Post by Techguy on Sept 29, 2006 1:38:46 GMT -5
www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=24&ContentID=8237
Quintessential bachelor with a sense of humour
29th September 2006, 12:15 WST
It’s easy to imagine how Chris Noth earned the tag of quintessential New York bachelor.
He’s handsome, well-groomed, a great conversationalist; not unlike Mr Big, the character he portrayed for six seasons on the hit series Sex and the City.
“How long does it take to get to Perth?” he inquires in that oh-sofamiliar deep voice.
“What is the big deal about Perth, is it a beach town? Do you get stung by jellyfish and die there? So what do you want to talk about?”
At 51, Noth has never been married and can frequently be found at his Manhattan club The Cutting Room. He is also part-owner of a new club called Plumm.
Noth’s girlfriend is said to be actress Tara Wilson; a fact anyone can learn by Googling him. And there are plenty of photos to support the theory, though not many are recent.
While Noth was happy to acknowledge Wilson in our interview, he apparently had a change of heart after putting down the phone.
A few hours after our chat came the call from Network Ten publicity. It went something along the lines of: “Chris says he hit it off with you but he’s worried he opened up too much. Could you not mention anything about his girlfriend?”
I agree to the curious request but choose not to remove Tara Wilson’s name from the story, since it’s all over the internet. I suggest Noth should have been more worried about the dirty jokes he made about the Logies — the reason for his first visit to Australia earlier this year.
Noth played hot-headed Det. Mike Logan in the original series of Law & Order for five seasons from 1990. His character was demoted to beat cop after punching a city official and he left the show in 1995, reportedly over creative differences.
Logan made a guest appearance in last year’s season finale of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, redeeming himself and earning a detective’s desk at the major case squad.
This season Noth has appeared in alternating episodes, taking the pressure off Vincent D’Onofrio (Det. Bobby Goren), who collapsed on set from exhaustion in 2004.
Noth will be back next season with a new on-screen partner, Julianne Nicholson, who replaces Annabella Sciorra. Surely this is a sign that Noth has finally ironed out his differences with the show’s makers?
“I always have creative differences with these guys,” he laughs. “It’s a procedural show, you always try to fight for more character and you know — it is what it is.
“It’s a different show to the original for me. It moves faster. Criminal Intent is very complicated with dense story-lines and very perverse murders, bizarre killings and twists and turns and leaps that are hard to sometimes fathom.
“Our job is to bring the audience along step by step so they follow this sometimes very convoluted story-line to the end.
“It’s much more of a mystery than an examination of the bureaucracy of the law department or police force in New York, which is what I enjoyed in the original.”
Despite reprising the character that first made him a household name, Noth (which rhymes with both rather than moth) still finds more people know him as Mr Big than Mike Logan.
“I think Mr Big wins out usually and I finished that more than two years ago,” he says.
“Maybe once CI starts playing more; maybe he’ll start to win the race.
“I think they are both pretty sexy characters in their own rights. I think Mr Big is in a world of high comedy, written almost like Noel Coward with sex in it. It’s very smartly written.
“Law and Order is a whole different cup of tea, it just depends what your tastes are. I hope all the fans from Sex and the City start watching Criminal Intent, I know it is pretty popular here in Australia.”
Whoopi Goldberg fans will be pleased to know she is likely to reprise her recent guest role as Chelsey Watkins, the evil foster mother who riled Logan. Goldberg had a birthday party at Noth’s New York City bar and club, the Cutting Room, and told Noth she wanted to be on the show. He then told the producers.
“They came up with this great story. She will continue to be on the show, sort of like the nemesis Goren has.”
Although best known for his TV roles, the Yale drama school graduate has appeared in “a lot of independent films that no one has seen” and last year starred with Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear in The Perfect Man.
“Oh god, The Perfect Man,” he groans.
“Excuse me, the mere mention of that movie is making me throw up. I thought it was a pretty stupid movie. The Perfect Man, it’s like it’s a perfect piece of crap.
“But I did it, I am proud I did. It sounded good at the time but turned out to be a turd.”
Ah, a quintessential bachelor with a sense of humour.
The season finale of Law and Order: Criminal Intent screens tomorrow at 8.30pm.
Sue Yeap
ETA: This interview probably occurred when Chris Noth was in Australia a while ago, before the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. The editors could have displayed a little editorial restraint and done without this quote: “What is the big deal about Perth, is it a beach town? Do you get stung by jellyfish and die there?
