16 Interest Facts About Catherine Zeta Jones

Catherine Zeta-Jones is an Oscar winning Welsh actress, known for her films, such as Traffic and Chicago. She’s also the wife of famous American actor, Michael Douglas. Here are some interesting facts about Catherine Zeta Jones.

1. Early life and family

Catherine Zeta-Jones was born on 25 September 1969, in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales. Her mother, Patricia, was a seamstress, and father, David Jones, a sweet-factory owner. She has 2 brothers who really supported her to open the production company, Milkwood Films.

2. Reason behind her name

Her name was derived from her grandmothers name, Catherine Fair and Zeta Jones.

3. Educational background

She did her schooling from the Hazel Johnson School of Dance and Dumbarton House School in Swansea. After that, she did her Musical Theater course from Arts Educational Schools in Chiswick.

4. Fame from the Zorro

Catherine in zorroIn 1998, she had a taste of success with “The Mask of Zorro” movie, opposite Antonio Banderas. After which, she received many leading role offers.

5. Personal life

In 1998, she met actor Michael Douglas at the Deauville Film Festival. After dating, for a couple of years, they got married in 2000, and have two children, son Dylan Michael, and daughter Carys Zeta.

6. Common birthdates

She and her husband, Micheal Douglas were born on the same day, September 25, but she is 25 years younger.

7. Favorite food

She loves to eat smoked salmon sandwiches on brown bread with crushed potato chips.

8. Movie with Douglas

In 2001, they both acted together in a crime drama film, called Traffic, which was directed by Steven Soderbergh. The movie proved to be a commercial success worldwide.

9. Karaoke machine

She always carries a portable karaoke machine on movie sets.

10. Passionate golfer

She loves to play golf, at least twice a week at a golf course next to her house in Bermuda. In 2005, she was a part of the winning European team of “The All Star Cup”, a celebrity version of golf’s Ryder Cup, where her husband was on the losing American team.

11. Stalker threat

In 2004, the couple took legal action against stalker Dawnette Knight, for sending violent letters including graphic threats on Catherine’s life.

12. Is among the most desirable women

She was thrice listed among one of the “most desirable” women by Ask men.com: #57 in 2002, #5 in 2001 and #36 in 2003.

13. Bipolar II disorder

In 2011, she suffered from a Bipolar II disorder, a manic depression, and was admitted in the Silver Hills Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut. After 5 days of treatment , she was successfully discharged.

14. Couple’s net worth

michael-jonesThey both have an estimated net worth of around $278 million. Whereas, she alone has an estimated net worth of $45 million.

15. Weddings extravaganza

Her marriage to Michael Douglas is considered as one of the most expensive weddings of all times with around $1.5 million expense. This high profile wedding held at The Plaza Hotel in New York City.

16. Awards earned

Catherine Zeta Jones in 2010She has won many prestigious awards, such as: Oscar Award, BAFTA Award, Blockbuster Entertainment Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, INOCA Award, etc.

Leslie: Catherine Zeta was 'my true love'

He says that after they met in 1991, he was in love with her and "she was in love with me, no question".

And the Hollywood star - now married to Michael Douglas - proved her loyalty to her old flame when a bottle of champagne was delivered to his home two days after he walked free from court last week.

The card with it read: "From Catherine and Michael".

Leslie - cleared of indecent assault charges in the wake of the Ulrika Jonsson rape allegation - met Zeta-Jones in 1991 at a party after a Chesney Hawkes concert.

The former This Morning presenter was then working on Blue Peter, and Zeta-Jones was playing Mariette in the TV show The Darling Buds Of May.

He tells the Daily Express: "It was the real thing alright. I was in love with her and she was in love with me, no question.

"She was lovely, we were together for 18 months, but in the end it didn't work out.

"And no, it wasn't because she wanted marriage and babies and I wasn't ready to commit."

Zeta-Jones, he says - apart from his current partner, Abby Titmuss - provided the most significant relationship of his life.

But he steadfastly refuses to say what went wrong and why they broke up.

"The real reasons are simply not up for public discussion. I simply won't discuss why I broke up with any of my exes," he says.

And there were plenty of exes. Leslie says today: "Over the years I have known a lot of women and taken a lot of women to bed."

He admits he enjoyed three-in-abed sex, watched pornography and bedded a string of women after he found fame as a television presenter.

But he indignantly denies he was ever violent towards them.

Saying he found the rape claims "devastating" and "ghastly" he says: "I am a passionate man and I love passionate sex.

