From: fakeaddress@mindspring.com   
      
   The Daily News of Los Angeles November 14, 2004 Sunday   
      
   Copyright 2004 Tower Media, Inc.   
   The Daily News of Los Angeles   
      
   November 14, 2004 Sunday   
   VALLEY EDITION   
      
   SECTION: U; Pg. U7   
      
   LENGTH: 344 words   
      
   HEADLINE: 'SPANGLISH' A LESSON IN HARD WORK   
      
   BYLINE: - Glenn Whipp   
      
   BODY:   
      
   Tea Leoni says James L. Brooks can't come up with a neat-and-tidy   
   summary of his new film, "Spanglish," and he's been editing it   
   since June.   
      
   "I think he's got four brilliant films in there," Leoni says.   
   "I don't know which one he's picked."   
      
   That kind of surplus - and indecision - apparently was the source of   
   more than a little angst during the making of "Spanglish."  For Brooks   
   ("Terms of Endearment," "Broadcast News," "As Good as It Gets"),   
   a renowned perfectionist, it was a desire to continually explore the   
   characters: a celebrity chef (Adam Sandler), his neurotic wife (Leoni)   
   and the live-in housekeeper (Spanish hottie Paz Vega) who comes   
   between them.   
      
   For the cast members, particularly Leoni, whose character was the   
   hardest to pin down, it was a matter of sometimes wanting to strangle   
   Brooks.   
      
   "It was intense," Leoni says.  "There's so much going on in the movie,   
   and you can play it so many different ways."  When suggested that   
   sometimes the hardest movies to make often turn out to be the best,   
   Leoni replies: "If that's true, then we've got the film of the year."   
      
   Adding to Leoni's anxiety was the unexpected departure, four weeks   
   into filming, of Anne Bancroft, who was playing her character's mother.   
      
   Cloris Leachman, a Brooks colleague dating back to "The Mary Tyler   
   Moore Show," stepped in for Bancroft (who had to drop out because of   
   an undisclosed illness), but the change necessitated much rewriting   
   and rethinking of the film's relationships, which profoundly turn on   
   mother-daughter dynamics.   
      
   "The script is very delicate," Leoni says.  "And when you go from Anne   
   Bancroft to Cloris Leachman ... well, they're very different actresses.   
   What was meant to be at first had to be examined again."   
      
   Still, if the months of shooting weren't exactly as good as it gets,   
   Leoni remains hopeful of the outcome.   
      
   "The brilliance and fun of working with Jim is that he writes you a bag   
   of gold and then you get to dig inside it and pick which jewels to wear,"   
   Leoni says.  "Now which jewels I end up wearing ... I can't wait to see."   
      
   NOTES: 2004 HOLIDAY FILM PREVIEW   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)