Great NEWSWEEK article re: KAREN ALLEN

Adam McDaniel

New member
MOVIES
Harrison Ford?Who Needs Him?

It's been almost two decades since the last 'Indiana Jones' film. But I've been waiting even longer for Karen Allen.

By David A. Kaplan | NEWSWEEK

May 26, 2008 Issue

I can't wait for the return of "Indiana Jones" this week. I've been looking forward to this installment in the serial not, like all you pathetic groupies, because Harrison Ford's in it or because I loved the first three movies during the 1980s, but because of the return of Karen Allen. I don't have this affliction with?or affection for?any other actress, despite how many adorable, cute or merely beautiful ones I've seen at theaters over the years. And why would I? I'm happily married and altogether rational, knowing full well that the image projected by celebrities on the screen and in the media likely has little to do with who they really are.

Yes, but then there's Karen Allen! Those beguiling freckles, the radiant blue eyes, the husky voice, the enchanting smile?and the white dress she wears as Marion Ravenwood in the first of the "Indy" movies. If you didn't have a crush on her from early on in the movie when she drinks men under the table and then decks Indy with a right to the chin, or when she escapes a harrowing pit of snakes, then that dress surely would have been enough. Billowing in the desert breeze as she fakes the seduction of the evil Dr. Belloq, that dress apparently did it for countless other weak-kneed lads. I've learned that fact from others over and over, though my forlorn crush began even earlier. Before "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and then opposite Jeff Bridges in "Starman" (1984), she was Jessica in "A Small Circle of Friends" (1980) and Katy in "Animal House" (1978). John Belushi's nonpareil portrayal of an exploding zit can't compare to Allen's outcharming Donald Sutherland.

When "Presumed Innocent" was being filmed on a soundstage in Queens in the late 1980s, I spent an afternoon interviewing Ford, who was playing the lead. He was articulate, thoughtful, witty. As we were finishing up, I couldn't resist an irrelevant question. "Can I ask you just one more thing?" I said.

"OK, which movie?" he answered.

"But I haven't even told you the question."

"Which movie?" he again replied.

"The first 'Indy' movie," I said, and before I could say more, he offered, "Sorry, I don't have much to tell you," he said. "She didn't do that much for me."

I expressed shock that he could anticipate my crush and perhaps a silly question of what she was actually like, if her personality matched her the appeal of her smile, whether the reality could live up to the ideal. "You and so many others," he said, with a smile and a tsk-tsk. "I understand about the voice and everything, but ?" And the 'Indy' director Steven Spielberg didn't seem to be a big fan either. He cast Kate Capshaw in 'Indy' 2 and then married her, and we never saw Marion Ravenwood again.

A few years later, when I was living in Greenwich Village, I heard the voice, an epiphany to my ears. Standing in line at the drugstore, there Allen was?taller than I'd imagined, but just as mesmerizing as I could hope. She was with a much taller handsome guy with an Italian accent who was clearly trying to pick her up. The nerve! They walked down 10th Street?OK, I clumsily followed along with my groceries?until they exchanged phone numbers or something, while I reduced my pace to a crawl. Now I knew I probably shouldn't be doing this, but I was entirely harmless?toting about with my two-wheel "granny cart," wearing a furry winter parka, mittens, earmuffs and L.L. Bean mudders?and I lived on the next block and it was on the way!

At the corner of 10th and Broadway, she clearly sensed that someone was behind her. I had a moment to decide whether to say something and invite her to the malt shop?or forever be telling this tale. I didn't, so I am. Anyway, I got home and told my then girlfriend, who's now my wife. "You wuss!" she said, clearly confident either of her own appeal, my lack of it or Allen's good judgment. When we chose our ketubah (Jewish marriage certificate) a few years later, I asked in jest if we could include an "Allen exception clause"; that's pretty much where she lost her sense of humor.

In 1997 I spent time with Spielberg on the set of the second "Jurassic Park" movie in Kauai, Hawaii. (Really, I don't write a lot of movie features, but I admit there does seem to be an unintentional thread here.) Over the course of a dinner, I told him the story of Karen Allen and me on the street corner. (It just happened to come up during the conversation.) "Wuss!" he said. Honestly.