"I may be an oaf, I may be clumsy, but I am not some kind of monster in the bedroom.

"I do not throw women around the room.

"I don't do S & M or bondage. I'm not interested in dressing-up games. I am not kinky."

But he admits he had once "been in a threesome" while he and a girlfriend "shot some home videos for a laugh".

He also says he has watched pornography, but denies having a porn library or watching it on the internet.

Denying he is a Don Juan or even especially good looking, he says: "I am no better with women than your average bloke. I just get more chances.

"Because I have been on the telly for quite a few years there's the recognition, so women want to meet me."

But fame also had its dangers. Apart from the allegations about the rape of Ulrika Jonsson, other women also came forward with accusations of sexual assaults by the Scotsman.

Most of them did so under the cloak of anonymity.

But a few agreed to reveal their identities. Yet their names spark little recognition for Leslie.

"I cannot remember them. I cannot-swear that I have never met them in my life but if I did I just don't remember them."

He knows it might sound strange that a man cannot recall the name of someone he has been intimate with, but Leslie claims it is because he is so sociable.

Large parties were commonplace at his home.

And the number of showbiz parties and corporate hospitality events he attended meant he could not hope to remember all the people he ever met.

"Twenty-odd women went to the press and two to the police, and when it came to charging me, there was one woman. I am no sex fiend. I am no pervert. I have never been those things."

Despite sleeping with numerous female companions, sex was never Leslie's sole aim.

He says: "The real point of having a woman in my bed is having someone to wake up with in the morning. I want to hold and be held. I want intimacy."

Meanwhile Ulrika Jonsson was preparing to leave Britain today as pressure mounts on her to name the man she claims raped her in her autobiography, Honest.

Friends say 35-year-old Ms Jonsson is "devastated" the case against Leslie collapsed last week and is flying to Sweden earlier than planned ahead of her wedding to former Army officer Lance Gerrard-Wright, 35, on 16 August.

She has refused to name her attacker.

But yesterday Leslie challenged his former lover to either name him or clear him of the rape.

Sources close to her were reported today as saying: "Ulrika has been under a tremendous amount of pressure.

"She is veering between floods of tears because she is worried Leslie is going to sue her and anger that once again he is trying to take control of her life.

"She just wants to forget what has been going on in England.

She wants to put the whole Leslie thing behind her and enjoy her wedding to the man she loves."

John Leslie: I nearly killed myself over rape allegations

John Leslie

THE former This Morning presenter has opened his heart about life after being named as the alleged rapist of fellow host Ulrika Jonsson.

He has not worked in television since 2003 and feels he is still being damned for crimes he never committed.

The ex-Blue Peter host said: “Every day when you leave the house, you are reminded of it.

“I was never able to move on. It was like an illness lingering that couldn’t be cured.

“I was labelled a monster. I once contemplated suicide because I couldn’t see a way out. I thought that was one way I could stop the pain for mum and dad.”

His career came crashing down in 2002 when he was identified, apparently accidentally, on daytime television as the unnamed presenter in Ulrika’s autobiography who had attacked her.

To this date, Ulrika, 45, has not named the man responsible.

Leslie, 47, was dropped from his £200,000-a-year job presenting This Morning with Fern Britton.

More controversy was to follow in 2003. He was accused of two counts of indecently assaulting a 

23-year-old actress in 1997 but was cleared in court of all charges and “without a stain on his character”.

Leslie, who dated Hollywood star Catherine Zeta-Jones, 43, in 1991, was dogged by more scandal when a sex video of him, glamour model girlfriend Abi Titmuss, 36, and another woman appeared on the internet.

John Leslie with Catherine Zeta JonesJohn Leslie with Catherine Zeta Jones  

The following week Titmuss, who had stood by him during the court case, sold her story, claiming she had bought cocaine for the threesome.

After he was sacked from This Morning, another girlfriend Rachel Bentley, 29, revealed she 

was pregnant with their daughter, who is now six.

In 2008, more accusations emerged and he was arrested in relation to an alleged rape but no charges were brought.

Now, the once larger-than-life Leslie is reserved and nervous as he sits in an Edinburgh hotel to recount his spectacular fall from grace.

He said: “I still get stared at a lot. It’s probably not because of what happened but I’m always thinking people are judging me.

“Before, it was just, ‘He’s the guy on telly.’ After, it felt like they were saying, ‘He’s the guy who has been accused of hurting women.’

“I became a hermit – being a people person and being unable to work was terrible. I’m so hyper and not being able to channel that was a killer.

