What's In It For Me?
A Who-Done-It And Why In Any Given Sunday

Back in the 80's, studios only needed one big name actor to guarantee a successful opening weekend for their films. Billboards around town would cryptically proclaim "SCHWARZENEGGER-SUMMER" or the subliminally-sexual "STALLONE-COMING SOON". They never mentioned the movie's name. They never had to. People would go see these marquee stars regardless of what the story was. Whether these actors were playing unintelligible Vietnam sympathizers or unintelligible androids from the future, people associated with a name brand and duly lined up.

But, after, oh, about 12 years, audiences wised up to the fact that they were seeing more of Arnold's stuntman in movies than Arnold (watch the horse chase in True Lies and prepare to be embarrassed). Then with the success of Scream, Hollywood learned that they didn't have to shell out 20 million twice a year to aging Hollywood veterans when they could pepper the cast with one big name, one or two hot television stars, and a handful of has-been character actors (for kitsch value), all for a much lower price. This trend made such unforgettable casting coups like Phantoms, Best Laid Plans, and Disturbing Behavior possible. You can spot most of these movies by their ads which all share the now-standard actors' disembodied upper torsos lined up in a geese formation on the poster ala the Scream poster.

Ensemble pictures are the stuff of film marketers' dreams. All they have to do is spotlight the cast member who is "hot" at the time, and build the trailers around the star du jour. But when there is no one true lead in the movie, it usually requires concessions from the actors (less screen time).

In this column, we put the latest ensemble money-maker, Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday, on the hot plate and serve up the who and why the cast agreed to this noise.

Al Pacino: What's in it for him?
Counter-balances his real acting job in The Insider. Gets to yell like he has in every movie since 1972.

Cameron Diaz: What's in it for her?
Going head-to-head with the Godfather in a few scenes lets her show just how good of an actor Russell Crowe is.

Dennis Quaid: What's in it for him?
Will finally get Meg Ryan off his back with all of her "Honey, when are YOU going to be in a number one movie at the box office?" talk.

Jamie Foxx: What's in it for him?
A chance to be seen by more than the eleven people that normally watch him on the WB.

Aaron Eckhart: What's in it for him?
The opportunity NOT to play the biggest prick in a movie.

LL Cool J: What's in it for him?
The chance to become "the edgy Will Smith", or so his agent said.

Lawrence Taylor: What's in it for him?
Let's just say L.T. wasn't paid in cash and leave it at that.