Around that time, I read that she had permanently left Greenwich Village for the Berkshires, where she's gone on to run a yoga center, teach acting and open a knitting store. The store's address is listed on her Web site and she encourages folks to stop by and say hello. I'm not likely to be one of them?it seems too direct, too final and too embarrassing, impossible to live up to expectations. I'm happy to see her again, simply as Marion Ravenwood in the movies, if only in a few scenes. But just the same, I'll always wonder what an afternoon at the malt shop might've been like.

© 2008
 

Rococo

New member
I love this article- do you know if it actually made it into the print edition of Newsweek or not? I tried to find it on the shelves the week it came out, and couldn't.
 

Rococo

New member
Great, thanks. The article has a date of 5/26, so I'll start there and see what I can find :hat:
 

Flash Dixson

New member
Ha Ha, I have an even better story than that guy, and it all starts with the fact that her knitting store is 30 minutes from my house.
 

|ZiR|

New member
Great article, though the bit where he admits to following her is a little strange, to say the least. I'm shocked that Karen didn't "do much" for Harrison, too; I've always thought that she was his personal preference out of all the Indy girls.

Who was, then, I wonder. Alison Doody, I'd expect.

Flash Dixson said:
Ha Ha, I have an even better story than that guy, and it all starts with the fact that her knitting store is 30 minutes from my house.

Well don't leave us hanging, good man! Tell us the story.
 
For me, it started with Raiders but Starman convinced me. Karen Allen is absolutely terrific in that movie. I think Allen's performance is often overshadowed by Jeff Bridges' Oscar-nominated portrayal.
 

Rococo

New member
|ZiR| said:
Great article, though the bit where he admits to following her is a little strange, to say the least. I'm shocked that Karen didn't "do much" for Harrison, too; I've always thought that she was his personal preference out of all the Indy girls.

That line bothered me as well- I've read somewhere else something similar Harrison had said about Karen, and it struck me as poor taste to say that. Then to see how they all (appeared) to get along quite well at all the press events, it was a bit odd. The entire cast appeared very affectionate at the premier and all the interviews and press I've seen.
 

Flash Dixson

New member
Well it started when my mom took me down with her to this yarn shop, she promised to get me a comic. She did not know nor did I that it was were karen allen worked, she did not even know who she was, let alone that she was in raiders. I was wearing my indy hat, and karen came up and said hello thinking I was a fna who came to say hello, I said hello back and said "are you karen allen" she said yes and had a littel laugh, I was very surprised that she owned that very store, and we got to talking, mostly about life in general, movies, comedy, things like that. At the end we talked a littel about indy though, but I ever since then when I ever my mom goes down there I come with her, and me and karen actualy know each other pretty well know, when I ever I walk in if she is there she will say Grady, Hows my favorite indy fan doing. And we talk about a bunch of stuff but I usualy manage to sneak a few indy stuff in there LoL.
 

Flash Dixson

New member
Rococo said:
That's amazing- small world, Huh! You're very lucky!
LOL, she is a realy nice women, we get along very well, she called me on set one day, and we talked, and she was like hey you are going to love the scene we just shot, I was like i hope so.

P.S. I did
 

Rococo

New member
What a great friendship to have! Do you know, does she regularly get a lot of fan visitors to the store?
 

Flash Dixson

New member
Rococo said:
What a great friendship to have! Do you know, does she regularly get a lot of fan visitors to the store?
I don't think it is something that happens everyday, probably about once or twice a month. She dosen't mind if fans come down to say hello though, she encourages it, wich makes all that more nicer of a women, lots of stars would probably be like "listen don't bother me at my store if you are not going to get anything leave". But she is very appreciative and respectful of her fans.
 

Rococo

New member
What a neat lady she sounds like. If I didn't live in California, I would just love to go up there... my mother knits, she could be my cover story ;-)
 

Rococo

New member
I did see that- I do, but I figured I'd wait a few months till the Indy 4 stuff dies down- there were so many articles about her and the shop in the last few weeks that I figure she'll be inundated for a while.
 

Flash Dixson

New member
Rococo said:
I did see that- I do, but I figured I'd wait a few months till the Indy 4 stuff dies down- there were so many articles about her and the shop in the last few weeks that I figure she'll be inundated for a while.
but don't be afraid to send it.
 

Rococo

New member
:)
Flash Dixson said:
but don't be afraid to send it.
Thanks, I won't. I'm actually thinking about trying to go to the taping of Leno on Tuesday that she'll be on, but I'm not sure it will be worth it-I don't think there is any kind of signing opportunity or stage door to wait at... but I may go anyway and see if I get lucky!
 
Top