“People still have a pop and it’s been 10 years now. You think, ‘Get over it.’ I’ve also had an enormous amount of support.”

After years of rejection, Leslie tried to become a property developer but it coincided with the housing crash.

He said: “It was like this black cloud following me around. I haven’t made any money, all my money has gone.”

The troubled star had to rely on royalties from his stint as host of ITV’s Wheel Of Fortune to make 

ends meet. But, he admitted, he has to take some responsibility for his downfall.

Leslie, who hosted Blue Peter with Yvette Fielding, 44, the late Caron Keating and current Dancing On 

Ice star Anthea Turner, 52, said: “For a time, I was scared to go near anybody, frightened of how women perceived me.           

Caron Keating, Yvette Fielding & John LeslieCaron Keating, Yvette Fielding & John Leslie  

“I’m not as carefree now, which is not a bad thing. You can’t be 6ft 5in and be loud and boisterous.

“My problem is I’m very tactile with boys and girls but you can’t do that. I should have been far more responsible, sensitive and aware.

“If I had been a rock star, it would have been accepted whereas, because I was a Blue Peter presenter, people were out to get me. I didn’t know how to handle my private life.

“The party was 24/7, I trusted too many people and soon enough the wheels were going to come off. I was naive and stupid at times.

“I got myself into situations that weren’t good for me. There were parties I shouldn’t have been at, 

people I shouldn’t have been with. You look back and you are just having a laugh but you get mixed up with the wrong people.

“My problem was I didn’t separate my on-screen telly persona from my off-screen telly persona. I was the same as I was on screen.”

Since then, Leslie, who is now single, has had two long-term relationships, including three years with a psychologist.

He said: “I think I was her case study. She sorted my head out. It was a normal relationship – 99 per cent of the time.”

He still chats with Abi and Catherine. He said: “I don’t blame Abi for anything. She was a victim as much as I was. She’s a great girl and a good friend.

“Catherine is a very special lady and was always my mum’s favourite.

Magazines wanted me to talk about her when she revealed she had bipolar disorder. Of course, 

I’d never do that.”

Leslie is a proud dad to his daughter, who he regularly visits at her home in Brighton.

But he is dreading the moment when he has to tell her about his past. He said: “I don’t know 

when I’m going to tell her but I’ll have to.”

As Leslie candidly opened up about his past, he compared his treatment to that of Lord McAlpine, the Tory peer wrongly accused of child abuse following a Newsnight investigation and paid £185,000 in libel damages by the BBC.

Leslie said: “My life has been shattered because of the false accusations.

“I had a year-and-a-half of it on every TV programme and I didn’t get a penny. I’m not bitter. There are a lot of innocent men in jail so it could have been a lot worse.”

He is also relieved he didn’t get hauled through the courts like Amy Winehouse’s ex-boyfriend Reg Traviss, 35, who was cleared of rape last month.

He added: “Why does the accused have to be named? I think they should look at that more.”

Leslie is now a DJ on Edinburgh radio station Castle FM.

But he says he doesn’t want to be fully back in the spotlight because he wants to protect his mum and dad, both 72.

He said: “They suffered a lot more than me and still suffer from the legacy.

“For years, mum would be in floods of tears when people said negative things about me. It was tough to see them so upset.

“Doing this radio show is a breath of fresh air. I’m learning new skills.

“Maybe this was meant to be – I just hope my life is about to change for the better.”

John Leslie dated Catherine Zeta-Jones

As John Leslie faced the media scrum outside Southwark Crown Court yesterday, the strain of the past 10 months – during which his television career has crumpled amid multiple accusations of sex attacks – was evident: his features were grey and drawn, his speech strained and he was close to tears.

Meanwhile, the woman who inadvertently set in train the events that led to yesterday’s courtroom drama was 30 miles away at her home in Cookham Dean, Berkshire, also under siege from the media and also under some strain. Asked whether she had any comment on the fact that the charges against Mr Leslie had been dropped, Ulrika Jonsson retorted over the intercom: “I will not be making a comment today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, or not even next year.”

The media has not quite seen it like that. In fact, neither she nor Mr Leslie has made any public comment whatsoever about the suggestion that, in 1988, he was the unnamed man who was alleged to have raped Ms Jonsson when she was the weather presenter at TV-am, an incident described in her autobiography, Honest.

But the destruction of Mr Leslie’s career was down to a lethal mix of frenzy and showbiz gossip, fuelled by newspapers willing to report the anonymous claims of a number of women against Mr Leslie.

