X-Files
Australian Information Kiosk
April 2000

• Ahh, finally another new episode. Next week sees the return of Donnie Pfaster in "Orision". The episode was next Wednesday's Pick of the Night in Thursday's Daily Telegraph Seven Days pullout.
• The April issue of Movieline, a brilliant US magazine, is now available at local newsagencies and features David Duchovny on the cover and an eight-page story inside. There's also a full page photo of Gillian Anderson in a section on actors and art. The bad news for Australians is that because of the weakening Aussie dollar, the price of the mag has risen from $7.95 last month to $8.90 this month.
• This week's New Weekly magazine has a story on David Duchovny titled Barking Dad. There's a full-page photo of DD plus a one page story that includes four photos -- one of David Duchovny/Tea Leoni, one of David Duchovny/Minnie Driver and two of Tea Leoni and Madelaine Duchovny. There's also another Duchovny photo on the index page of the mag. As well as that, there's two pages of behind-the-scenes photos of Return To Me and a little story titled Return Match. There's two large photos of David Duchovny/Minnie Driver, one of Minnie with a makeup artist and two of David in makeup.
  
  The mag also includes a review of Final Destination, mentioning The X-Files talent behind the movie.
• TV Week has a photo of David Duchovny and Tea Leoni at the US premiere of Return To Me.
• Wednesday's Daily Telegraph had a small David Duchovny/Gillian Anderson photo in the TV guide.
• There was an X-Files story on Entertainment Tonight on channel 9/WIN on Thursday. It was dealing with the episode screening in the US this week and mentioned that David Duchovny was still a possibility of returning for an eighth season of The X-Files, providing he gets increased creative input - writing/directing.
• The Mighty, a great movie featuring Gillian Anderson, previous only available for rental, will be available to buy from June 12. There's also a competition in the new issue of Movie magazine where you can win a copy.
• As previously mentioned, Junior Brown, who had a small role in the recently repeated Drive episode, has been in Australia recently and was on Studio 22 on the ABC on Thursday night.
• Lance Henriksen, star of Millennium and the recent X-Files crossover episode, narrated The World's Greatest Hoaxes - Secrets Revealed on Seven/Prime last weekend. The reasonably interesting show debunked a number of things that have featured in X-Files episodes.
• An issue of The Daily Telegraph last week had a story titled Frenzy Over Secret UFO Base Photos, concerning photos of Area 51 and mentioning The X-Files. Check them out at terraserver.com.

Maybe it would be good for the cast of Friends to have group therapy.

Duchovny's latest film full of down-to-earth emotion By Louis B. Hobson

You've probably read that David Duchovny is blind in one eye.

The story is out there.

But trust no one.

The X-Files star has good reason not to believe everything he reads about himself and wishes others would be as cautious.

"There's a grain of truth to that story that appeared in the supermarket publications.

I did injure my eye playing basketball, but I'm not blind," says Duchovny.

"It had nothing to do with my being a klutz. It was somebody else's fingernail getting into my eye. I developed a cataract because of the force of the blow.

"I had an operation in which they implanted a lens into my right eye."

One conspiracy theory down.

Dozens more to be debunked.

"The worst misconception about me is that I'm arrogant," Duchovny says.

"I never felt that was fair. I have opinions and I don't like playing stupid or saying things I don't believe just to sell something which is often expected of actors.

"I refused to play those games, so I came off looking arrogant to some people."

Fox TV network might say Duchovny is stubborn and ungrateful.

He is suing the network, claiming they misrepresented the value of The X-Files reruns, thereby lessening his cut of the profits.

"My lawsuit is just business. It has nothing to do with the day-to-day workings of the show. I just happen to have a different view of my contract than the network does."

Duchovny is especially amused that until he married Tea Leoni, he was portrayed in the press as a womanizer.

"I have always been shy where women are concerned. As a youngster I was very afraid of adults and girls.

"I think I'm still quite a shy person. It's just a little less apparent. I think my nature is to be watchful and quiet."

One story out there that is true is that Duchovny and Leoni dated via telephone for six weeks before they actually went out on a date.

It was a mutual friend who suggested they try going out on a date.

"I was up in Vancouver. She was in L.A. It was an expensive courtship."

"I'm the truly lucky one. Tea is a great person and she likes me. She's so level-headed and real, has such great integrity and amazing priorities."

Duchovny and Leoni have a 10-month-old daughter, Madelaine West.

"The big difference between Tea and I is the way we worry about Madelaine.

"I worry if there is going to be any water left on the planet when she's 25. Tea worries if Madelaine has drunk enough water for the day."

This shy, happily married new father is the star of the romantic comedy Return to Me, opening Friday. He plays a man who loses his wife in an accident and unknowingly falls in love with the woman (Mini Driver) who received his wife's heart.

"It could have been a really schmaltzy movie, but Bonnie Hunt, who wrote and directed it, has such an incredible sense of humour.

"It's a more masculine humour than you'd ever expect from a chick-flick, so it's going to appeal to guys as much as it does to women."

Duchovny filmed Return to Me in Chicago last year during his hiatus from The X-Files.

"I got really lucky. There was a little community centre just down the street from my hotel. I got into a pickup basketball game every Saturday with the Chicago cops.

"I also went out drinking with them, but I played better than I drank. I think I earned a few get-out-of-jail cards from them. They were a great bunch of guys."

Jim Belushi, who co-stars in Return to Me, says Duchovny is a great sport.

"There were always X-Files fans trying to get a glimpse of him. The radio stations were playing that Bree Sharp song David Duchovny on the hour, every hour and the crew teased him mercilessly about aliens stalking the set. David took it all in great stride," recalls Belushi.

Duchovny says Return to Me "doesn't have some great moral about love or even say a lot about love. What made it appealing to make and makes it appealing for audiences is that there is so obviously a lot of love in it.

"It may sound like a lamebrain thing to say, but there aren't a lot of movies out there these days that make you feel good watching them, and ours does.

"It has the best test scores of any movie MGM has ever released since the industry started this whole test-screening thing.

"I just hope people will find us. It's probably the first romantic comedy in five years without Julia Roberts in it -- and that's going to be a difficult sell."

From http://www.canoe.ca/JamMovies/apr4_david.html