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America's Sweethearts
格温(Gwen)与艾迪(Eddie)是最受观众欢迎的一对银幕情侣，银幕下他们也是一对恩爱夫妻。由于在一连九部电影里合作塑造了一系列浪漫感人的爱情故事，他们被观众们称作“美国甜心”（America誷
Sweethearts）。然而，眼下他们最近合作的影片《一次又一次》（Time Over Time）却遇上了不少的麻烦：格温在拍摄过程中爱上了西班牙演员海克特（Hector），随即宣布与艾迪分手；深爱着格温的艾迪因此几乎精神崩溃，不得不接受心理治疗；最令电影公司头痛的是影片的导演海尔·魏德曼截留了所有的胶片，他想独自完成编辑后不经电影公司审片就直接在新闻发布会上公映。情急之下，电影公司老板大卫·金曼不得不找来刚刚被他解雇的公关老手菲利普组织这部电影的新闻宣传发布会，地点选在内华达州一个偏僻的沙漠饭店。菲利普肩负着使格温与艾迪重归于好（至少表面如此）的使命，以达到宣传影片的目的。然而，形势并没有完全按照他的精心设计发展，而且最后的结局出乎所有人的意料。 Gwen Harrison and Eddie Thomas are a married couple who have cooperated in many movies among which six have broken the box office1 record of $100 million. In the eye of the audience, they are "America's Sweethearts"; in the eye of the studio,they are the guarantee of the box office success. But right now it seems that the studio is having some trouble with their latest movie "Time Over Time". The couple broke up even when the movie was hardly finished, all because Gwen fell for aSpanish extra2 named Hector during the making of the movie. Eddie suffered a nervous breakdown and is now being treated in a mental institution. What's more, the three-time-Oscar winning director Hal Weidmann has been hiding somewhere and editing the film all by himself. He won't let anybody see the preview until the press junket3. The head of the studio Dave Kingman asks Lee Philips, the studio's publicist4 to get Gwen and Eddie back together before the press junket is held to promote the movie and secure its success. Meanwhile he's trying every means to locate Hal's whereabouts. Gwen is going through a bad time since two of her latest movies have proved unsuccessful. The audience simply cannot accept her new movies without Eddie in it. On Larry King Live5, Gwen almost collapses under the cruel criticism from the audience and Larry King's tough questions. Gwen's sister and personal assistant Kiki comforts her saying that she looked great on TV. At this time, Lee is in the mental hospital persuading the chief to release Eddie for the sake of the junket. After telling Eddie to be grateful to everything he can enjoy, like sunshine and moonlight, the chief lets Eddie go. At first, Gwen would not accept the arrangement that Eddie shall show up together with her at the junket. She has a mixed feeling. On one hand, she always feels guilty for dumping Eddie and falling for Hector; on the other hand, she cannot forgive Eddie for his crazy attempt to kill her and Hector while she was dining at a restaurant. After Lee and Kiki's persuasion, Gwen finally agrees to attend the junket with Eddie, purely for the sake of the movie. She also plans to give Eddie the divorce papers upon this opportunity. So they check into the hotel somewhere in Nevada6 where the new movie is to make its debut7 for the international press. At night, Eddie still cannot forget the days with Gwen when they were deeply in love. He gets up and walks to the cottage where Gwen stays. Since it is surrounded by a wall, he has to climb a little bit to peep from the hole on the wall. He sees a fantastic woman wandering along the swimming pool and it again arouses his desire to get Gwen back. All of a sudden, he falls onto a cactus8, and his pajama is full of thorns. He tries to pull them out while cursing his bad luck. Unfortunately, the scene where he's pulling out the thorns with his back towards the surveillance camera9 is monitored and recorded. The guards immediately comes out and capture Eddie charging him of masturbating10 in public place, an offence in Nevada. Upon Lee's request and bribery, they agree to drop the charge and hand out the tape. Afterwards, Lee secretly leaks the tape to the local TV station and immediately Eddie's outrageous11 behavior becomes the focus of the public. While Eddie cannot control his anger and frustration, Gwen seems to develop more sympathy for the poor man. She begs Kiki to go to Eddie's suite12 arranging a rendezvous13. In the moonlight, Gwen and Eddie finally meet in Gwen's Mercedes14. However Eddie is very disappointed to learn that Gwen has come