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Issue Date: December 22, 2002
A year in the life
Over the past 12 months, we've brought you some of the biggest names in entertainment at the height of their careers. Here's an update on nine favorites.
Singer-songwriter Alan Jackson (story) was riding in style in November, pictured with his 1928 Bentley, one of only 660 manufactured, for a special USA WEEKEND poster. Hope the car had enough room to load up the five Country Music Awards he picked up later that month, including Entertainer of the Year
... Actor Tobey Maguire (story) spoke of his self-reliance in April. "I wanted to be independent so I wouldn't need to rely on anybody. I have abandonment issues," he told us. Well, even an independent kind of guy needs company -- and Maguire has had plenty. Gossip columns have linked him with his "Spider-Man" co-star Kirsten Dunst, actresses Heather Graham and Nicole Kidman, singer Christina Aguilera and "Playboy" playmate Daphne Duplaix. As Austin Powers might say, "Yeah, Spidey!"
... What's the deal with Jodie Foster (story) and her fickle vocational fantasies? In March, she told us she wanted to work at Starbucks. "I think about that all the time," she said, adding that she'd love to make "the meanest cappuccinos in town." Well, don't look for her behind the counter at any coffeehouses these days, but you might have better luck finding her at, umm, a Home Depot? Loading up on plywood? In July, the two-time Oscar winner confessed to an interviewer that she'd like to take a job building movie sets if the acting thing gets old: "I'm not really built to be an actor. I just want to make movies. I really love movies. I want to be involved with them. If you said I had to be a [sound] mixer or boom guy or carpenter, I'd say, 'OK. Right. I'm there.' "
... We gave actress Ashley Judd (story) the shopper's ultimate challenge in March: put together a designer outfit for only $200. Her choices? A Diane von Furstenberg dress for $120, an agnes b. cotton shirt for $22 and an Ungaro suede purse for $58. Her style must have paid dividends: Later she ended up on the covers of "Vogue", "Glamour" and "InStyle"
... We saluted Italian Americans' new visibility on TV in a September cover story featuring Matt LeBlanc(story), who plays lovable lug Joey Tribbiani on "Friends". We enjoyed Joey's mistaken "proposal" to the pregnant Rachel -- and now, making a reported $1 million-plus per episode, LeBlanc can well afford a wedding ring for his own significant other, Melissa McKnight. But get on with it already, Matt! At press time, the couple's engagement was going on four years -- with no "I do" date in sight
... Wesley Snipes (story) made it clear how he stays so remarkably fit as he approaches age 40. The actor told us in March that he travels with a personal chef and puts in serious exercise time at the gym of the USA Shaolin Temple in New York. "There are two types of training I do there," he said. "Painful and more painful." Clearly, the roles he chooses serve as motivation. For the summer boxing flick "Undisputed", Snipes trained hard (and apparently without anyone recognizing him) at the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood with heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis' trainer, who told the media Snipes went at it like a pro. No body doubles were used in the film
... Halle Berry (story) didn't think twice after she was presented with "Monster's Ball". "I read the script in 45 minutes and called my manager from the plane and said, 'Vince, tell 'em yes,' " she told us in January. " 'Whoever's in it, say yes!' " Her instincts were dead-on: In March, Berry became the first African-American to win the Best Actress Academy Award
... Joaquin Phoenix (story) seemed apathetic about the business side of movies. "The money or whatever the benefits that come with being an actor don't sustain me," he told us in July. However, the money did sustain Disney, which has reaped more than $226 million from Phoenix's summer sci-fi blockbuster, "Signs"
... In May, Brandy (story) was pondering how impending motherhood would change her life -- and car. It was time for a serious "gadget upgrade." So we photographed the singer-actress in what can only be described as the Taj Mahal of Gadget Cars. She was impressed. "I'll definitely consider the DVD players and mini-TVs," she said. "The video-game players could help the children get by on a long trip. I was always asking, as a little girl, 'Are we there yet?' That made for a long drive for my mom. If I'd had something to occupy me, it would have been easier on her." Brandy will have something very interesting to pop into the entertainment system when daughter Sy'rai, born June 16, is old enough: MTV documented her pregnancy and delivery on the series "Diary Presents: Brandy -- Special Delivery".
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