1999’s Comebacks, Cool Places and Catch Phrases

It was a year when a lot of critics complained that “The Phantom Menace” had a phantom script, keeping your eyes wide open during “Eyes Wide Shut” proved a challenge and “The Fight Club” got decked at the box office.

What do you recall about the year in entertainment? Here’s the annual Company Town quiz about the year’s highs and lows (and as our New Year’s gift to our readers, you may consider all your answers correct):

1) “Final answer” refers to:

a) The line Regis Philbin says to contestants on the popular game show “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.”

b) What Hollywood producers with a decent movie idea wait at least two years to get from studio executives.

c) Something nobody will ever get to in the question of why Walt Disney Chairman Michael Eisner didn’t settle Jeffrey Katzenberg’s breach-of-contract suit before being confronted on the witness stand about having once referred to Katzenberg as “the little midget.”

2) The toughest question to answer in music during 1999 was:

a) How will the power struggle play out between Arista chief Clive Davis and corporate boss Strauss Zelnick at BMG?

b) What’s the difference between ‘N Sync, the Backstreet Boys and 98 Degrees?

c) What was Garth Brooks thinking when he adopted that “Chris Gaines” persona?

3) “I see dead people” refers to:

a) The chilling line uttered by 11-year-old actor Haley Joel Osment in the hit film “The Sixth Sense.”

b) What it takes for a member of the MPAA Ratings Board to give a film a PG rating for violence.

c) What audiences experience five minutes into a movie from action producers Joel Silver or Jerry Bruckheimer.

4) In 1999, Hollywood learned that the surest way to get a big opening weekend at the box office requires:

a) Spending at least $25 million advertising the film.

b) Getting Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts to star.

c) Giving away free Pokemon cards.

5) If you were advising someone on the best place to spot a Hollywood star in 1999, you would send them to:

a) The Mondrian hotel’s SkyBar on Sunset Boulevard.

b) The lobby of the Sutton Place hotel in Vancouver.

c) Arraignment proceedings in Malibu Superior Court.

6) The most common line uttered in Hollywood in 1999 was:

a) “ ‘Action’ is hysterical. It really captures Hollywood.”

b) “I passed on Planet Hollywood.”

c) “I told my boss we should buy the ‘Harry Potter’ rights.”

d) “I told my boss we should buy ‘The Blair Witch Project.’ ”

e) “I knew ‘Action’ would bomb.”

7) The comeback of early-1970s music star Carlos Santana bodes well for:

a) Artists who blend Latin sounds with rock.

b) Established musicians who link up with hip young artists as Santana did with Lauryn Hill, Everlast and Dave Matthews.

c) Deep Purple

8) In 1999, the biggest challenge for a Hollywood executive was:

a) Understanding Barry Diller’s financial transactions.

b) Being able to summarize in three sentences the plot of “The Matrix.”

c) Getting out of having to attend the premieres of “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Fight Club.”

d) Reading an entire issue of Tina Brown’s Talk magazine.

9) As a sign that you were important in 1999 in Hollywood, you got:

a) A Staples Center luxury box next to Tom Hanks’.

b) An invitation to Rupert Murdoch’s wedding.

c) Called to testify in the Katzenberg-Disney trial.

d) Free tickets from Vince McMahon to tapings of “WWF Smackdown!”

10) In 1999, you were in the minority in Hollywood if you:

a) Were a person of color in a top network job.

b) Didn’t start a Web site.

c) Think Mel Karmazin and Sumner Redstone will last as a team.

d) Think Warren Beatty will run for president.

e) Enjoyed watching Jar Jar Binks in “Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace.”