people as guinea pigs in new, perhaps life-saving, operations. The movie is produced by Hurley, a sometimes-actress and model for Estee Lauder. She found the script for ``Extreme Measures'' and was the force that got it made over a period of two years.
``She was my boss,'' Grant confirmed. (He was laughing). ``I had to call her Miss Hurley. It's no different from my usual life.''
Hurley and Grant met eight years ago in Spain when they worked on a film called ``Remando al Viento.'' It was her first starring role. ``I don't think she knew I was a nobody,'' he said. ``I think the thing that attracted her was the knee britches I wore. She liked the costume.''
They've been together ever since. He admits that his mother badgers him to get married but also admits that ``Elizabeth and I fight, and everything. She's very messy around the apartment. For most of the time we've been together, we shared a flat with just one closet. She took up all the room. People claim she knows what I'm going to say before I say it. It's not true. She has no idea what I'm going to say.''
``Eight years is a long time to be with somebody,'' she said. ``I probably know him better than anyone else, '' she said.
In separate interviews in Toronto, Canada, where the film had its world premiere recently, discussion of ``the incident,'' was discouraged.
``Humans forget,'' Grant said, simply, adding that he didn't feel he had been treated ``much differently'' in Hollywood since his much-publicized arrest and conviction.
His life is different though.
``I miss the old England, the England before `Four Weddings and a Funeral,' '' he said. ``It's nice to be rich, but I, literally, have no life.''
He says it would be impossible for him and Hurley to live in England today.
``The press there is quite unreasonable,'' he said. ``Comparatively, the press in America is very polite. I think we will end up living in France. That is the discussion. Right now, we have no home. She has about 12 jobs - acting, producing, modeling. We live, at the moment, where we work.''
He will next star in ``Otherwise Engaged.'' Later this year, Hurley will be seen opposite rapper Ice Cube in ``Dangerous Ground'' and on TV in ``Samson and Delilah.'' She's filming ``Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.''
Hurley, dressed in tight jeans and a pullover sweater, is a plain-spoken and no-nonsense woman.
``I was very involved in every aspect of this production,'' she said. ``At the end of a day's filming, we'd send Hugh home, but I had to stay to look at the dailies. What I learned was that a movie is a very fragile thing. You can easily lose what you intended to make - just by casting, or cutting a few lines.''
She doesn't get angry about the fact that some people say she's just ``the girlfriend'' while they ask ``What is a model doing producing a film?''
``Well, I am Hugh's girlfriend, so I can't very well complain about that identity. On the other hand, I've only been a model for one year, and I don't think I'm a very good model.''
Michael Apted, respected director of ``Coal Miner's Daughter'' and ``Nell,'' admits that he had doubts when he took the job directing ``Extreme Measures.''
``Sure, I wondered if they would be dilettantes,'' he said. ``I wondered if they would really get their hands dirty with the making of a movie. I learned that they would. Elizabeth was a hands-on producer at all times. She was involved. She was the one who had the passion for the project. She was determined to get it made.''
The director admits that the press hovered around the set but ``generally we got on with it - mercifully. There could have been mayhem and there was some initial worry.'' The film, set in New York, was filmed mostly in Toronto.
The couple admit they feel some animosity from their homeland.
``It seems to be that way,'' Grant said. ``When you're a success overseas, no matter in what, the British seem to resent you. Emma (Thompson) has had that. Maybe it's not just with the British. I hear Antonio Banderas finds it difficult to go back to Spain and Elle MacPherson or Paul Hogan back to Australia. In any case, it is impossible for us in England now.''
He laughed about a recent case of fame he experienced.
``I was in this posh hotel in California and these rather scroungy guys yelled, `Hugh. Hugh Grant.' They had a British accent but I had no idea who they were, so I kind of sidled off to get away. Someone whispered to me that they were Oasis and that the whole world is falling out about them. Elizabeth got all excited when I told her about it, and said I was a dunce. I'm the guy with no CDs. She listens. I don't. I'm looking for time just to read a book.''
On co-starring with Gene Hackman, Grant said, ``He always looks as if he's just about to kill someone in his movies. He's very intimidating. He's someone I wouldn't want to meet in the dark, on screen, but I was surprised to learn that he's very shy.''
Grant's character is the head of a hospital emergency room. To prepare for it, he made numerous visits to New York hospitals.
``It was very disappointing,'' he said. ``Just old people lying around being sick. It was about the third time, though, that we had some excitement. I got to see what an emergency room is like in trauma.''
Asked why their production company is called Simian Pictures, Grant frowned and said, ``Elizabeth has this absurd idea that I look like an ape.''
``More like a chimp,'' she countered later. ``Well, he does have a high forehead, and those ears,'' she laughed.
``But,'' she added, ``I think he needs an ally. I fill that purpose.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
CASTLE ROCK ENTERTAINMENT
Hugh Grant, far left, and Elizabeth Hurley with Gene Hackman on the
set of ``Extreme Measures.''
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