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The Official The Next Best Thing 15th Anniversary Thread!!!! :D


ryan

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15 years ago, this CLASSIC film was released in the US!

The film opened at #2 at the North American box office making USD$5,870,387, behind The Whole Nine Yards. The film grossed $14,990,582 domestically and $24,362,772 worldwide on a $25 million budget.

Did you know!?!

  • In the original script, Abbie worked as a swimming instructor. After reading it, Madonna decided that the character should be a yoga instructor.
  • Helen Hunt was originally slated to play the female lead of Abbie, but Madonna later replaced her.
  • It's rumored that Ryan Murphy and Rupert Everett extensively re-wrote the script.
  • The house that Rupert Everett stays at is actually Cecil B. DeMille's old house.
  • During rehearsals, Rupert Everett accidentally bumped into John Schlesinger. Schlesinger fell and chipped his coccyx.

Not many people are aware of this, but The Next Best Thing is also an award winning film!

Madonna won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress, and the film was nominated for other Razzies including:

  • Worst Director - John Schlesinger (lost to Roger Christian for Battlefield Earth)
  • Worst Picture (lost to Battlefield Earth)
  • Worst Screenplay - Thomas Ropelewski (lost to Corey Mandell and J.D. Shapiro for Battlefield Earth)
  • Worst Screen Couple - Madonna and either Rupert Everett or Benjamin Bratt (lost to John Travolta and "anyone sharing the screen with him" in Battlefield Earth)

It was nominated as Outstanding Film at the 2001 GLAAD Media Awards, but lost to Billy Elliot.

The film also gave us this LEGENDARY photoshop failure of a movie poster

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:1251:

One of the most memorable moments that came from this era was when a "not so pregnant" Madonna appeared on TRL, and picked a fan out from the street because she had a box of donuts. :1251:

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For the official soundtrack of the film, Madonna gave herself the role of executive producer and hand picked all the tracks that appeared on the disc. 2 new Madonna songs made it's way on the soundtrack. One being a cover of Don McLean's classic, American Pie. The songs was a #1 in many countries across the globe, except in the US (no physical single was released), where it peaked at #29.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BIAi3Oo7To

The other song was a new ballad produced by William Orbit. Sadly, this gorgeous song never saw a single release, and might have been forgotten by the queen. Here's to hoping that one day she'll perform on tour. :(

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For promotion of the film, Madonna shot a photoshoot with Dah Len that was featured on covers of Jane, Good Housekeeping, Mix Mag, Tatler UK, and even People Magazine.

The photoshoot was also used in her official 2001 calendar

Madonna-Calendar-2001-260729.jpg2001%20Official%202001%20calendar%20USA%

And her American Pie single cover

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The photoshoot is notorious for giving us one of her all time WORST airbrushed photos of Madonna.

dahlen01.jpg

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During the promotion of the movie, Madonna was generous enough to meet one of her fans via MTV Fanatic

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I do like Time Stood Still but the movie itself is awful and Madonna is terrible in it.

The exception is the scene where she is in front of the mirror playing with her boobs comparing 1989 to 1999 - that scene was genuinely funny. Sadly the rest of the film is either unintentionally funny or just plain shitful.

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Time Stood Still and The American Pie covers are some of her best recordings ever. It's a shame that the vocal gloriousness in TSS didn't translate to the Music album.

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Guest Rachelle of London

Wheres whatatramp?

I love this movie :lmao:

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That bloody light throughout the whole movie.

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15 years already???? It can't be!

I ADORE the OST, it helped me discover groups like Mandalay (that i love and have all the albums and even the cd singles), or Beth Orton, or Olive... it had the beautiful Moby track...

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Time Stood Still and The American Pie covers are some of her best recordings ever. It's a shame that the vocal gloriousness in TSS didn't translate to the Music album.

Excuse me? Are you telling me that Don't Tell Me, I deserve it, Gone, What it Feels like... don't have incredible vocals???

Sometimes i get dizzy reading these kind of comments.

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Can't believe it's 15 years already. How much things have changed since then, personally and universally, but it feels like yesterday. I remember being so excited to see it, going opening night, and actually liking it. I think it was just the excitement of seeing on the big screen. Now, I can't even watch it. Ah, I miss those days. I used to got the movies every weekend back then.

Anyway, I love American Pie, and TSS is one of her most gorgeous, lush ballads.

The movie - just plain awful in every way. Every horrible gay stereotype was represented, the movie was almost homophobic :lol:. The weak script, the horrid acting, and the bizarre cinematography that left a shadow cast on her forehead for most of the film:

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And here's a double-feature - the shadow and also those weird bumps on Benjamin Bratt's chest - extra nipples? :lol:

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Side note - it's downright amazing how much better she looks now, 15 years later.

