''America's Sweethearts'' is a 2001 American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by

Joe Roth Joseph Emanuel Roth is an American film executive, producer and director. He co-founded Morgan Creek Productions in 1988 and was chairman of 20th Century Fox (1989–1993), Caravan Pictures (1993–1994), and Walt Disney Studios (1994–20 ...

and written by

Billy Crystal William Edward Crystal (born March 14, 1948)On page 17 of his book ''700 Sundays'', Crystal displays his birth announcement, which gives his first two names as "William Edward", not "William Jacob" is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. ...

and

Peter Tolan Peter James Tolan III (born July 5, 1958) is an American television producer, director, and screenwriter. Early life and career Tolan was born in Scituate, Massachusetts, where he was a perennial favorite in the high school's dramatic production ...

. It stars

Julia Roberts Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and th ...

, Crystal,

John Cusack John Paul Cusack (; born June 28, 1966)(28 June 1996)Today's birthdays ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'', ("Actors John Cusack is 30") is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and political activist. He is a son of filmmaker Dick Cusack, and his ol ...

and

Catherine Zeta-Jones Catherine Zeta-Jones (; born 25 September 1969) is a Welsh actress. Known for her versatility, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Tony Award. In 2010, she was appointed C ...

, with

Hank Azaria Henry Albert Azaria ( ; born April 25, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for voicing many characters in the animated sitcom ''The Simpsons'' (1989–present), most notably Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, ...

Stanley Tucci Stanley Tucci Jr. ( ; born November 11, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. Involved in acting from a young age, he made his film debut in John Huston's '' Prizzi's Honor'' (1985), and continued to play a variety of supporting roles in fil ...

, Seth Green,

Alan Arkin Alan Wolf Arkin (born March 26, 1934) is an American actor, director and screenwriter known for his performances on stage and screen. Throughout his career spanning over six decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award ...

and Christopher Walken in smaller roles.

Plot

Film publicist Lee Phillips (

) is promoting ''Time Over Time'', a movie featuring beloved husband-and-wife stars Gwen Harrison (

) and Eddie Thomas (

), who have made countless popular films together. However, the eccentric director Hal Weidman ( Christopher Walken) won't let anyone see the film until its premiere at a

press junket Film promotion is the practice of promotion specifically in the film industry, and usually occurs in coordination with the process of film distribution. Sometimes called the press junket or film junket, film promotion generally includes press rele ...

, complicating Lee's job. And worse yet: Gwen and Eddie, once dubbed “America's Sweethearts”, have an ugly breakup. Gwen's films without Eddie have been flops. On the

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...

show, she is thoroughly humiliated by

Larry King Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021) was an American television and radio host, whose awards included 2 Peabodys, an Emmy and 10 Cable ACE Awards. Over his career, he hosted over 50,000 interviews. ...

and causing her to apologize live. Her affair with co-star Hector Gorgonzolas (

), who now lives with her, caused Eddie to suffer a mental breakdown and moves to a New Age retreat. Lee decides the press must believe the couple are reuniting to promote the film. Lee enlists Kathleen Harrison, nicknamed “Kiki” (

), who is Gwen's sister and personal assistant, to persuade Gwen that attending the junket will benefit her career and public image, where she can also serve Eddie divorce papers. At the New Age retreat, Lee informs Eddie of Gwen's humiliation on Larry King. He believes this is her karma for her affair with Hector and refuses to attend the junket. Eddie believes he's not well enough to face his past yet. Lee bribes his spiritual guide (

) with a luxury car to convince him can attend. At the junket, while Eddie and Gwen are fighting, Lee plants stories to the press they are reconciling. Gwen asks Kiki to be her go-between with Eddie, so they meet secretly to discuss the junket. Eddie's assistant leaks a photo of it to the press. Angered by the rumors about Gwen and Eddie, Hector shows up, confronts Eddie and knocks him out. As Kiki tends to Eddie, they admit their feelings and have

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones ( ova, of ...

