'Star' Surge

[from Entertainment Weekly, 9/01]

Why Pitt, Aniston didn't costar in ''Rock Star'' -- Mark Wahlberg's role as a heavy metal god once belonged to the ''Friends'' star's husband by Liane Bonin

With the former Marky Mark strutting in long hair and leather pants, ''Rock Star'' has 80's-era star voltage to spare. But reformed rapper Mark Wahlberg wasn't the first choice to play Chris Cole, a cover band singer recruited to front his favorite heavy metal act: Brad Pitt was originally attached to the role. Considering that Pitt's wife of 13 months, Jennifer Aniston, plays Chris' long-suffering girlfriend, Emily, why would the couple leave the movie's love scenes (including a bisexual dance-floor orgy) to anyone else?
''Rock Star'' screenwriter John Stockwell (HBO's ''Breast Men'') says the usual creative differences are to blame. Pitt, who signed on -- and then off -- the project long before the role of Emily was cast, couldn't see eye to eye with studio execs. ''Brad had some ideas about what he wanted to do, but in the end he couldn't find a director he wanted to work with that Warner Bros. also wanted to work with,'' says Stockwell. ''But Brad really is a metalhead from Missouri, and I think part of him was completely absorbed in playing this character.''

While Pitt was doing research for the role back in 1998, Aniston, who says she favors old-school rockers like Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, tagged along, going to Korn and Rob Zombie concerts. Back then, she never pitched herself for the female lead in the film. ''It was odd, because they kept talking about working together, but when he was involved he never talked about Jennifer [for the role], and when I went out with both of them neither of them mentioned it,'' says Stockwell. Aniston shrugs off the missed opportunity. ''It wasn't as if he dropped out so I came on board,'' she says. ''There wasn't even a thought of it.''

Her lack of interest may have been based in how minimal Emily's character was in the original script. ''My manager called me about it a year later, but I remembered there not being much of a part for the girl. But she said, ''They'll write one, they'll create it, they'll put it together.'' Stockwell admits Aniston's role as a band manager who tries to turn a blind eye to her boyfriend's drug abuse and sexcapades was ''slightly enhanced'' to make better use of the ''Friends'' star. Still, director Stephen Herek (''Mr. Holland's Opus'') describes the role, which is largely overshadowed by Chris' rise and fall as a rock and roll demigod, as ''sort of thankless.'' ''She's playing the girlfriend of a guy who goes out and lives this rock and roll fantasy,'' he says. ''It takes a special kind of person to deal with that.''

Though Aniston and Pitt clearly have similar taste in films (albeit not at the same time), don't hold your breath waiting for a big-screen pairing. ''We can't go out and just do a movie. Think of the microscope we'll be under,'' says Aniston. ''So it has to be right, and it has to be good. We may end up waiting 15 years so it's not as much of an event.'' But media analyst Robert Bucksbaum of Reel Source says audiences may be bored by seeing the pair on screen, no matter when they choose a project as a pair. ''Couples together haven't done well at the box office,'' he points out, noting the Kidman-Cruise flops ''Far and Away'' and ''Eyes Wide Shut.'' About Pitt's passing on the ''Rock Star'' role, Bucksbaum is more sanguine: ''This role was MADE for Mark Wahlberg. You can see he put in his heart and soul. Pitt, as good as he is, wouldn't have given the same kind of performance.'' Maybe someone can tell him that after he sees Mrs. Pitt making out with the amply endowed guy from ''Boogie Nights.''