Quintessential bachelor with a sense of humour
29th September 2006, 12:15 WST
It’s easy to imagine how Chris Noth earned the tag of quintessential New York bachelor.
He’s handsome, well-groomed, a great conversationalist; not unlike Mr Big, the character he portrayed for six seasons on the hit series Sex and the City.
“How long does it take to get to Perth?” he inquires in that oh-sofamiliar deep voice.
“What is the big deal about Perth, is it a beach town? Do you get stung by jellyfish and die there? So what do you want to talk about?”
At 51, Noth has never been married and can frequently be found at his Manhattan club The Cutting Room. He is also part-owner of a new club called Plumm.
Noth’s girlfriend is said to be actress Tara Wilson; a fact anyone can learn by Googling him. And there are plenty of photos to support the theory, though not many are recent.
While Noth was happy to acknowledge Wilson in our interview, he apparently had a change of heart after putting down the phone.
A few hours after our chat came the call from Network Ten publicity. It went something along the lines of: “Chris says he hit it off with you but he’s worried he opened up too much. Could you not mention anything about his girlfriend?”
I agree to the curious request but choose not to remove Tara Wilson’s name from the story, since it’s all over the internet. I suggest Noth should have been more worried about the dirty jokes he made about the Logies — the reason for his first visit to Australia earlier this year.
Noth played hot-headed Det. Mike Logan in the original series of Law & Order for five seasons from 1990. His character was demoted to beat cop after punching a city official and he left the show in 1995, reportedly over creative differences.
Logan made a guest appearance in last year’s season finale of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, redeeming himself and earning a detective’s desk at the major case squad.
This season Noth has appeared in alternating episodes, taking the pressure off Vincent D’Onofrio (Det. Bobby Goren), who collapsed on set from exhaustion in 2004.
Noth will be back next season with a new on-screen partner, Julianne Nicholson, who replaces Annabella Sciorra. Surely this is a sign that Noth has finally ironed out his differences with the show’s makers?
“I always have creative differences with these guys,” he laughs. “It’s a procedural show, you always try to fight for more character and you know — it is what it is.
“It’s a different show to the original for me. It moves faster. Criminal Intent is very complicated with dense story-lines and very perverse murders, bizarre killings and twists and turns and leaps that are hard to sometimes fathom.
“Our job is to bring the audience along step by step so they follow this sometimes very convoluted story-line to the end.
“It’s much more of a mystery than an examination of the bureaucracy of the law department or police force in New York, which is what I enjoyed in the original.”
Despite reprising the character that first made him a household name, Noth (which rhymes with both rather than moth) still finds more people know him as Mr Big than Mike Logan.
“I think Mr Big wins out usually and I finished that more than two years ago,” he says.
“Maybe once CI starts playing more; maybe he’ll start to win the race.
“I think they are both pretty sexy characters in their own rights. I think Mr Big is in a world of high comedy, written almost like Noel Coward with sex in it. It’s very smartly written.
“Law and Order is a whole different cup of tea, it just depends what your tastes are. I hope all the fans from Sex and the City start watching Criminal Intent, I know it is pretty popular here in Australia.”
Whoopi Goldberg fans will be pleased to know she is likely to reprise her recent guest role as Chelsey Watkins, the evil foster mother who riled Logan. Goldberg had a birthday party at Noth’s New York City bar and club, the Cutting Room, and told Noth she wanted to be on the show. He then told the producers.
“They came up with this great story. She will continue to be on the show, sort of like the nemesis Goren has.”
Although best known for his TV roles, the Yale drama school graduate has appeared in “a lot of independent films that no one has seen” and last year starred with Hilary Duff and Heather Locklear in The Perfect Man.
“Oh god, The Perfect Man,” he groans.
“Excuse me, the mere mention of that movie is making me throw up. I thought it was a pretty stupid movie. The Perfect Man, it’s like it’s a perfect piece of crap.
“But I did it, I am proud I did. It sounded good at the time but turned out to be a turd.”
Ah, a quintessential bachelor with a sense of humour.
The season finale of Law and Order: Criminal Intent screens tomorrow at 8.30pm.
Sue Yeap
ETA: This interview probably occurred when Chris Noth was in Australia a while ago, before the death of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin. The editors could have displayed a little editorial restraint and done without this quote: “What is the big deal about Perth, is it a beach town? Do you get stung by jellyfish and die there?
Patrick Roy, 2006 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame
