Talk show
host Jon Stewart got a taste of the other end of the hot seat
when he recently braved the press to talk about his acting
role in Playing By Heart.
"There
was a French reporter who stormed out after I started yelling
about Catherine Deneuve in a car crash," he laughs, holding
court at The Essex House in Manhattan. "I was saying
something like, 'Those French movies are always about two
beautiful people and they always die in a car crash,' and
she stood up and walked out. But at least she was giggling."
Stewart's
performance in Heart is one of the most likable in
the star-studded ensemble cast, which includes Sean Connery,
Gillian Anderson, Dennis Quaid, Madeleine Stowe, Jay Mohr,
Anthony Edwards and Gena Rowlands. But he insists his change
of medium was not a calculated thing. "I don't have a
sort of Amway-esque chart up on my refrigerator or anything,"
he says.
He does,
though, admit to being a trifle intimidated by his stellar
surroundings. "I think," he says, of his famous
co-stars, "they thought I was the caterer."