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THE MOVIE: Rumor Has It…

THE STARS:
Jennifer Aniston • Kevin Costner • Shirley MacLaine
DIRECTOR: Rob Reiner

THE CONCEPT:
Returning from her sister’s wedding, Sarah discovers that the novel and then movie of The Graduate was inspired by her family, with her acerbic grandmother Katharine as the real Mrs Robinson! So the young man her grandmother and mother romanced might really be her father…

U.S. RELEASE: December 25 2005, Nationwide
• Rated: PG-13

THE COMMENTS:

ROB REINER:
“I don’t have a fascination with The Graduate as it relates to this film, but I have a fascination with it as a film, because it is clearly one of the great American films of all time. This movie is not a remake of The Graduate, it’s not a sequel to The Graduate, it uses the conceit that the people in this film were the people that The Graduate was based on, but it’s just a springboard for the emotional journey that Sarah goes on.”

JENNIFER ANISTON:
“Rob’s fun to be around and he’s so interesting on so many levels. But he also just has a nice balance. He was really good at giving Sarah a focus, a point of view. When I first read the script, Sarah didn’t have a clear point of view. She was very reactionary to all the characters that surrounded her. So he was really helpful in giving her more of a through line.”

REINER:
“Beau Burroughs is the fantasy for three generations of women. He represents adventure and excitement – another kind of life, the dream of a life that might be out there yet. In a weird way, you have three generations of women that have taken this little detour through Beau-country in order to find out who they are. He represents that life we think we want, the life we think we should have – the one that’s just around the corner that we might be missing out on.”

SHIRLEY MACLAINE:
“I love the film of The Graduate, but it didn’t occur to me at all (to emulate Anne Bancroft’s performance) because we were the real people behind The Graduate, but I’ve had a lot of people in the last days [of this press junket] here around the Ritz Charlton Hotel [in Pasadena], who say they know the real Mrs Robinson. So, ‘rumor has it’ ….”

ANISTON:
“This was my first job after Friends. So I felt it was a nice delicate step out of the nest. I thought, as far as these romantic comedies go, this was interesting; to have The Graduate as a backdrop, as opposed to the formulaic girl gets guy, fakes it to the fiancée to fool the guy that she really wants and then she really doesn’t get him .. blah, blah.”

MACLAINE:
“Jennifer has come through what must be one of the most painful and difficult requirements of any human being, to live one’s life in a spotlight is so painful. And I’m really proud of her for the way she’s handling this – her emotional discipline is extraordinary and I really want to compliment her for that.”

Written by Judy Sloane. Back to top

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Feature © 2005 Visual Imagination Limited.
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