Isn’t It Ironic?

Flea, the gaptoothed, tattooed bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, has been moonlighting for years as a character actor, mostly with small parts in offbeat films like “My Own Private Idaho,” “The Big Lebowski” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” But the just-released indie whodunit “Liar’s Poker” affords the musician his biggest role to date. Other musicians making the leap to the big screen include Live lead singer Edward Kowalczyk, who has a small part as one of the many angry young men in “Fight Club,” and Jewel, who stars in Ang Lee’s Civil War-era “Ride With the Devil.” But the ultimate rock deity cameo? Alanis Morissette plays God in Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” (which trumps Sinead O’Connor’s turn as the Virgin Mary in Neil Jordan’s 1997 “The Butcher Boy”).

Stirred not Shaken?

In the 1995 James Bond film “GoldenEye,” 007 got a new face (Pierce Brosnan) and a new car (a BMW replaced the venerable Astin Martin). Another change is afoot--”The World Is Not Enough” (which opens Nov. 19), the latest in the Bond franchise, is coming out under the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer banner. The company’s first 18 Bond films were released by MGM’s United Artists arm, which is being relaunched as a specialty distribution branch for smaller, artistic films. The new strategy is more in line with the original vision of UA founders Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Mary Pickford, D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin, and the first film under the new UA dictum will be Mike Figgis’ film of the August Strindberg play “Miss Julie,” which opens Dec. 10.

Quote

“People don’t recognize you from the movies you do, they recognize you from talk shows.”

--Billy Bob Thornton, on fame at the post-premiere party of “Princess Mononoke” at Eurochow in Westwood on Oct. 20.