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They're no Angels
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Forget the halos - the new Charlie's Angels are more athletic than angelic. We talk with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu as they drop-kick their way into the action-flick boys club For months they've been playing Angels - Charlie's Angels, that is - for up to 14 hours a day, six days a week. But on this spring afternoon, at a photo shoot for the cover of Teen People, two of the three stars of fall's 2000's most buzzed-about action caper are behaving more like little devils. As things get under way, Cameron Diaz is the very embodiment of her There's Something About Mary alter ego. Goofy, giggly and not the least bit self-conscious, she proudly shows off her already-stained armpits. Miuntes later, she's trotting over to the stereo to crank up Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle." She sings along - loudly. Soon, fellow angel Drew Barrymore is singing too, and they engage in a round of boob - and crotch-grabbing. Such closeness may be the result of spending the better part of the last six months living out of each other's pockets. "We're like sisters," says Drew during a break. "The only time we spend apart is when we go home and shower." "If we shower," says Cameron with a sly smile. Making Charlie's Angels, a modern, madcap, $90 million send-up of the popular 1976-1981 TV series about three sexy, savvy female detectives, seems like it'd be one big laugh - especially with fun-loving Cameron and Drew at its core. But it wasn't - at least according to the showbiz rumor mill. Trouble on the Set? A film that's said to have had Jennifer Lopez, Lauren Hill and Angelina Jolie up for a piece of the action, Charlie's Angels was destined to end up under the media microscope. Three incidents that were reported in the press: The script went through tons of rewrites and still wasn't finished when filming began; Ally McBeal's Lucy Liu, the last angel to be cast, was more than a little upset by the fact that her paycheck was considerably smaller than Drew's and Cameron's; and a heated argument between Lucy and Bill Murray became so explosive that Bill stormed off the set. But today, during their lunchtime interview with Teen People, the actresses are as chummy as three teenage girls at a slumber party. They sit practically on top of each other: Cameron's in the middle, with Lucy to her right and Drew to her left. All three look and act younger than their ages (Lucy's 31; Cameron's 28; and Drew's 25). Lucy picks on Drew for absentmindedly picking her nose; Cameron talks with her mouth full; and each one gleefully utters dirty words and phrases now and again. And they all get up more than once to refill their plates with food. "We eat a lot of In-n-Out in our trailers," says well-known vegetarian Drew, referring to the Los Angeles County-based burger chain. "I eat the grilled cheese. They eat the meaties." She looks at Lucy: "You get the single, don't you?" "No!" Lucy corrects her. "A double-double with cheese." Drew, a producer on Angels (her Flower Films is overseeing the project with Columbia Pictures) thinks the way-thin-is-in rage that's eating Hollywood these days isn't only unhealthy, it's unsexy too. "I think it's fun for men when they're around woman who eat and aren't self-conscious or obsessive about looking a certain way," she says. Lucy applauds Drew's executive decision to include scenes in the movie of the trio pigging out. "We're not dieting," she says. "We're intelligent, we're sexy, we're setting fashion trends, and we're also accepting ourselves as women." It's worth mentioning that the angel's mission - to kick some martial-arts butt en route to rescuing a kidnapped billionaire-to-be from a computer pirate trying to take over the world - wouldn't be possible on empty stomachs. "The Angels eat a lot, and not only what's good for them," says the movie's animated, first-time director, McG (real name: Joseph McGinty Nichol). Hearty appetites make the trio more relatable, he says - as do the film's gritty fight scenes in which they sometimes "get their asses kicked." Although obviously beautiful, these women are more James Bond than Bond girls. "They don't just go in with one punch and overcome a 225-pound linebacker," says McG. "They dish out, but they take it too.....They're playing on a level that's neither male nor female." To perfect their moves, Drew and Cameron trained for four months - Lucy for two - prior to filming with martial arts specialist Cheung-Yan Yuen, who comes from a family of famous Hong Kong action choreographers (older brother Woo-ping's credits include The Matrix). "We were so sore after the first few sessions," Drew says, "we went to Cameron's house and took a bath in Epsom salt and