Costner On Bodyguard 2...

[From New York Times]

Summoning the Spirits, Invoking a Princess's Name

By COREY KILGANNON / NEW YORK TIMES 22.07.03

"What is this? A séance?" said KEVIN COSTNER as he sat down at a table with two small candles on it and some scraps of lobster shell.

Actually, it was a screening on Saturday night of his new movie, "Open Range," a western he directed and stars in, along with ROBERT DUVALL and ANNETTE BENING. We were in the Hamptons burg of Wainscott, and the film had been shown in a luxurious private screening room in Goosecreek, home of the producer BRYAN BANTRY and his partner, BOB FELNER. Tobacco Road it ain't, pardner.

The screening was over and now we were at a swank little cookout in the sprawling backyard. In Mr. Costner's séance the lobsters weren't talking but Mr. Costner invoked the memory of his grandmother, who, he recalled, invariably missed the opening reel or two of his movies because she did not believe in following movie schedules.

Then Mr. Costner invoked the name of DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES.

Sequels, he said, are the best bet nowadays — Mr. Costner's had his share of flops lately — and he discussed the sequel he almost made to "Bodyguard," which he said would have starred Diana.

He said he approached her through SARAH FERGUSON and persuaded the princess to make the film, despite her lack of acting experience.

She was a little scared, but Mr. Costner said he told her, "I'll walk you through it. I'll make you look good."
"I was going to take care of her," he said, but "the day I got the script, she died," so he decided to abandon the project.

Then the Beemers and the Benzes left, and the catering kiddies broke down the tables. Gone were the hotshot guests, including PETER BOYLE and KIM CATTRALL. But Mr. Costner called for another round of drinks for the table and bade us to stay seated and talk some more.

"We're in trouble politically," he said, kicking off the conversation. He recalled playing golf with the senior Bush. ("He is a very gracious man," he said, which counts for much "but not who gets my vote.")

Mr. Costner talked about his hotel and casino in Deadwood, S.D. He made a land swap with the government, he said, to build a luxury resort, but he ran into opposition from local Indians laying claim to the land. The most caustic criticism, he said, has come not from Native Americans, but from a group of them living in Belgium.

He defended making profit from gambling in South Dakota. ("Gambling there is a cultural experience. Hickock died with aces and eights.") Mr. Costner also defended a central plot device in his film, a bunch of cattle ranchers sending a character on a risky food run and ignoring the mooing little flank steaks all around them. ("You can't be a cokehead and do your own coke. You can't be a cattle rancher and eat your own cattle.")

NEWSFILE: 22 JULY 2003