Ironically, the story of Ms Jonsson’s alleged rape was almost overlooked amid another tabloid scramble – the one relating to her affair with the England football manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, first revealed earlier in the year. Then there were the relationships between the Swedish-born television presenter and various other celebrities, her failed marriage and the heart defect suffered by her daughter, Bo.

All of these rich pickings were no doubt at the forefront of the minds of the Daily Mail executives – normally no slouches in the sex ‘n’ celebrity stakes – which missed the rape claims after they paid an estimated £700,000 for the serial rights to Honest last autumn, buying chapters that did not include the account.

In it, Ms Jonsson did not name the “good-looking presenter” who asked her for a date when she was on a filming assignment. But, as she described, the night went horribly wrong when he launched himself at her: “I landed on my back and remember saying out loud, ‘No, no, don’t.’ This was the first point that I began to feel fear.

“I felt that I had somehow lost control of him and that I didn’t have the power to stop him … all that I could do was beat with my fists on his back and kick a little with my legs. He ignored me.”

But, as part of the promotional blitz, Ms Jonsson had also agreed to an accompanying documentary, Ulrika Jonsson: The Trouble with Men, during which she described the incident on camera. After the press saw previews of the film, their excitement knew no bounds and the rumour mill over the identity of her attacker began turning.

Over the next few days, Mr Leslie’s name was being openly, but not publicly, linked to the claims by Ms Jonsson. Other women came forward to make similar allegations to the press about the same man. His identity an open secret in media circles, Mr Leslie looked uncomfortable as the controversy was discussed on his show This Morning.

Sean Connery Affairs With Catherine Zeta Jones

MOVIE legend Sir Sean Connery has announced that he is officially quitting

public life.

And all this week in The Scottish Sun the 80-year-old super Scot opens his

heart on his life and gives us the full lowdown on his plans for retirement.

Here, on Day One of our sensational series, Sir Sean talks to JOAN McALPINE

about being the world’s sexiest star and his love for golf, swimming,

cats… and loyal wife Micheline.

FOR 50 years men have wanted to be him. Women just want him — period.

He’s a Hollywood sex idol, a man’s man.

Leading ladies including Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, Brigitte Bardot, Kim

Bassinger and Catherine Zeta-Jones have all fallen for his charms.

But in reality his petite wife Micheline Roquebrune Connery is the one true

love of his life.

Imagine the scene. Their eyes met across the dinner table — 007 James Bond is

calling you ‘Ma Cherie’ in that unmistakable sexy Scottish brogue.

But it’s not a movie scene, it’s not an act and the woman isn’t some Hollywood

goddess.

Micheline is one LUCKY woman.

Sir Sean says simply: “Micheline is an amazing woman. She is the love of my

life.”

I spent several days as a guest of Sir Sean and Micheline at their beautiful

villa, near Nassau, in the Bahamas — the islands off the coast of Florida

where he filmed Thunderball in 1965.

For the first time the real Sir Sean Connery — living legend, Hollywood icon

and proud Scot, who’s known as Big Tam to his mates — is laid bare.

The house is full of artwork and family photographs.

Scotland

Micheline’s feminine touch is everywhere, North African throws and carpets,

orchids growing out of giant clams.

It boasts a swimming pool, surrounded by tropical flowers.

It’s a modest property compared to some of the neighbours’ pads.

But that’s down to its location — overlooking the golf course — rather than

his canny Scots roots.

Micheline — an acclaimed artist — paints every day.

But pride of place in her studio is a black and white picture of Sean taken

before they met — looking drop-dead gorgeous in a Mr Universe competition.

She is tiny compared to the 6ft 2in towering frame of her husband. But they

don’t seem to mind.

They met in 1970 at a golf tournament in Morocco.

She had been married twice and Sean had already split from his first wife

Diane Cilento.

Micheline says: “I saw this man from the back, and of course, he had a fine

physique.

“But that first day I didn’t know who he was or anything about him.

“Then I dreamed I saw this man. I was in his arms. And I thought ‘At last,

peace’.

“The next day I went back to the tournament and that was that!”.

So intense is their connection that Sean reveals he once recognised Micheline

— by her FEET.

He says: “In the early days it was difficult for us to see each other. She was

still living in North Africa with her children.

“We were in separate queues coming off different flights.

“There was a partition and underneath I saw these feet.

“I immediately recognised them and tried to get through to see her but it

wasn’t allowed.”

He battled through the crowd to wait for her at the other end. Micheline

laughs: “I’m so glad because if I had arrived at an empty apartment that

would have been it finished!”

Scotland

But in those early days they couldn’t even speak the same language — not that

it mattered.