cried." Unlike their TV counterparts, these Angels didn't have to take target practice at the police academy to earn their wings: In the movie, the good guys - or women, we should say - don't pack heat. "Guns are cowardly," says Drew. "With the flick of one finger, you can kill somebody. I always think about what the world would be like if people didn't have that ability." Star Power Angels marks Drew's second producing effort (Never Been Kissed was her debut). "It's fabulous because she's made something like 31 films - she's a total veteran - but she's still young enough to get it," raves McG, who at age 30 has made a name for himself too, having directed more than 40 videos, including Korn's "Got the Life" and Sugar Ray's "Fly." "She's got the leadership qualities and experience, and she's in touch with our audience enough that she's very fit to steer the ship." Drew played a key role in overseeing the script as well casting. For Angels to be a blockbuster, she knew it needed a big name to join hers on the marquee - someone like Cameron Diaz. The two are old friends. "I met Drew when I was modeling. She was working at a coffee shop," Cameron recalls. Adds Drew, laughing: "Bif movie star, scrubbing toilets, watching my life in the Ty-D-Bol." Although she'd been a child star in E.T. and Firestarter, an addiction to drugs in her teen years had left her down and out in Beverly Hills - literally. Drew's since reinvented herself, of course. Today she's one of the most savvy actresses and producers in Hollywood. But that's not the reason Cameron took the job. "For me it was definitely about having a good time," she says. "Drew was on the phone, and she's like, 'Come on, it's gonna be fun!'" Another draw: "Women don't often get the chance to be action heroines together and do kung fu and crack the cases and be clever and independent." Even during the toughest days on set, Cameron provided welcome comic relief. "She's so comfortable in her own skin," says McG. "She'll get so excited that she'll throw a little snort in and then she'll see that she snorted and she'll just love hysterically. When she laughs you laugh with her." Together, Cameron and Drew were a formidable duo - which made it almost impossible to find a third angel, McG says. "Drew and Cameron have huge screen presence. If you aren't careful they'll steal all the attention. We needed someone very strong to share the screen with those two." However, when Cameron and Drew met Lucy, they instantly knew she was the missing link. Lucy felt it too. "I don't think I've laughed so hard at a reading," she says of her audition last November (her future costars were wiped out after eight hours of training and couldn't remember their lines). "I forgot about the job for a minute. It was more about finding friends I was hoping I could get to know better." Casting Chemistry Drew's most life-altering casting decision turned out to be for a cameo that required only two days of filming. But that was enough time for Drew and Tom Green to get acquainted. The pair met when Drew, a fan of MTV's The Tom Green Show, offered the comic a part as an eccentric tugboat captain. "Kind of a funny way to meet your fiancé," says Tom. "We started dating after we worked together [the first] day." The pair fast became inseparable, and Drew stood firmly by Tom's side last March when he had surgery to successfully combat testicular cancer. Soon after Charlie's Angels wrapped at the end of June, they became engaged. So if the cast - which also includes one of Drew's exes, Luke Wilson, and Friends' Matt LeBlanc - got along so well, what's the rumors of on-the-set strife? "We would get into some heated discussions but only because all of us cared so much about making [the movie] the best it could be," explains McG. "It's like any family where you fight with your brothers and sisters, but you love them the most." Still, the gossip took an emotional toll. "When people say that [stuff], it stings," admits Drew. Says Cameron, "When we're together, we're totally about protecting one another." When Angels was completed, Lucy returned to Ally; Drew started rehearsals for the dramatic comedy Riding in Cars With Boys; and Cameron prepared to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New Yor. Yet the three remain close. "I've gotten to hang out with them since the movie," says Tom. "They have a good time together, those three crazy Angels!" And, says one of the movie's producers, Leonard Goldberg, the proof is in the finished product, which will be in theatres November 3: "Finally, the movie will be there, and people can judge for themselves." And then gossip can begin circulating about a sequel.
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Story: Linda Freidman Transcribed by Esther of DrewDevotion.
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