To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People April 25, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/2000/04/25/nptues One bad mutha Who's the movie star that's nasty and abusive to all the crew? Samuel L. Jackson, damn right. Plus: Natalie Portman on trailer-park culture, Sofia Coppola on what's in a name and Hugh Hefner's girlfriend on "Baywatch Hawaii." - - - - - - - - - - - - By Amy Reiter For weeks now, Samuel L. Jackson's been boasting that he's the private dick who's a sex machine with all the chicks. And true, he is the star of the "Shaft" remake set to hit theaters this summer, but word is he's being royally shafted in the sex scene department. The New York Post reports that, after test audiences indicated the film's opening didn't have enough heat, Paramount will shoot a new steamy sex scene that involves Shaft, but not Jackson. Jackson's publicist and the studio's spokesperson say scheduling conflicts dictated the use of a body double. Unidentified insiders, however, claim Jackson didn't receive an invitation to return to the set because he was abusive and nasty to the crew. "Nobody could stand the idea of having to work with him again," one source told the paper. "So they found a way to do it without having him back. Him, his entourage and his private planes." And a Hollywood source tells me that word around town is "Sam was really a prick." Which is not the same thing as a private dick. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You may kiss the cynic "I think marriage is very strange. It's sexuality converted into possession. You say: 'I'm having great sex with this lady. I want no one else to have it. So I'll own her. No one else shall touch her now. She's mine.' Horrible, horrible." -- Twice-divorced actor Richard Harris sharing his sunny thoughts on marital bliss in the U.K. Telegraph. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Studying Springer If you think it's easy to be an actress, consider this: For her role as a pregnant Oklahoma teen in the upcoming "Where the Heart Is," Natalie Portman not only walked around in a suit filled with grain (to simulate that preggers feeling), she also watched hours and hours of Jerry Springer. "There's no question, it was a valuable research tool," Portman said of Springer in the Calgary Sun. The trash TV show didn't tell the whole story, however. "After having made the film, I have new understanding and respect for trailer-park culture. It's much more diverse than the vision we get watching Jerry Springer." And you thought it was all about fistfights between the fat and the toothless ... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Keeping it in the family "I think this movie would have taken maybe twice as many years to get made if my last name was Smith." -- "The Virgin Suicides" director Sofia Coppola on the advantages of her famous last name, on the BBC. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Juicy bits If "Beverly Hills, 90210" is the setting of your deepest, darkest fantasies and you long to roll around in Kelly's sheets, straddle Dylan's motorcycle, fire up the Peach Pit's jukebox or slip into Steve's letterman jacket, you're in luck. Amazon.com will auction off those items and other "90210" memorabilia this month. A portion of the auction's proceeds will be donated to Save the Children. Alas, it won't save the children from crappy TV shows. They don't call her Posh Spice for nothing. British Airways has reportedly agreed to pay Victoria Beckham around $150,000 as compensation for losing three of her suitcases on a recent flight from Miami to Britain. Beckham apparently lost clothes, song lyrics and other items when her bags disappeared from London's Heathrow Airport. "We are taking the matter very seriously and our investigators are working with police," an airline spokeswoman told the press. "We have offered compensation and it has been accepted." Money -- it's the spice of life. The definition of "Do as I say, not as I do?" Earth Day Chairman Leonardo DiCaprio arriving to address crowds in D.C. from beneath a two-story-high inflatable SUV with the license plate "DRTY GZLR" and a banner urging participants to "Stop global warming -- Clean the air" in a stretch limo. And Al Gore calling for enviro-friendly transport and then clambering into his humongous Chevy Suburban amid an entourage of SUVs. The dirty guzzlers ... Hugh Hefner's had some good news and some bad news of late. On the upside, one of his three girlfriends has landed a lead role in "Baywatch Hawaii." According to head writer and co-executive producer Frank South, Brande Roderick, 25, got the plum job after she "hit it out of the park" during her screen test. Meanwhile, Playboy's name is mud in Eastern Europe after the Romanian version of the magazine ran an article titled "How to Beat Your Wife Without Leaving Traces." Mihail Galatanu, deputy editor in chief of the Romanian Playboy, claimed the article was an April Fools' joke and that the advice in the magazine "cannot work" anyway. Um ... how would he know that? salon.com | April 25, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Amy Reiter is a staff writer for Salon People. For more columns by Amy Reiter, visit her column archive.