Micheline, 81, who speaks fluent French and Spanish and understands Arabic,

twinkles mischievously: “Oh we had no problem communicating — body language!”

Sir Sean offers to take me on a grand tour and we hop on a golf buggy, filled

with his monogrammed bags.

“Come on and I’ll show you around,” he says. Life really doesn’t get much

better.

During our buggy ride we see some impressive yachts in the local harbour. Some

of them look like ocean liners.

But Sean isn’t interested in these rich men’s toys. He says grimly: “I once

attended a big party on a boat with my friend Jackie Stewart many years ago.

“I got so seasick Princess Anne ended up driving me home!”

He may be 80 but he’s still very fit — in more ways than one.

He has the exercise regime of a man half his age. The day starts early with a

cycle ride round the community where he lives and in the afternoon it’s into

the pool for a swim.

But he’s not worried about getting old.

He says: “Micheline sometimes says to me ‘the time is rushing past’ but I

don’t worry about getting older.

“There’s always a new challenge to keep you motivated.”

Sean started with nothing and has become one of the most successful Scots of

all time. Born on the top floor of a tenement in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh,

the family had no hot water, no bathroom and the loo — shared with a dozen

families — was four floors down.

His dad worked in a rubber mill six days a week and his mother cleaned.

Young Sean started his milk round when he was nine — and left school at 13.

He says: “It sounds strange to say it now, but we never realised we lacked

anything!”

His first independent act as an adult was to get a ‘Scotland Forever’ tattoo

when he joined the Navy. Another followed to ‘Mum & Dad’.

Surprisingly, Sir Sean has a rival as the head of the household — his big tom

cat called Tiger. The feisty Bengal mix lords it in his study — sitting on

his chair.

Like Sean he’s an alpha male — and doesn’t like to be challenged.

He’s even taken a lump out of Sean’s arm.

Micheline — who sports a faint scar on her own arm — adds: “He’s bitten me

too. He is just powerful.”

Routine is important at the Connery home.

They have lunch each day at the same time on a patio beside the pool.

There’s always a healthy meal at the dinner table and then it’s on to the

squashy sofas for coffee and a few squares of dark chocolate.

Micheline explains: “I’m very French. Black coffee and lots of vegetables

cooked to perfection.

“Milk chocolate? NEVER. Much too sweet.” The couple share the

same passions in life. But golf is at the very heart of their relationship —

it’s what makes them tick.

Micheline herself is an excellent golfer and won the women’s tournament they

first met.

Sean took it up while shooting Goldfinger and has enjoyed a lifelong love

affair with the game.

And it’s clear they are never far from each other’s minds.

Even as Sean continues our golf expedition, trundling across the course, he’s

wondering aloud what she’s up to.

In the distance there is a tiny speck in traditional golf kit. Unrecognisable

to the untrained eye.

But Sean instantly knows his lover of more than 40 years.

He says: “There’s Micheline!”

He smiles, and the foot goes down as we roll across the fairway towards the

love of his life.

`Entrapment' Star Catherine Zeta-jones Finds The Freedom To Act Like A Bombshell

The thing to remember about Catherine Zeta-Jones is that she wears high-heels everywhere, even to climb the 72 steps leading up to the Edinburgh Castle, the city's top tourist attraction.

The day after the actress donned three-inch spikes to scale the stone fortress, she was still being teased about her unconventional fashion choice by her "Entrapment" co-star -- and Edinburgh's most famous native son -- Sean Connery.

"Well," sighs the actress, "Sean didn't tell me it was going to be such a tempestuous climb to the top. But what can I say? I always wear heels."

Zeta-Jones always wears make-up and stylish clothes too. On screen as well as off, she seems to be a throwback to the glamour queens of Hollywood's golden age. As "Entrapment" director Jon Amiel sees it, Zeta-Jones has more in common with such '40s and '50s bombshells as Lana Turner and Ava Gardner than present-day ingenues like Winona Ryder and Gwyneth Paltrow.

"Catherine is the most flamboyantly sexual woman on the screen at the moment," says the filmmaker. "She's just so confident in her own sexuality. She has none of the gamine-ish, flat-chested, boy/ girl coyness of so many actresses today. She is happy to take the screen as a sexual woman in full bloom. But it's not the sleazy, watch-me-uncross-my-legs sexuality of a Sharon Stone either. Catherine just takes delight in her own voluptuousness."

