Tea is on the cover of the December/January issue of 7x7,
a San Francisco magazine. There's an exclusive photoshoot
with 5 full-page pics and one 2-page pic inside, as well as
a great 2-page Q&A discussing UNICEF & her trip to Vietnam,
making FUN WITH DICK & JANE, being directed by David,
her kids' names, and how much she & David like SF,
enough to even consider living here. :-D
magazine's website: http://www.7x7mag.com/
stores that carry it (all in Northern California):
http://www.7x7mag.com/newsstands/
Transcribed by pam. :-)
page 34: full-page Table of Contents colour pic
page 48: Editor & Creative Director Heather Luplow Hartle writes:
===>
In the spirit of the holidays, this issue features the people
who take giving back to the community to a whole new level.
They're certainly not hard to come by. Our city is known for
being full of big-hearted folks whose philanthropic efforts
and generosity reach far beyond its 49 square miles.
[...]
And should you think Tea Leoni has nothing to do with giving,
think again. She works as an ambassador for UNICEF --
something she identifies with more than being a Hollywood
actress. Yet another person in the magazine with her
priorities straight.
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page 132: full-page b&w pic
page 133: full-page b&w pic
page 134: full-page colour pic
pages 136-137: 2-page colour pic
page 139: full-page b&w pic
pages 135 & 138: 2-page article:
===>
Do-Right Woman
Tea Leoni -- one of Hollywood's most philanthropic leading
ladies -- talks about her work with UNICEF, her Christmas
movie with Jim Carrey, and why she doesn't like starring
opposite her husband, David Duchovny.
By Stephanie Scott
Photography by Brian Bowen Smith
You know how some people just sound familiar? Your back's
turned in a crowded room, yet their voices cut through with
clarity. Such is the case with Tea Leoni. The moment the
39-year-old actress calls, she sounds exactly like she's
supposed to. It's hard to describe, but just as you can
study her unforgettable eyes and glimpse her character's soul,
in real life, her voice is so recognizable that she instantly
seems like an old friend. Her publicist told me I would love,
love, love her. And I have to admit, it's hard not to.
Leoni's quick with the wit and the candor. Her thoughts
unfurl amid sparks of humor -- little dazzlers that pop like
surprise parties. And whether the native New Yorker is talking
about her husband (actor-writer-director David Duchovny),
their children (Madelaine West and Kyd Miller), her aversion
to shopping (except for pet toys and linens), or her endeavors
for UNICEF (which she comes to by way of family, not fame)
-- it's clear her accessibility serves her well, no matter
what the arena.
We know her best from her mid-'90s TV series, THE ****D TRUTH,
and such films as THE FAMILY MAN (a heartfelt Christmas tale
with Nicolas Cage), HOLLYWOOD ENDING (in which she plays Woody
Allen's producer ex-wife) and SPANGLISH (as Adam Sandler's
loathe-her-yet-love-her spoiled spouse). In April she appeared
in the Duchovny-directed HOUSE OF D, and this holiday season
she's Jim Carrey's wife in FUN WITH DICK AND JANE -- a remake
of Jane Fonda and George Segal's 1977 film about a couple whose
reversal of fortune leads them on a hilarious stealing spree.
But today she's just a Malibu mom. And here's what she has
to say....
7x7: How's it going?
Tea Leoni: Oh, this is one of those great, "when it rains
it pours" kind of weeks. The flu has been sweeping through
the house and my family came and it's my mom's birthday.
All at once.
7x7: Isn't that always the way?
TL: It is. And we're getting better at it. The thing about
kids is, the first time you still have some expectation of
control and by the second you've figured out you have none.
And so the flu appears and you just know it will go through
the five of you. Wait, I just added a kid. The four of us.
7x7: Let's get right into the work you do as a UNICEF
ambassador. You were just in Vietnam?
TL: Yes. I went with my dad, who is a member of the board of
directors for the U.S. Fund, and we went to focus on AIDS.
The year before, we were in Honduras, and what I'm beginning
to understand is that the more we share our international
experiences, the more effective we can be. So, it was
exciting because there were things we'd seen work in
Honduras that we shared with team members in Vietnam.
It is an *amazing* country. It's an incredibly warm country.
There's no language barrier in a smile.
7x7: What were you doing each day?
TL: We wanted to understand what the needs are as far as
antiretroviral drugs: How are they being distributed, and
how can we get these ARVs into the cities and have them
trickle into more rural areas? How are they educating their
adolescents and preventing mother-to-child transmission?
So, traveling from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay,
we saw a great cross section of their medical capacity.
There was one program in particular that has been initiated
by a member of the UNICEF team in Vietnam -- the Buddhist
Leader****p Initiative. If we can reach out to the Buddhist
monks who run these pagodas in Vietnam, they can help us
with education. We've done this pilot program, and it's
like nothing I've ever seen. One monk went to Thailand
to learn about AIDS and then returned to his pagoda and
educated all of his monks. And that's what we're pu****ng
for -- to make sure they have funding and education.
7x7: What inspired your work with AIDS and HIV awareness?
TL: I was at one of the annual board meetings for the U.S.
Fund and the focus was on HIV/AIDS and is UNICEF doing
enough, and more im****tantly, is the world doing enough?
And we came up with the answer: No. This is an emergency.
