European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                What a in Page 20the movie mix old Guys and Young women by Janet Roach the new York times v a a a a a a a a Universal. Kirk Douglas character is bound to a wheelchair but healthy enough to Chase Olivia do Abo in greedy a aug Newman no longer wants to be seen As a. J a sex Symbol. He s 69 now and thinks being the boy toy of yet another generation of f women is  there seems Little Chance hell get his wish. For one thing the eyes even behind glasses Are still bluer than Blue. For another there a the combination of self de it , a trim figure and the Silver hair of a senator. All in All he is a Star who can have legions of women humming the country song the older the violin the sweeter the music. It was Only five years ago that Newman romped through the movie Blaze As the Boozy Bawdy gov. Earl Long of Louisiana. Lolita Davidovich then 28, played Blaze Starr a tart tongued stripper into whose arms and bed he leaps. Newman appeared without a shirt in the Hud sucker proxy which opened the Cannes intimation Al film festival a couple of weeks ago. Theron san sus he looked pretty Good and in september he will be seen in the film nobody s poof based on the acclaimed Richard Russo novel As an older Man who attracts the attentions of a younger woman played by Melanie Griffith age 36. Although Newman swears that he wants people to Stop thinking of him As a sex Symbol a �?o1 wish it i devoutly wish it a he says ruefully a most male stars cling to their image As sexual spellbinder the Way barnacles cling to ships Bottoms. They continue to Star in romantic roles while their partners arc replaced by younger and younger women. A this season alone audiences will be treated to onscreen matches behave in Jack Nicholson 57 and Michelle Pfeiffer 37 in Wolf. Warren Beatty 57 and Annette Bening 36who Are husband and wife in love affair Nick Nolte 53 and Julia Roberts 27 in i love trouble Bruce Willis 39 and Jane March 21 in color of night Kirk Douglas 75 and Olivia do Abo 23 in greedy and Annin Mueller Stahl 64 and is. Do Abo in the last Good time a film due in the fail about an aging Man who enjoys one last fling. This disparity in Ages Between on camera lovers is hardly new. But for the occasional feminist screech of a unfair to women a it barely elicits comment. What is remarkable is that several recent studies by a respected psychologist suggest that big screen matchmaking habits reflect a social reality that cuts across cultural lines the world Over. A there is a Point where men cease to embody the qualities that women desire but it s not much shy of a wheelchair and the need for total medical care a says David Buss an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Michigan and the author of the Book the evolution of desire strategies of human mat eng which was published this Spring. There was Only one period in Hollywood when the dynamics were different. During and after world War ii women dominated the screen and were Al a Lowed to grow old along with their co stars. In 1942, Katharine Hepburn then 35 made woman of the Vea with Spencer Tracy then 44. They appeared together in nine films the last one in 1967. A in the �?T40s and �?T50s,&Quot Bob Baraban who dire eled the forthcoming last Good time says a every female Over the age of 18 wanted to be a woman not a girl. It did no to matter How old Barbara Stanwyck was in any Given movie. She always looked 38.&Quot  Seesaw has tipped the other Way favouring the male stars. Says Baraban a now women All want to look 15 forever. That a a lot harder to hang onto than 38. Nobody can stay 15 All her  failing to stay 15, actresses Are traded in for younger models. The recent american film Institute testimonial dinner for Nicholson demonstrated this clearly a with its table of his former leading ladies including Shirley Maclaine Cher Faye Dunaway and Candice Bergen the youngest of whom Are 48. So common is the age Gap it seems remarkable when screen couples Are roughly the same age see mrs. Doubtfire with Robin Williams 43 and Sally Field 48. Or Maverick with Mel Gibson 38 and Jodie Foster 32. Films that reverse the Standard equation to focus on a younger Man arid an older woman a the graduate with Dustin Hoffman who was 31, and Anne Bancroft who was All of 36 or guarding Tess with Nicolas Cage 30 and Maclaine 60 a Are almost always about the oddity of the situation. Hollywood executives most of them male seem to have Little trouble picturing a Middle aged Man As a commercial romantic hero. Women have no problem picturing it either. I like older men they will say sighing Over Anthony Hopkins and Sean Connery. Some Lions it seems will never be in Winter. Buss contends that the casting of older Nien opposite dewy Young women is a economically adaptive Quot on Hollywood a part. A a we re talking about making images that juice Peoples psychological mechanisms Quot he says. A neither Hollywood nor Madison Avenue is driving our society. On the contrary they re simply exploiting what our desires already Are every time Hollywood pairs a Robert Redford say with a Demi Moore its simply reflecting deeply ingrained highly evolved psychological mechanisms  Helen Fisher an anthropologist at the american museum of natural history in new York and author of the 1992 Book Anatomy of love the natural his tory of monogamy adultery and divorce concurs that the imperative is biological. The childbearing female allies herself with the Harrison Ford or Clint Eastwood of the Savannah a a Man who has the status to protect her and her child. A Hollywood is simply picking up on four million years of adaptive behaviour a Fisher says. A from a darwinian perspective what they re doing although sometimes exaggerated makes perfect  counsels Buss a trailing against men for the importance they place on Beauty youth and Fidelity is like railing against meat eaters because they prefer animal  on. Hearing of Buss theories Monica Vitti an assistant at the hawn Sylbert movie company Goldie Hawnn a production outfit responds a would no to you just like to slap that Guy around a Little Quot Anthea Sylbert who runs the company says a a it a not surprising to me that in an Industry run mostly by men its mostly menus fantasies we see up there on the . A. This summer audiences Are in for a demonstration of what Buss Calls the a deeply ingrained highly evolved psychological mechanisms that drive our mating  Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts play rival reporters thrown together in Pursuit of the same Story in j love trouble. In the trailer for the film much is made of the fact that Roberts character is half Nolter a characters age. In no he a last Outing til do anything he locked lips with Joely Richardson 29. With his much lived in visage and  Demeanour Nolte 53, seems this years idea male the kind of Man who appreciates Gin martinis meat loaf with mashed potatoes and the teachings of Jeny Seinfeld. Another highly anticipated summer entry Wolf presents Nicholson 57 As a timid Middle aged Man with thinning hair and a paunch. When the full. Moon comes out and he turns into a Werewolf both his hair and the plot thicken. His Middle flattens his Pursuit of Pfeiffer quickens and his chances of sue Cess improve vastly. Even a wheelchair May not disqualify some of Hollywood a leading men. In the recent movie greedy Douglas 75, played a Man in a wheelchair and the script still allowed him to strip Down to a bathing suit swim Chase his nurse arid catch her. Hollywood a says David Brown the producer who is also the author of the advice Book Brown s Guj cafe of growing Gray a has no principles except profit. If casting midgets and oct croons would get people into Heaters they a cast nothing but midgets and oct croons. If 90-year-old women opened a picture Hollywood would be awash in 90-year-old  you  do pretty woman with a 40-year-says Laura Ziskin a producer on the rum who cast Julia Roberts a then 23 a for the role. It would t  Richard Gere who played Roberts Lover was 41. Sunday May 29, 1994