Today, as she relaxes in a suite in Edinburgh's Caledonian Hotel, Zeta-Jones is hiding her voluptuousness beneath a sleeveless black linen dress and a multi-colored shawl. She can't disguise her beauty, though. Blessed with long flowing black locks and fiery eyes, the actress draws stares as she and her look-alike brother stride through the lobby together.

"I love it when people tell me I remind them of an old-time movie star," admits the actress who is best known for matching swords with Antonio Banderas in 1998's "The Mask of Zorro." "What I admire about the women in '40s and '50s movies is that they were allowed to be pretty and have a brain too.

"In my favorite movies by Hitchcock, women are smart, funny and sophisticated. Think of Grace Kelly or Ingrid Bergman. Women were allowed to have style as opposed to the grunge look that's in now, where everybody looks like they've slept under a bridge. Today, beauty is seen as shallow and fluffy. What I want to do is play characters who are attractive and strong."

Zeta-Jones is off to a good start with "Entrapment." The movie, which opened Friday, is a glossy trifle about globe-trotting master thieves playing with cool gadgets, but she more than holds her own with Connery, who's done this kind of thing before.

Even before the picture's release, eyebrows were raised at the pairing of the 68-year-old Connery with the 29-year-old Zeta-Jones. After all, she was 7 when he was 007. Isn't that pushing the notion of a May/December romance to its breaking point?

Zeta-Jones agrees that initially the decades-wide age gap gave her pause. "Any fears I might have had disappeared the moment I met Sean," she recalls. "There was immediate chemistry and attraction between us. I figured if it worked for us in reality, it would also work in front of the camera."

Connery, who produced the movie and handpicked Zeta-Jones for the role, agrees. He flew her out to Rome to meet with him and after reading three short scenes and chatting with her for an hour, he sensed he'd found his leading lady.

"I knew instantly Catherine was right for the role," he says. "If I had had any reservations about our having the right screen presence, I would have simply produced the movie and gotten someone else to star in it.

"I'll know when it's time for me to say no and to finally stand down. But it was pretty clear something was working for us from the moment we met. My instinct and intuition told me Catherine could make this work. ... She has wit, style and a beauty that transcends age."

"Entrapment" isn't Zeta-Jones' only new movie. In July, she will co-star opposite Lili Taylor, Liam Neeson and Owen Wilson in "The Haunting," a remake of the 1963 chiller with Claire Bloom and Julie Harris. And later this month, she will begin filming "High Fidelity," a comedy for Stephen Frears starring John Cusack.

"We're shooting it in Chicago and I can't wait to get there and check out the blues clubs," says the actress who claims she'd give it all up to sing background for Gladys Knight. "I'd have a sex-change to be a Pip."

While Zeta-Jones never crooned in a rhythm & blues group, she did spend nearly a decade earning a living as a musical comedy performer. Born in the small fishing village of Swansea, Wales, the daughter of a seamstress-mother and candy factory manager-father began acting with the Dylan Thomas Theater Group when she was 10. At 11, she landed the lead in a West End production of "Annie."

CONNERY SEAN & ZETA-JONES CATHERINE: ENTRAPMENT

THIEF TO THIEF

Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones talk to LINDA GAMBLE about their first on-screen adventure romance, Entrapment.

"It’s a good yarn, with wit and an intriguing romantic element that puts a real sting in the tale," says Sean Connery of Entrapment. Connery plays Robert ‘Mac’ MacDougal, who has an untarnished reputation as the world’s greatest art thief. So, when a priceless Rembrandt is stolen in New York, everyone assumes it’s Mac. Insurance inspector Virginia ‘Gin’ Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) persuades her boss (Will Patton) - whose company will lose US$24 million on the theft - to let her go after the master criminal.

"Entrapment can be watched as an old-fashioned romance" Catherine Zeta-Jones

Gin has a plan to trap Mac. But, although she is young, beautiful and feisty, Mac at first turns out to be too crafty for her. Eventually, though, she persuades him to join her in a high-risk heist and the action moves to London and then, via the Western Isles of Scotland, to Kuala Lumpur, high-tech capital of Malaysia, where the duo are caught in a race against time to pull off the perfect crime before the dawning of the new millennium. As the emotional and financial stakes rise, Mac and Gin form an alliance, always staying one step ahead of their employers. But they are finally forced to admit that the price of freedom is higher than either of them expected.

"The relationship reminds me of Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, or Bogart and Bacall in some of their films," says Zeta-Jones of the hidden ties that draw Mac and Gin closer to one another. "Entrapment can be watched as an old-fashioned romance, even though it’s all below the surface."

The film was written by Oscar-winner Ron Bass (Rain Man, My Best Friend’s Wedding), who pitched it to Connery and his Fountainbridge Films production partner, Rhonda Tollefson, in just seven lines. What attracted the actor was that the story threw together two very different characters: the worldly but rather solitary thief; and the young woman out to make her name. They would not normally have come together but somehow, in the course of their adventures, they get under each other’s skin. "He’s a loner who appreciates art and beauty," notes Connery, "and all his life he has been totally prepared for every eventuality on every job. The one thing he is not prepared for is the girl."

"Catherine is game for anything you can throw at her," Sean Connery

Zeta-Jones was invited to meet Connery and Tollefson in Italy shortly after The Mask of Zorro finished shooting. Connery was immediately impressed by the actress who, despite the fact that she had not been able to read the script before she got on the plane, arrived fully prepared, able to ask specific questions about the story and with a feeling for the role. The Mask of Zorro - which not even the studio had seen at that stage - would prove that Zeta-Jones could handle an action role.

"Catherine is game for anything you can throw at her," says Connery. "She is a total professional and wants to do as many of her own stunts as possible but is wise enough to know when to pull back. She’s also a great singer and dancer. My only regret is that we never got to use those talents in this movie!"

‘Those talents’ are what originally launched Zeta-Jones’ career. She started working on the London stage at the age of 16 as a dancer and singer in the chorus of 42nd Street. She was also an understudy and, when the opportunity to take over a leading role finally came, she made it her own and spent two years as one of the show’s stars. Subsequent success on UK television and a handful of film roles took her to Los Angeles. But the big break-through came when Steven Spielberg spotted her in the lead role of HBO’s Titanic and suggested her to director Martin Campbell to play opposite Antonio Banderas in Zorro.

"I was excited by the wonderful sense of fun that Gin has" Catherine Zeta-Jones

"When I read Entrapment," says the actress, "I was excited by the wonderful sense of fun that Gin has. There is also a deep and complex relationship between the [two main] characters, which is recognised by the audience but denied by Mac and Gin themselves. Below the surface is that unchallenged attraction which, coupled with a wonderful commitment to greed on both their parts, makes for an intriguing alliance. I knew Sean and I would fit these roles, and we worked in rehearsal with Jon [Amiel, the director] to develop the nuances and humour in various situations."

Among the many striking settings in Entrapment, the most dramatic is the one chosen for the film’s climax: the Twin Towers in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. Currently the highest building in the world, Twin Towers dominates the KL skyline: it stands 84 storeys high and was built at the astonishing rate of one floor every four days. Made of stainless steel clad in glass, the two gigantic towers are linked at the 41st floor by a skybridge. And it was this that served as the location for the sophisticated Millennium Eve party which Mac and Gin attend, leaving early to ascend to the top of the Towers to carry out the ultimate bank robbery.

"you could be excused for thinking you were watching Bond"

Things do not work out as planned, however, and, pursued by armed security forces, the pair attempt to escape by swinging across the skybridge, suspended beneath the walkway on wires with the lights of the city far below.

For a moment, you could be excused for thinking you were watching Bond, James Bond…. except Bond, of course, would have been "prepared for the girl".

Why Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, but not Lauren Bacall and Brad Pitt?

When the movie Entrapment was released in 1999, it caused an uproar among feminists because of the large age difference between the two main characters who get romantically involved. Sean Connery was 69; Catherine Zeta-Jones was 30. Entrapment is hardly the only movie that incurs feminist wrath for the same reason. In the 1993 movie In the Line of Fire, Clint Eastwood is 63 while Rene Russo is 39. Feminists charge that these movies reinforce the cultural norm that women have to be young to be desirable, whereas men can be much older and still attractive to women.

To the feminists’ chagrin, however, the pattern of an older man and a younger woman in romance is not limited to movies that appeal mostly to men. The pattern is the same in the so-called “chick flicks” popular among mostly female audiences. For example, in the 1998 movie Six Days Seven Nights, Harrison Ford is 56 while Anne Heche is 29. In The Horse Whisperer of the same year, Robert Redford is 61 while Kristin Scott Thomas is 38. In the 1997 blockbuster As Good As It Gets, Jack Nicholson is 60 whereas Helen Hunt is 34. This movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and both Nicholson and Hunt won Oscars for their leading roles. Nor is this pattern of older man and younger woman a recent Hollywood trend. In the 1963 classic Charade, Cary Grant is 59 while Audrey Hepburn, who actively pursues him romantically, is 34. In The Big Sleep of 1946, Humphrey Bogart is 47, and Lauren Bacall is 22. Of course, Bogart and Bacall were married to each other in real life.

