Q&A Hollywood
Q: Is the pregnancy photo Sarah Jessica Parker gives to the whole family in “The Family Stone” actually a picture of Diane Keaton?
A: It is, but with a pretty key difference: Diane Keaton wasn’t actually pregnant.
In “The Family Stone” (2005), Keaton plays the matriarch of a big family in New England. The plot revolves around her son, now a New York City hotshot, bringing his uptight new girlfriend home for Christmas to meet everyone.
The girlfriend (played by Sarah Jessica Parker at the peak of her “Sex and the City” fame) is a bit of a disaster, but she redeems herself (somewhat) by giving everyone a thoughtful gift: a framed, artfully shot photograph of the mother while she was pregnant with one of the children.
It’s a pretty real moment in a movie full of them, but it was made extra real by the fact that it was actually Keaton in the photograph. However, the director did have to make an addition for the sake of the film. The photo had to be doctored to make her look pregnant, which Keaton had never been (she’s adopted two children but never given birth).
Keaton’s reactions in that scene were more real than the others — she was legitimately moved by the photo and the scene. “It was the most amazing moment in any movie for me,” Keaton said. “When I saw it, all I could think of was my mother because she took the picture. It’s like a tribute to my mother.”
Q: In the many episodes of “Gun smoke,” Matt and Kitty are obviously boyfriend and girlfriend. Did Matt ever kiss Kitty in any episode? I’ve looked and have not seen it.
A: They never kiss in any episode of the show, but that’s not to say they never kiss at all. You’re not likely to see the screen smooch, though, because none of the boxed sets or online streaming platforms kept the commercials.
“Gunsmoke” was sponsored for years by L&M Tobacco Company and, in those days, a TV show’s stars frequently appeared in the commercials that aired during the show (a tradition that carried over from the radio days). In one ad, Amanda Blake (who played Kitty) hands James Arness (Matt) a carton of L&M cigarettes as a Christmas present and plants a big kiss on his cheek. He looks at the screen and says, “That’s the way I like to get L&Ms, folks.”
Sure, they’re not in character (they’re in contemporary clothes and she calls him “Jim” in the ad), but it’s the closest we ever got.
For reasons of propriety — and for the sake of keeping some of the willthey-or-won’t-they dynamic alive (indeed, “Gunsmoke” helped create the will-theyor-won’t-they dynamic on TV) — their romance is never openly acknowledged on the show.
Q:When “Bones” ended, what did Angela go on to do?
A: I’m going to go on the assumption that you mean Michaela Conlin, the actress who played Angela. But, for the record, Angela got her happily-ever-after with Hodgins and their baby.
For Conlin, on the other hand, the story continues. She’s been pretty busy since “Bones” ended in 2017, but she’s yet to find that sort of stability again.
Most notably, she had a recurring role on the hit Paramount series “Yellowstone,” playing an antagonistic New York journalist. She also had a three-episode arc on the short-lived HBO drama “Here and Now” in 2018.
But what may prove to be her biggest post-“Bones” gig is yet to come. She has a part in the long-delayed road-trip comedy “Bad Trip.” The film stars Eric Andre (of “The Eric Andre Show” fame), but Conlin seems to have a pretty sizable role.
The film has been getting pretty decent buzz so far, which is good since people have had a lot of time to talk about it. It’s completed but had its original release date scrapped by the pandemic. It was then going to air on Amazon Prime, but that fell through and its rights were sold to Netflix. Netflix has yet to announce a release date.