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Timberlake, Stone film seeks extras PALM SPRINGS -- In show business, rejection is a common event; just ask any aspiring actor. So it’s no surprise that the people behind an upcoming film starring Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone were undaunted by the low number of people who turned out for a casting call in Palm Springs. After a casting call for the upcoming film "Alpha Dog" came up about 100 people short of the number of extras they need, the firm On Location Casting announced it would simply host more events. That means the call is still out for young adults between 18 and 25 to stand as extras in a Nick Cassavetes film, "Alpha Dog," starring Justin Timberlake and Sharon Stone. The Los Angeles casting company needs about 250 extras for the film, but only about 155 teens showed up at Caliente Tropics Resort in Palm Springs on Saturday and Sunday. Tina Kerr, extras casting director, said the company needs 1999 cars or older to establish the period. The movie follows a young man -- not Timberlake -- who in trying to emulate his father ends up in trouble with the law, Kerr said. Chosen extras will be paid $6.75 an hour, plus overtime if allotted, for any number of hours of work during two weeks of filming in Palm Springs. But that minimum wage isn’t typically the reason people audition. Stacy Wiedman, a 20-year-old Twentynine Palms woman, said she’s been trying to get in the movies since she was a young girl. The aspiring actress doesn’t make it to many casting calls, though, because they’re usually in Los Angeles, she said. "I want to wake up and do a job I love instead of getting paid for something (I) don’t really care to do," Wiedman said. The experience, Kerr said, is why people answer casting calls. After all, sultry Stone’s first role in a film was a non-speaking passing moment in Woody Allen’s "Stardust Memories." "You never know how it could happen," Kerr said. NSYNC's Lance Bass Still Looking to Blast Off Two years after he was shot down, Lance Bass has not given up on his dream to go into space, nor does he want anyone else to give up their dreams, either. The 'NSYNC singer spent the last week, World Space Week, talking to Los Angeles schoolchildren about the importance of studying math and science so that they could potentially become astronauts one day. "It's nice to talk to kids who really look to the future," Bass said. "And this helps keep them interested." As a youth spokesperson for World Space Week, Bass visited a number of schools, including the Science Center School, a new elementary school in Los Angeles. Last year, he visited schools in Houston, where he had completed the NASA portion of his training in 2002 to prepare to be a cosmonaut for the Russians. "I tell them that it's more and more likely that they'll be able to go into space, that it can happen during their lifetimes," Bass said. "But I try to impress upon them the importance of an education first." Not only are math and science critical, he tells the students, but so is learning about other cultures and other languages, like when he had to study Russian as part of his training. To encourage them to find the work fun, he unveiled a student competition called Lance's Lab, which challenges students to design a module for the International Space Station in which he could live and work. Contest winners will meet Bass at an awards ceremony next year. "One of the students wondered if my voice would sound different in space, so they wanted to design a recording studio and see if I would do a song up there," he said. "They come up with all kinds of stuff." Bass might even have the opportunity to use some of the students' ideas — he's still working out a financial plan that would allow him to go up into space, though it won't be the same television producers partnering with him that he had before. He won't disclose the details, for fear of repeating what happened the last time, when publicity partially undermined his efforts (see "Looks Like Cargo, Not Lance Bass, Will Be Shot Into Space"), but he does say this — he's got more of a chance to go now than ever. "The process isn't as difficult," Bass' former race-to-space competitor Lori Garver said. "The Russians are always interested in flying commercial passengers who can pay for the trip, pass the medical examinations and train for the experience. The question for programs like mine and Lance's is that of raising the funding through partnerships and sponsorships. There is no question in my mind that Lance and I, as well as thousands of others, will have our dreams fulfilled by going to space." For now, though, Bass is content to answer the schoolchildren's questions: Are there aliens? What does zero-gravity feel like? And will he ever go into space? "They think I have all the inside info," he said. "And maybe someday, I will." —Jennifer Vineyard Celebs show their colors at Hilfiger fest ...Also strutting the outdoor catwalk while their not-so-significant others waited on the sidelines were two New York natives - ``Sopranos'' sweetie Jamie-Lynn DiScala, who roots for the Pinstripes and who wobbled before the cameras in gold heels as she gripped N'Sync's newly married member, Joey Fatone, for support. " I don't want people thinking I'm a model 'cause I'm not,'' she said. You don't have to worry about that, Meadow. Walking in heels is a know-how must. DiScala just finished shooting "Love Wrecked'' due out in
the spring and is debating her next move, as is Fatone who ended
his Broadway stint in "Little Shop of Horrors.'' This New Yorker is a Mets fan - so he's rooting for the Sox all the way. |