Worldwide, we're looking at potentially 22 million orphans.
So, my father, myself and other members of the board decided
to launch the AIDS Action Team. The infection rate is going up
and the disease is mutating and we cannot afford to see what
we saw in Africa repeated anywhere else -- particularly in Asia.
Socioeconomically, that would be devastating.
7x7: How long have you been doing this?
TL: I don't really know [laughs]. My grandmother founded
the U.S. Committee for UNICEF, which is now the U.S. Fund.
So I grew up very much involved in UNICEF. I remember making
speeches for my grandmother when I was 18, when she couldn't
travel anymore. It's something I've always been involved with,
and the celebrity aspect of it is newer to me and probably
less of my interest [laughs]. For me, it's somewhat odd.
It's almost like I started inside and then went outside.
What I'm very excited about is that I'll be joining the
board of directors for the U.S. Fund this June.
7x7: Congratulations!
TL: Thank you. I'm glad to be doing it while my father is
still on the board. This is an area where our relation****p
is just pristine. I think, you know, girls and our fathers,
we have all of these different intricacies and -- I don't know
[sighs] -- I think my dad probably always wanted me to be
a lawyer, and for a while, I thought I'd do that for him.
But as we know, I didn't [laughs].
7x7: What's the most fulfilling part of the work?
TL: That's a really hard question. It almost implies that
there's an end, like hunger being overcome. And, it doesn't
really work like that. I think the most satisfying aspect
of it is waking up every day and knowing that I'm involved.
I'm hard-pressed to put it up against any excitement that
I get out of my other, so-called glamorous job. The
effectiveness of the organization is so inspiring. I mean, you
go to areas of Africa and "UNICEF" is the word for clean water.
7x7: OK -- time to switch gears and talk about the movie.
TL: [Laughs]
7x7: So -- FUN WITH DICK AND JANE. What drew you to the role?
TL: I did a film a couple years ago called SPANGLISH.
7x7: Right...
TL: ...which was a very difficult character. And being that
woman every day was exhausting. So, the summer after I
completed that film, [director] Dean Parisot called and said,
"How about this -- you and Jim Carrey in a physical comedy."
And at that point, the idea of spending my days slipping
on banana peels was very appealing.
7x7: Is Jim Carrey crazy?
TL: No!
7x7: He just seems so off the wall.
TL: Oh no, don't get me wrong, he *is* off the wall. But
what you also realize is that he's an absolute perfectionist.
He wants to explore something to get it as funny as it can be.
I love that. There would be a table in the way and we'd
wonder, What can we do to that table? Do you want to go over
it, under it, knock it down, flip over it, pour water on it?
It was a blast.
7x7: Any funny stories from filming?
TL: Well, my first reaction is, I wish you'd been there.
Every day there was some new level of silly. One day I got
thrown into the pool. The scene is that Jim is in the pool
and we're celebrating the good life and I'm in my bathing suit
with a drink on a lounge chair in the sun reading a magazine,
and Jim's clowning around in the pool. And I did get a quick
hint that this was coming because, I looked at him and there was
this look in his eye and I thought, *Ohhh, he's up to something.*
He shot out of the pool and just dumped me in. And I remember
thinking, here we go....
7x7: Your husband recently directed you in HOUSE OF D.
Any plans to work with him again?
TL: I want him to direct me again -- he's one of the most
articulate, calm, intelligent, inspiring directors. But I
still can't imagine looking into his eyes and saying somebody
else's lines. That just ... that seems really goofy.
David and I have a pristine relation****p and our children
have a pretty pristine view of it, in that it's honest.
I don't ever want to look in David's eyes and say someone
else's "I love you."
7x7: That's so sweet.
TL: But I would really like for him to direct me again.
And, so, I'm pu****ng him about that. Because you know, I am
sleeping with him. So I feel like I have some influence.
7x7: I think maybe you do.
TL: [Laughs]
7x7; How old are your kids?
TL: My daughter is six years old, and my son is three.
7x7: And you call them by their middle names?
TL: We do! But that's just some screwed-up thing. That's what
I thought we were supposed to do! My first name is Elizabeth.
7x7: That's so East Coast of you.
TL: Is that what it is? I asked my mom and she said,
"Oh I don't know, I think we just screwed up," and I said,
"Well, great, because now I just screwed up two more people."
7x7: This is, as you know, an SF magazine -- anything you want
to say about the city?
TL: David and I are both huge fans of San Francisco -- it's
such a perfect city.
7x7: Do you feel like it has an East Coast sensibility?
TL: Very much. I mean, one of the things that we miss about the
East Coast -- both of us being from New York -- are the seasons.
And it seems like San Francisco has the ideal seasons because
you feel them and yet you don't have to shovel 10 feet of snow.
Also, the suburbs have a very New England feel and so, between
that and this cosmopolitan city, San Francisco is ideal.
7x7: Is living in Malibu your secret to leading a low-profile life?
TL: It actually is for us because we leave every summer, and
that's when Malibu gets a little crazy. My grandmother had
a place on the Cape, so I take the kids [there for] June,
July and August. David and I have an idea of an East Coast
upbringing for our kids, but we may not be able to do that
because of work. So San Francisco, for instance, is looking
really good.
7x7: Seriously?
TL: Yeah.
7x7: That's the best quote ever.
TL: Well, there you go.
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