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The Times of Scotch Plains-Fanwood

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Arts & Entertainment

Julia Fiona Roberts (1967) Julia Roberts in a scene from

Stepmom

ARTIST OF THE WEEK

Julia Fiona Roberts, who is mostly associated with her role as Richard Gere’s Pretty Woman has a smile as wide as the whole sky. As one Hollywood’s highest paid actresses, with the gorgeous Benjamin Bratt at her side, Roberts has oodles to grin about.

Catching the acting bug at a young age, Roberts and her brother Eric who were born in Smyrna, Ga. spent time with students of the Actors and Writers Workshop, owned by their parents, in Georgia. A triple threat to Hollywood as an actress, model and producer, she has served as Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and garnered movie awards since 1989.

After graduating from Campbell High School in Smyrna in 1985, Roberts packed her bags for the NYC but did not catch the eyes of producers and filmmakers until her role in Mystic Pizza.

Soon, star status struck with

Steel Magnolias, for which she won a Golden Globe,

Pretty Woman, which gave her another Golden Globe,

My Best Friend’s Wedding,

which earned her the title of Favorite Actress by Blockbuster Entertainment and

Conspiracy Theory and

Stepmom which was also recognized by Blockbuster. Roberts also received the People’s Choice award this year as “Favorite Motion Picture Actress.”

Most recently, Roberts filmed Runaway Bride with former Pretty Woman costar Richard Gere. She was nominated last week for Best Female Performance by MTV’s Movie Awards for her role as the woman who just couldn’t commit – that is until she met Gere’s character.

Epitomizing Hollywood glamour just like the beloved Audrey Hepburn, Roberts has no limits to where her smile, and acting can take her.

Please send A& E Press Releases to: michelle@ goleader. com

by 4 p. m. on Fridays

“Red Leaf” by Nancy J. Ori

Life’s Lens Exposes Various Vantage Points for Nancy J. Ori

Bezrutczyk Doesn’t Mind Being Bit By Acting Bug

Jim Carey Sarah Michelle

Gellar Gauging MTV Movie Nominees Differs

Dramatically From Oscar’s Standards

Place 10 MTV executives at a table across from 10 Oscar producers and what do you get? Oil and water. Mass confusion.

“Oh, my gawd. Neve Campbell totally has to be nominated for an MTV Movie Award for

Scream 3,” panics the MTV exec. “Her acting is soooo killer!”

Rolling his eyes, the Oscar honcho says with a gasp, “Please! Are we talking about acting here? Anyone can scream on the top of their lungs! Let’s talk about a real actress like Julia Roberts.”

“Julia, who?” is the response. This year’s MTV movie award picks illustrate the point that talent is gauged by a very different barometer at the MTV studios than at Oscar headquarters. While American Beauty and The Sixth Sense were given kudos by both sides, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and American Pie would clearly be shunned by Oscar. He would probably turn his golden head and huff a sigh of disgust.

However, the folks at the music mogul made a wiser decision than Oscar when they nominated Jim Carey for Best Male

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Pen and Ink

By MICHELLE H. LePOIDEVIN

Continued on Page 21 “Rancho de Chimayo” by Nancy J. Ori

Continued on Page 20

By MICHELLE H. LePOIDEVIN

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader and The Times

BERKELEY HEIGHTS – While her terrier Maddie barked over the teeming rain that glazed the windows of her cottagelike home in Berkeley Heights last Friday, photographer Nancy J. Ori taught The Westfield Leader

and The Times that photography is more than what meets the eye of a camera’s lens.

Ms. Ori, who could never be mistaken for a shutterbug in the “amateur” sense of the word, follows the credo that every photographer brings his or her own unique viewpoint to what they see through the lens.

“This story,” she explained, pointing to her body, “is what makes each picture so different.” She further stated that the cultures, colors we favor, our moods, levels of photographic experience and psychological makeup are all factors which influence our perspective.

“We bring our own baggage to what we photograph. The camera is just a means to an end,” said Ms. Ori, who is a private photography teacher and a faculty member at the New Jersey Center for Visual Arts in Summit and the Watchung Adult School. Besides the New Jersey Photography Forum, she also instituted the New Jersey Heritage Photography Workshop which she conducts in Cape May every spring.

Ms. Ori confided that, despite her extensive repertoire as a stu dent of American photographer

Ansel Adams, she is still learning different vantage points of the world from her students’ pictures.

