From: fakeaddress@mindspring.com   
      
   posted by Chimerical at the Haven:   
      
   ===>   
   Tea, Cozy   
   At 38, the Star of 'Spanglish' Is Right Where She Wants to Be   
      
   By William Booth   
   Washington Post Staff Writer   
   Monday, December 13, 2004; Page C01   
      
   BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.   
      
   We're cooling our jets at the hotel bar, awaiting the arrival   
   of Tea Leoni, who is upstairs taking her clothes off.   
      
   That's what the publicist says.  Tea is changing.  It'll just   
   be a few more minutes.  We drum our fingers, order a glass of   
   sauvignon blanc, flip through the notes.   
      
   Tea Leoni was born Elizabeth Tea Pantaleoni in 1966.  Sounds Italian.   
   So, actually, she could have called herself Betty T. Pants.   
      
   Raised New York City.  Daughter of a mergers and acquisitions lawyer.   
   Park Avenue.  Nice.  Sarah Lawrence College.  Natch.  Majored in   
   anthropology.  No heavy lifting there.  Dropped out; bummed around   
   the Virgin Islands.  First big break: winning an audition for a remake   
   of the "Charlie's Angels" television series, which never got made.   
      
   Her hobbies include golf.   
      
   We're deep into reading about her 7-iron (Golf for Women magazine   
   when Tea (pronounced TAY-uh) Leoni appears in the flesh, wrapped   
   in a short overcoat with an oversize silk flower in the lapel,   
   lugging a handbag, blowing her blond hair off her face.   
   Even a little frazzled after a day being interviewed by the   
   Hollywood foreign press corps, the woman glows like warm butter,   
   as if lit by some incredibly high-end designer light bulb.   
      
   Hard day at the office?   
      
   "Don't start with me, buster," Leoni says.   
      
   She is kind of snappy, in that 1940s Hollywood way, a blond siren,   
   but she'll also smoke the occasional cigar, knock back a tequila.   
   She swears like a sailor.  She is known to belch.   
      
   She flops down in the chair, scans the table, then a wave   
   to the hovering waiter.  "We're having wine?  Great idea.   
   I'll have whatever he's having."   
      
   We begin to utter our opening inanities.  "Shhhh, shhhh, shhhh."   
   Leoni is wagging a finger.  "Just a minute."  Grab.  Flip.   
   Pound.  She cradles the mini-cell to her ear.  Very nice ears.   
   "Gotta check in with the family first."   
      
   That would be husband David Duchovny, formerly of "The X-Files,"   
   and the two kids, daughter West, son Miller.  A moment of   
   personal phone talk.  Some more button punching.  Voice mail.   
   Then: "Okay, shoot."   
      
   Leoni is starring in writer-director James L. Brooks's new domestic   
   comedy-drama, "Spanglish."  What is the movie about?  Whew!  Marriage.   
   Kids.  Longing.  It is about the travails of a stunning and headstrong   
   young Mexican maid and mother (the Spanish actress Paz Vega as Flor)   
   and her bright-as-a-new-penny daughter, who enter the lives of a   
   wealthy Westside Los Angeles family, the dysfunctional Claskys,   
   led by Adam Sandler (playing it straight) as the sweet, decent,   
   moral hub-dad who is a renowned chef, and his on-screen wife, Leoni,   
   who is a train wreck.   
      
   Deborah Clasky, as channeled by Leoni, is self-obsessed and oblivious;   
   she buys her plump, size 10 daughter size 8 clothes so she'll lose   
   weight.  Deborah is vanity, she is vulnerability.  The character carries   
   SPF 70 sunblock.  She describes herself, when interviewing Flor for the   
   maid's job, like this: "I'm loose, but meticulous."  She does yoga.   
   But enlightenment eludes her.  When Flor's cousin walks into a sliding   
   glass door and bloodies her nose, Deborah says, "I'm not mad."   
   Then she hands her a plastic bag of frozen vegetables to stem the   
   nosebleed; and hands her a $20 bill.  "I'm not sure why I did that,"   
   the character says.   
      
   When Deb has sex with Sandler's character, John, she pretty much takes   
   care of Deb, if you know what we mean.  Deb is very good at shopping;   
   she nests, furiously; she jogs, aggressively.  A lot of women these   
   days can handle being called the b-word as a kind of badge of honor.   
   But Deborah is the worst word in the relationship dictionary:   
   She is needy.  It is all about Deborah.  She is a screaming me-me.   
      
   Q: Your character is appalling.   
      
   A: Completely.   
      
   Q: But she's real. I mean, this town is filled with Deborahs.   
      
   A: They're everywhere.   
      
   Q: She's having a meltdown.   
      
   A: I think she's bipolar.   
      
   Q: But she's hilarious.   
      
   A: Go for it.   
      
   Q: I mean, what are we to make of Deborah?   
      
   Leoni takes a sip of white wine.  "There's something about being   
   conscious," she says.  "Deborah is not conscious.  She is so blinded   
   by her self-worry, her grandiose narcissism.  I don't think Deborah   
   thinks, I'm not loving, I'm not a good mother.  But she made what   
   should be the joy in life the pain in life, you know?"   
      
   Take, for example, the size 8 clothes.  "For Deborah, being fat?   
   She fears her daughter will not be acceptable.  She won't marry well.   
   In Deborah's world, her daughter's life is at stake.  So she goes   
   into her Santa's bag of chaos and disaster.  And she is the one who   
   reaches for that bag.  Funnily enough.  I'm not sure that's a word.   
   Funnily?  Anyway."   
      
   When she was making "Jurassic Park III," back in 2001, Leoni took her   
   daughter to the set every day.  "We spent months running around the   
   jungle fleeing imaginary dinosaurs," she says.  What was the harm?   
   But Leoni didn't want her daughter, now 5, to see her playing Mrs.   
   Clasky.  Deborah is very funny, but Deborah does not know she is funny.   
   Because she is also scary, because she is unhinged.   
      
   "But I relate to her as a mother.  The earnestness.  As a mother,   
   I get it: needing so badly to do it right.  I don't see the world as   
   a terrifying place.  But Deborah does.  And if her daughter has the   
   extra pounds, she won't be able to fight.  She'll be eaten alive."   
      
   To the world, Leoni is seen as a sexy, blond, blue-eyed uber-WASP,   
   with mile-long legs, an actress known sometimes as much for her beauty   
   as her work, one of those People magazine 50 Most Beautiful People.   
   She did a stint in TV, the series "The Naked Truth," and has appeared   
   in "Bad Boys" with Will Smith and "The Family Man" with Nicolas Cage   
   and "Deep Impact," the blockbuster about a meteor as the ultimate WMD.   
   Plus the dinosaur sequel.   
      
   Decent movies.  Fat checks.  But all over the map, no?  Because we   
   actually think she was best in David O. Russell's quirky Ben Stiller   
   movie, "Flirting With Disaster," where Leoni got to play comedy.   
   We ask her about that.   
      
   "I've been here 13 years.  Wait.  Longer.  1988.  Jesus, it's   
   been 17 years," she says.  "For a while there, people would say,   
   'Why don't you become a bigger star?'"  She makes a funny face.   
   "Hmm.  Why don't I become a bigger star?"   
      
   The Hollywood dream, we offer, playing the unctuous undertaker.   
      
   "Yeah, pffff! Like really dumb," Leoni says, right back at us.   
   "I don't regret a move I've made in this town.  I've worked with some   
   phenomenal talent.  I've done some projects that were very sought after,   
      
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