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from billboard

On this day (Mar. 3) in 2000, Madonna released her version of "the day the music died" by covering singer-songwriter Don McLean's 1971 hit "American Pie" (which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1972) for the soundtrack of her film The Next Best Thing.

Though the film did not fare well with critics, the song peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.

Billboard's Chuck Taylor reviewed the song at the time of its release: "Applause to Madonna for not pandering to today's temporary trends and for challenging programmers to broaden their playlists. In all, a fine preview of the forthcoming soundtrack to The Next Best Thing."

The accompanying music video cuts between Madonna dancing in front of an American flag (wearing a tiara) and various Americans, including same sex couples, working class citizens and angst ridden teens who may or may not believe in rock 'n roll. Cheerleaders and a guest appearance by co-star and BFF Rupert Everett (who provides backing vocals in the song) make it appear that all is right in the land of the free, but is anyone else listening to the lyrics masked by the upbeat tempo?

The original version peaked at No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart, and in the decades that have followed, McLean has attempted to clear up confusion as to what exactly the song is about. But as for the lyrics, he said, "They're beyond analysis. They're poetry." That may be so, but the song presents an abstract story of McLean's life.

"It is biographical in nature and I don't think anyone has ever picked up on that. The song starts off with my memories of the death of Buddy Holly. But it moves on to describe America as I was seeing it and how I was fantasizing it might become. The song was written as my attempt at an epic song about America and I used the imagery of music and politics to do that."

So there you have it, America. Oh, and just what did McLean think about Madonna's cover of his national treasure?

"It is a gift for her to have recorded 'American Pie,'" McLean said. "I think it is sensual and mystical. I also feel that she's chosen autobiographical verses that reflect her career and personal history. I have received many gifts from God but this is the first time I have ever received a gift from a goddess."

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6487632/madonna-american-pie-cover-don-mclean-anniversary

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bad movie with a horrible screenplay (why turning a comedy with that pace in some sort of an ugly and poorly acted soap drama?)

anyway, we had that beautiful American Pie rendition....and that amazing video

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bad movie with a horrible screenplay (why turning a comedy with that pace in some sort of an ugly and poorly acted soap drama?)

anyway, we had that beautiful American Pie rendition....and that amazing video

Yes, all worth it for that AP video.

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Guest Pud Whacker

she tried aging the public wouldnt allow it.

also take note - this is a time when ray of lighters say she abandoned the gay community all the while making a FAG FLICK.

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Whoever LIT this should be his eyes pricked . She looks like a really masculine pre op tranny throughout .
0OHMRo.png

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Whoever LIT this should be his eyes pricked . She looks like a really masculine pre op tranny throughout .

0OHMRo.png

:rotfl: There's that shadow again!

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They decided to highlight her eyes and cheeks plunging the rest of her face in the dark. Compared to how beautiful she was in the Beautiful Stranger video shot around the same time....

For years i considered Body of evidence to be her worst film until The Next Best thing. Except for Truth or dare i've never had a good exeprience with seeing a "Madonna movie" in a theater (including boring evita). I was too young for DSS (her best imo) and WTG ( i love this for nostalgia value and because it's silly on purpose and i love her costumes and all her scenes, they should have cut everything she was not in and made an MTV special instead like Comedy hour "The Madonna show" each scene interrupted by a musical number :laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh: ).

I agree that it almost homophobic, i despise American Pie, everything about this movie seems to be one mistake after the other. Time stood still is the only good thing that came out of this giant mess. No wonder she does not speak to Rupert anymore. She should have gone on tour, the Ray of Light tour would have been a huge success especially compared to this movie. She looks awful in it (almost like Sarah Jessica Parker, a bony girlie woman in neo hippie frocks. Julia Roberts should have been in this mess and Time Stood Still the released single :hornybig:

When the director John Schlessinger died the stress from making the movie was blamed. No wonder. But stress should have been switched for shame.

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Guest whatatramp

Wheres whatatramp?

I love this movie :lmao:

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That bloody light throughout the whole movie.

here! I fucking love this film, my fave part is when she goes to get out of the car when it's going through the car wash :dead:

and when he goes to the studio and they have that god awful instrumental playing and everyone's proper into it "this is the one" or whatever they say :lmao:

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Guest Pud Whacker

Found this film entertaining to watch, but also a bit easy to poke fun at.

her fans were her harshest critics on this one.

ive found many non-fans loved this movie. my friend called me and said it was on tv and i was like. "oh it sucks, its the worst movie of her career!"

he was like, "i thought she was great and it was good"

when i hung up, i thought, "why did i just destroy his experience with it?"

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