By Staff
Thanks to my 14-year-old daughter, Savannah, I knew who "Pedro" was on bumper stickers I saw for sale at Minnesota's Mall of America.
I knew what geek-chic movie likely would be playing in our family room after Central Middle School's May 20 farewell dance.
It didn't surprise me to read in the June 5 Rolling Stone that the Idaho Legislature acted in April to appreciate this curious piece of cinema that lavished so much attention on Tater Tots, thus promoting that state's "most famous export."
Months ago Savannah, who likes the Ramones, persuaded me to watch this slow-paced cult classic released last June about a high school loser.
No stars, no nudity, no profanity, no plot. Go figure.
But to its devotees, who start talking like they're frickin' idiots from Idaho, the meaningless details take on a life of their own and get more amusing with each viewing.
This quirky film works on its own terms, making $45 million while spawning catchphrases, theme parties, impersonators, festivals with tetherball tournaments, sold-out college lectures with cast members and midnight showings like "Rocky Horror Show" did 30 years ago in my senior year of high school.
I never got that fad, either.
I didn't know that this pop-culture phenomenon was produced by Mormons. "I had no idea how big it was until a couple of weeks ago," said Jared Hess, who wrote the film with his wife, Jerusha, while they were students at Brigham Young. "Then we walked into the mall, and every line in the film had its own T-shirt."
Hess, then 23, cast Jon Heder, his former roommate, as you-know-who and shot for $200,000 the misadventures of Idaho misfits, including the title character, his only friend Pedro, who runs for high school office, and older brother Kip.
Heder, 27, was studying to be an animator when he took the role for $1,000. Now he's an unlikely sex symbol with four movies.
Heder, who was unrecognizable as himself when Ashton Kutcher "Punk'd" him, figures "people develop a personal relationship with the film. There's a million people who think they're the only ones who get it. Everybody wants to be in a club. And with the lingo, the characters, the outfits, 'Napoleon's' the ultimate club."
Hess drew on his upbringing in rural Preston, Idaho, where his mom really kept a llama. And a local farm really bred ligers - a cross between lions and tigers. Napoleon keeps a pet llama, Tina. He sketches ligers, explaining in that monotone, "It's bred for its skills in magic." Now Eye of the Liger panties are among a couple hundred items being merchandised.
Look for Napoleon, Kip and Pedro action figures this fall.
After the Sundance Film Festival, Fox Searchlight paid $3 million for the film and everybody thought they were nuts at that price.
The weirdness only accelerated with the release of the DVD just before Christmas.
It sold 1.4 million copies.
The first day.
Lucy in the Sky with Six Diamonds: "1" was certified diamond (10 million copies) by the Recording Industry Association of America.
That makes The Beatles the first act with six albums to reach this sales milestone. Led Zeppelin is second, with five.
The Fab Four's 2000 greatest hits collection joins the "White Album," "The Beatles 1967-1970," "The Beatles 1962-1966," "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
Said Capitol Records President Andy Slater, "It's nice to see that the most talented band is still the most successful."
Finally the strong survives: Gray-haired New York City firefighter Tom Westman, 41, May 15 became the oldest $1 million winner on "Survivor: Palau."
Katie Gallagher, 29, an advertising executive from Merced, Calif., won $100,000 as runner-up.
In a season of "Survivor" firsts, Westman stuck to his first-day alliance with Gallagher and dolphin trainer Ian Rosenberger and led the Koror tribe to victory in every immunity challenge - a feat never accomplished before in nine seasons.
Westman, a father of three who lives in Sayville, N.Y., had the prowess to win seven individual immunity challenges, yet never received a vote against him when it came time for players to vote each other off the island.
The 20-year FDNY veteran told the New York Daily News his wife, Bernadette, downloaded his "Survivor" application and mailed it.
Westman, who also won a new car, said he plans to put his money toward college for his children and fixing up his house.
Nanny Jenn Lyon lost a fire-building tiebreaker challenge after Tom learned Ian planned to double-cross him.
Rosenberger spent hours perched on a pole, but quit the final endurance immunity challenge, insisting Westman take Gallagher to the final two as a show of respect.
During the last tribal council, jurors ganged up on Gallagher as lazy and mean.
Host Jeff Probst made the announcement I awaited almost as avidly as the sole survivor.
The cast I tried out for in the snow last January will be living in Mayan ruins in Guatemala.
Recuperating: Bob Denver, 70, star of "Gilligan's Island," at his West Virginia home from quadruple bypass surgery.
Obit: Impressionist Frank Gorshin, 72, died May 17 in California. The Pittsburgh native was best known as "Batman" villain the Riddler in a green suit covered with question marks from 1966-69.
(Not) "Everybody Loves Raymond": The dysfunctional Italian-American Barone family of Long Island leaves CBS after nine seasons, 210 episodes and 12 Emmys. Comedian Ray Romano told The Washington Post, "My situation was almost the same as the show's. I was living not across the street from my parents but a few blocks away. My brother was divorced, a police sergeant who moved back in with my parents. I had a wife, twin boys and a daughter. Then we went from there. It's sad, isn't it?" He said Ray and Debra were always fighting because "love isn't that funny." What's next? "If those 'Desperate Housewives' want a real guy in there, not some gardener guy with pec implants, I'd be up for that."
Chappelle fled to stay with friends in Durban because he wasn't happy with the direction of the show Comedy Central signed to a reported $50 million deal to keep for two more seasons.
Comedy Central President Doug Herzog assured Time the star has "complete creative freedom."
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: "The United States is no longer just the world's policeman. We are now its jailer, too. The Pentagon says it currently holds 12,534 people in detention in camps and prisons throughout Iraq, in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba … we have no way out of a quagmire that has made us their jailers, but not legitimate judges or juries."