only to make a gentlemen's agreement with him to appear professionally together at the next day's junket. What they don't know is that their seemingly intimate secret meeting is photographed by the men hired by Lee. The appearance of these photos timely fans public enthusiasm for "America's Sweethearts" and their new movie. The next day, Gwen and Eddie show up together smiling to the public. Soon the couple sits through interviews one after another by various TV stations, and Lee succeeds in diverting15 the press attention to the reconciled couple and forgetting about the movie that is held hostage by Hal Wiedmann. Lee also talks Eddie into dinning with Gwen at the restaurant for more public attention. While Eddie accepts the arrangement, Gwen turns it down. Kiki has to come to the restaurant instead of her sister. The two get along very well since Kiki has been Eddie's fan for all these years. The change is spotted by Lee, and he timely phones Gwen describing the hot scene. Jealous Gwen arrives at the restaurant in mere five minutes. Asking Kiki to leave against Eddie's protest, Gwen sits opposite to Eddie pretending to be a loving couple. She's doing this purely for the sake of the new movie. What she's not aware of is that the even more jealous Hector follows her to the restaurant. The seemingly romantic scene is just like adding more fuel to a flame. Hector cannot control his anger and begins to insult Eddie in every way he can think of. Eddie also gets out of control and the two start a fist fight with Eddie being knocked out16. The whole process is photo-graphed by Lee's assistant. Dave is overjoyed to see the unexpected result —one sensational incident after another about "America's Sweethearts", which means public attention has been drawn to their new movie. Dave even indicates to Lee that it would be perfect if Eddie commits suicide on the day of the debut. By now Lee begins to be sick of his mission. Kiki helps Eddie to his suite and tries to ease his pain with some ice cubes. This touches Eddie. The two kiss each other and end up in bed. Just as they get up the next morning, Gwen gives Eddie a call saying she would like to have a talk with Eddie. Eddie goes over to her cottage immediately, which displeases Kiki. Gwen shows her concern for Eddie about his bruises17 and the two have a nice talk re-collecting18 the good old days when they cooperated in various movies. Kiki simply cannot bear the scene while cooking breakfast for them in the kitchen. In fury and frustration, she points out that Eddie is in vain trying to repair his relationship with Gwen because the latter is to give him the divorce papers when the junket is over. Shocked by the truth, Eddie runs out of the cottage to catch up with Kiki begging her forgiveness and expressing his love. Kiki cannot accept his love since he's always thinking of Gwen. On the day of the movie's
debut, Eddie stands motionless on the roof of a building, which scares
people. They think that he's committing suicide. Lee runs to the roof
and "saves" him. In fact, Eddie was thinking of his future
after being totally abandoned by Gwen and refused by Kiki. Lee tells
Eddie that Kiki is actually in love with him and he should get her back.
At this moment, a helicopter arrives and Hal Wiedmann gets off with
the film that people have been waiting to see for such a long time.
However, the film shocks every one present because it is full of secret
takes19 of
the private talks and acts of the cast20
and crew behind the scene. It particularly reveals the hypocrite producer
Dave Kingman and double-faced mean Gwen, which causes one sensation
after another among the audience. Furious Gwen demands an explanation
from Hal and threatens to sue21
him. Hal says that the movie only tells the truth. Upon the same occasion,
Eddie condemns Gwen and declares his love for Kiki who is only too happy
to accept after going through all these twists and turns. Ironically,
"Time over Time" turns out to be a very hot movie and Gwen
becomes popular again. Excerpts Eddie Meets Gwen in Her Mercedes |