. However, in the morning, as they are having breakfast, Gwen calls and Eddie rushes to meet with her. Hurt and angered, Kiki leaves, later becoming furious when Eddie tells Gwen he isn't seeing anyone. Confronting him, she says they can't pursue a relationship because he'll never get over Gwen. Downstairs, Lee tells Kiki not to give up on Eddie as he can see he has feelings for her. Eddie has an

epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

while on the hotel roof, causing the press to believe that he's about to jump, and inciting Hector and the studio's owner Dave Kingman (

) to encourage him in doing so. Gwen is thoroughly humiliated, warning him to stop as she wants maintain to the press that she and Eddie are reconciling. Hector tells her to stop bothering, pointing out that there's no need to hide their relationship. Gwen argues that they need to exercise caution because it's bad enough that her reputation is on the line. She's concerned that the press will find out she and Hector are the direct cause of Eddie's mental breakdown. Eddie tells Lee he's in love with Kiki and thinks he's blown it. Lee realizes his mistake, telling Eddie to pursue Kiki and divorce Gwen. Weidman then shows up via helicopter with the film. The screening begins, and everyone discovers that Weidman abandoned the script, making a “reality movie” instead. The footage, mostly shot with hidden cameras and without the actors' knowledge, shows Gwen's unremorseful affair with Hector, gloating about it to then overweight and timid Kiki. Eddie becomes angry about Gwen's clear infidelity, but he otherwise appears sympathetic. He is shown to actually be in love with Kiki even before her weight loss and realized how much his marriage to Gwen is a mistake. Additionally, Dave Kingman is insulted by Weidman and mocked by his assistant. Hector enjoys the reality film very much, until Gwen insults him about the size of his penis. On the other hand, the film portrays Eddie and Kiki favorably, while Gwen is the antagonist due to her affair with Hector. As a result, most of the cast and crew — particularly Gwen and Kingman — are offended and confront Weidman. Eddie appears pleased by the film's portrayal of what she did to him. He suggests working together again and Weidman agrees seeing that he understands the latter's vision. He reveals it was all his plan to ruin Gwen's career because of an earlier incident on set for insulting his vision and humiliate Kingman for being a selfish jerk for having not allowed him any creative control over his film. Enraged, she announces she will sue him for invasion of privacy and Kingman Studios for having not prevented it. Kingman tries to apologize to Gwen, but his assistant tells him off not to after what she did to Eddie and that he quits. Kiki is surprised, but not angered by the portrayal of her sister and also pleased to be shown favorably. Hector angrily confronts Gwen for humiliating him with her comments, despite Lee's attempts to do damage control and asking him to go back sitting down. Weidman's daughter, Leaf (

Keri Lynn Pratt Keri Lynn Pratt (born September 23, 1978) is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her role as Missy Belknap in ''Jack & Bobby'' and as Dee Vine in the film, ''Drive Me Crazy''; which was her debut role. Personal life Pr ...

), defends both her father's work and him. She reveals their affair, pointing out Gwen's wrong to say Hector's small. Humiliated, Gwen announces she is reconciling with Eddie, but he asserts he's finally through with her, and declares his love for Kiki. The latter reciprocates, standing up to Gwen for the first time, and revealing dirty secrets only she knew, before saying she is tired of putting her personal life on hold. Gwen retaliates by coldly firing her, before calming down and declaring she only wants Kiki's happiness, to look better to the press. Outside, Gwen admits to the press that she and Eddie are over and is in love with Hector. She then claims she's on medication that makes her behave erratically and adds that he is very well-endowed. However, the press doesn't believe Gwen, having witnessed their relationship is disintegrating and how horrible of a sister she was to Kiki. Hector defends himself to the press, then humiliates her by announcing they too are through and had an affair with another co-star of theirs, Adina. Kiki and Eddie prepare to leave together to travel and pursue their relationship. Lee arrives to tell them that, amazingly, the press love the movie and Kingman Studios have to release it despite Gwen's lawsuit threat.