“They are now looking at life in a very different way and seeing things they never saw before,” said Ms. Ori regarding the feedback she receives from her

students. “It’s a rebirth for me to work with new people,” she said, adding she is always intrigued when her pupils aim their cameras at the same building in Cape May and all arrive at different results when the film is developed.

Ms. Ori paused thoughtfully as Maddie rested under her master’s desk. “After 25 years of what has been intuitive,” she said, “they (the students) make me go back into my photographic history and help me to simplify the technology that I’ve known for so many years.”

Constructive criticism, which often still denotes a sense of students cringing as their flaws are illustrated and discussed before their peers, is a more positive learning experience in Ms. Ori’s classroom.

“Each week we put up photos or lay them out for critique,” she said. “If you do a critique well, everyone should walk away feeling good about themselves. Part of the learning process comes from looking at other’s photos.”

Ms. Ori refers to the critique process as “laying your heart out on the table,” – a very personal experience that helps the photographer grow.

Her key piece of advice, however, is for the student to get to know their subject before shooting it, choosing something that is familiar to them. Capturing images, light and perspectives from no more than 30feet from one’s bed is another trick of the trade Ms. Ori advises for beginners.

“No one knows that space better than you,” she said. “Then, you can go anywhere else.”

Ms. Ori, who originally intended to pursue fine arts, elementary education and psychol ogy, confided that she has always

been fascinated by the psychological and emotional aspects behind artistic expression.

“There are two types of people.” she reasoned, “The touchyfeely and analytical. The touchyfeely is interested in the picture and whether it expresses the emotion. They are more interested in

the final product. The analytical is interested in what happens before the picture is made, how the camera works.”

Although she had a love for painting, Ms. Ori realized during her studies that painting was too slow for her. She decided to transition into photography which she found to be a “faster, careeroriented” focus.

While the search for the ideal job didn’t prove smooth in the 1970s because it was a maledominated profession, Ms. Ori found an outlet for her skills at Ciba Geigy where she worked as a darkroom technician.

Meeting her mentor and soontobe friend Ansel Adams, proved to be the sweetest success of all. “He introduced me to a whole philosophy of teaching photography I was once unaware of, how to critique and share information with others,” she remem

By MICHELLE H. LePOIDEVIN

Specially Written for The Westfield Leader and The Times

SCOTCH PLAINS – If you think only Stockard Channing could pull off the role of that sassy, smoking siren with savoir faire also known as Rizzo in Grease,

then you haven’t seen Scotch Plains’ very own Meryl Leigh Bezrutczyk in action.

“It was so out of the ordinary for me, pulling off her attitude,” explained Meryl. “I was happy with it. It was definitely a side I never knew I had in me before.”

The irony lies in one minute and insignificant detail: Meryl has never participated in an acting class in all of her teenage life. She’s born with it.

Much the antithesis of her Rizzo character, poised and wellmannered beyond her years, Meryl sat down with The Westfield Leader and The Times last week to discuss where her interest in acting and music all began… and more importantly, where it’s going.

While many artists in this genre remember getting bit by the acting bug at an early age, singing in the kindergarten play or acting in commercials, Meryl didn’t really get her start until her freshman year when she entered the halls at Scotch PlainsFanwood High School (SPFHS).

“I was friends with a lot of seniors,” Meryl recalled, adding that she became involved with the school’s choirs such as the Show Chorus, Select Choir and Moonglowers.

Bolstered by the influences of SPFHS Music Instructor Laurie Wellman and District Supervisor Vincent Turturiello, Meryl discovered in herself a love for singing, dancing and acting she

never knew before. Soon, she found herself a member of the high school’s Repertory Theatre, landing the plum role of Irene Roth in Crazy For You.

Although her mother admitted that while seated in the audience was a little difficult to watch her daughter playing a sultry character such as Roth, she told The Leader and The Times that her daughter pulled off the role beautifully.

“Every actor that is out there has their own type of talent,” Meryl responded when asked about her major influences in the world of theater.

Of course, hanging out with members from the casts of Cats

and Rent help quite a bit too. These meetings have afforded her the opportunity to learn from their Broadway experiences, as well as how they found that fame.

Westfield’s own Colleen Sexton who has taken on the lead role in

Jekyll and Hyde has also been a source of strength and inspiration for Meryl.

Her first time dabbling in community theater, she will proudly join the cast of Brigadoon at The Westfield Community Players, portraying Jane Ashton.

“She’s a softspoken New

Meryl Leigh Bezrutczyk as Irene Roth in Crazy For You

Pictured above, Meryl Leigh Bezrutczyk as Rizzo in Grease

at Scotch PlainsFanwood High School.