With the notable exception of The Graduate, it appears that the man is older, sometimes by decades, than the woman among couples in movies. Why is this? Why do both men and women in every generation expect and want the leading male character in movies to be so much older than his female counterpart? The conventional social science explanation relies on cultural norms and socialization. Our “culture” imposes arbitrary standards of desirability, which include being young in the case of women but not for men. People in our “culture” are therefore “socialized” to expect attractive women in movies to be young, not old, whereas men, who are not subject to the same arbitrary standards, can be old and still sexy.

As we discuss in our book Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters (Chapter 3 “Barbie -- Manufactured by Mattel, Designed by Evolution”) or, more briefly, here, there is evolutionary logic behind every aspect of ideal female beauty, including youth. There is absolutely nothing arbitrary about the standards of beauty. With respect specifically to movies, however, there are two pieces of evidence that contradict the conventional social science view.

First, even though they are produced in the US, Hollywood movies are now exported throughout the world. And blockbusters in the US almost always become commercial successes in other countries where they are shown. While repressive nations like China and those in the Arab world might censor the contents of Hollywood movies for sexual explicitness and other taboos like homosexuality, there has not been a single case to my knowledge where such regimes censored or banned movies because of the large age difference between the male and the female leads. The premise of large age differences appears to be readily accepted throughout the world.

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Second, while movie production throughout the world is heavily dominated by Hollywood and therefore the US, all cultures produce literature, which often becomes the basis of movies. And it turns out that literary themes and plots in all the cultures and throughout the recorded history are remarkably similar. While I have not seen data on movies produced outside the United States, I am very confident in predicting that such movies, like the growing number of “Bollywood” movies out of India, also mostly depict romantic scenarios in which the man is considerably older than the woman, and that very few movies (or novels, for that matter) produced anywhere in the world would have the opposite type of couples as romantic leads.

If not cultural socialization, what then accounts for the popularity of romantic couples where the man is much older than the woman? From the evolutionary psychological perspective, it is a direct consequence and reflection of evolved male and female natures. Data collected from societies throughout the world show that men in every single culture prefer to mate with younger women, and women prefer to mate with older men. Men prefer young women because they have greater reproductive value and fertility than older women, and women prefer older men because they possess greater resources and higher status than younger men in every human society.

Further, the older men get, the greater the age difference between them and their desired mates. Men in their 20s want women who are about five years younger than them, whereas men in their 50s want women who are about 15 years younger. In a perfect example of the proverbial “exception that proves the rule,” the only category of men who prefer to mate with older women are teenage boys. For them, older, not younger, women have greater fertility. In other words, regardless of their age, men always prefer to mate with women in their 20s at the peak of fertility. Women do not show the same pattern; regardless of their age, women prefer men who are about 10 years older than them. Since movie producers and authors are in the business of making money by producing stories that appeal to the moviegoers and readers alike, it is natural that their products reflect the evolved desires of their target audiences.

It is interesting to note as an aside that, while Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate is supposed to be much older than Benjamin, being the mother of his girlfriend Elaine, in reality, Ann Bancroft is only six years older than Dustin Hoffman. It appears that we expect the woman to be so much younger than the man in movies that, when the woman is actually older than the man, even by only six years, she is considered to be “too old” for him. I should also note that, by the end of the movie, Benjamin (the Dustin Hoffman character in The Graduate) ends up with the young Elaine, not with her mother, consistent with the evolutionary psychological prediction. Sorry for the spoiler.

Photos Of Young Catherine Zeta

This gallery features photos of a beautiful, young, Catherine Zeta-Jones, including photos from her childhood, years as a teenager, and several pictures of her in her early 20s during the late 1980s. Born on September 25, 1969 in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales, her mother was a seamstress and her father owned a sweets factory. She has two brothers who both help with her production company, Milkwood Films. Zeta-Jones attended Hazel Johnson School of Dance when she was five years old. She became a British tap-dancing champion at the age of 11. She studied at the Arts Educational School in Chiswick, West London and took a three-year Musical Theater course. She starred in the television series The Darling Buds of May from 1991 to 1993. Her breakout performance was in the hugely successful film The Mask of Zorro, opposite Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins in 1998. She also starred in Entrapment in 1999, opposite Sean Connery. Her role in the 2000 film Traffic earned her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture. For her 2002 performance in Chicago, she won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Enjoy viewing these photos of young Catherine Zeta-Jones.