Cast

as Kathleen "Kiki" Harrison *

as Lee Phillips *

as Gwen Harrison *

as Eddie Thomas *

as Hector Gorgonzolas *

as Dave Kingman * Christopher Walken as Hal Weidman *

as Wellness guide * Seth Green as Danny Wax * Scot Zeller as Davis *

as himself *

Steve Pink Steve Pink (born February 3, 1966) is an American actor, director and writer. He is the director of the comedy films ''Accepted'' and ''Hot Tub Time Machine'', and the co-writer of the films ''Grosse Pointe Blank'' and ''High Fidelity (film), H ...

as Limo driver *

Rainn Wilson Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Em ...

as Dave O'Hanlon *

Eric Balfour Eric Salter Balfour (born April 24, 1977) is an American actor and singer. He is the lead singer of Born as Ghosts, formerly known as Fredalba. He made his film debut in the drama ''Shattered Image'' (1998), followed by roles in ''What Women Want' ...

as Security guard *

Marty Belafsky Marty Belafsky (born September 19, 1975) is an American actor/comedian born in Los Angeles, California. He began acting professionally at age 13 and was soon cast as Louis Plumb on the short-lived NBC series '' Hull High''. Shortly thereafte ...

as Security guard *

as Leaf Weidman * Maria Canals as Adina *

Byron Allen Byron Allen Folks (born April 22, 1961) is the founder of the U.S. entertainment company Entertainment Studios which includes The Weather Channel. He is also a television producer, philanthropist, and comedian in his younger years. Notable s ...

as Himself Julia Roberts' niece,

Emma Roberts Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991 Additional on October 9, 2016) is an American actress. Known for her work in film and television projects of the horror and thriller genres, she has received various accolades, including a Young Arti ...

, makes an uncredited appearance as the young girl in the purple T-shirt.

Release

Box office

''America's Sweethearts'' opened on July 20, 2001, and earned $30,181,877 in its opening weekend, ranking second behind ''

Jurassic Park III ''Jurassic Park III'' is a 2001 American science fiction action film, written by Peter Buchman, Alexander Payne, and Jim Taylor and directed by Joe Johnston. It is the third installment in the ''Jurassic Park'' franchise and the final fi ...

'' ($50,771,645). By the end of its run, the film had grossed $93,607,673 in the domestic box office and $44,583,755 overseas for a worldwide total of $138,191,428. Based on a $46 million budget, the film was a box office success. Filming took place at

Lake Las Vegas Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, Nevada, refers to a reservoir and the developed area around the reservoir. The area is sometimes referred to as the ''Lake Las Vegas Resort''. It is being developed by 5 companies including Lake at Las Vegas Joint ...

Critical response

Despite being a box office success, the film holds a 32% approval rating at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

from 146 critics. The site's consensus states: "Despite its famous cast, the movie lacks sympathetic characters and is only funny in spurts." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film holds a 44 out of 100 rating based on 32 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Gustavo Arellano Gustavo Arellano is an American writer and journalist. He is a featured contributor for the ''Los Angeles Times'' and the former publisher and editor of Orange County's alternative weekly ''OC Weekly''. He is most notable as the author of the c ...

in his writing ''

¡Ask a Mexican! ''¡Ask a Mexican!'' was a syndicated satirical weekly newspaper column written by Gustavo Arellano in the Orange County, California alternative weekly '' OC Weekly''. Publication of ''¡Ask a Mexican!'' began in 2004 as a one-time spoof, but po ...

'' identified Azaria's character Hector as an example of the

Latin lover Latin lover is a stereotypical stock character, part of the Hollywood star system. It appeared for the first time in Hollywood in the 1920s and, for the most part, lost popularity during World War II. In time, the type evolved, developing var ...

stereotype.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:America's Sweethearts 2001 films 2000s English-language films 2001 romantic comedy films American romantic comedy films American sex comedy films Adultery in films Films scored by James Newton Howard Films about actors Films directed by Joe Roth Films set in California Films set in the Las Vegas Valley Films set in Los Angeles Films set in Nevada Films shot in California Films shot in the Las Vegas Valley Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in Nevada Films with screenplays by Billy Crystal Films with screenplays by Peter Tolan Revolution Studios films Columbia Pictures films 2000s American films