Jeremy Irons set for 'Impressionism'

Hoffman prepares to direct 'Riflemind' in U.K.

By LIZ SMITH

Irons

Hoffman

Variety's Peter Bart wed his girlfriend of three years, Phyllis Fredette.

ONE OF my favorite actors, Jeremy Irons, will be arriving in NYC before long to join the wonderful actress Joan Allen in a new Michael Jacobs play titled "Impressionism." This will demand plenty of interest since the director is to be none other than Jack O'Brien. The play tells the story of a relationship between a photo journalist and a gallery owner. I hope theirs is a happy fictional relationship because Jeremy has just come off of a sold-out run at the National Theater in London, where he was doing a play about the life of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan titled "Never So Good." As you may know, Macmillan, mentor to JFK and a man germane to the history of Great Britain after WWII, had a most unhappy private life, having to share his wife with another man. Wish they'd bring this director Howard Davis' work to Broadway too.

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Irons coming here; another great actor going there! The Oscar-winning "Capote" thespian Philip Seymour Hoffman is already in London getting ready to direct a play called "Riflemind" opening on Sept. 18. The Brits' John Hannah has the lead role in this play, which was first seen last year at actress Cate Blanchett's theater in Sydney, Australia.

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THE OTHER DAY I dropped the bomb that screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, the most outrageous talent in movies, has gotten religion and written it all up in a book called "Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith." It comes out in October from St. Martin's. The man who made millions for writing 16 films -- movies such as "Basic Instinct," "Jagged Edge," "Flashdance" and "Showgirls" -- moved his wife and four sons from Hollywood to Ohio to escape the very kind of bad influences his screenplays seemed set on fomenting. But after a lifetime of drinking, smoking and "other things," Joe developed throat cancer, lost most of his larynx, his voice and almost his will to live. One day, craving drink and tobacco, he sat down on a curb and started to cry. He heard himself say, "Please, God, help me." He couldn't believe he was praying to a God he hadn't thought of since he'd been a little boy. But Joe's prayer was answered, says he. The movie bad boy became calm, soothed down, and the rest is outrageous history. Joe, still boasting his long hair, goes to a Catholic Church wearing a Rolling Stones T-shirt, is condemned to hell by a woman churchgoer to whom he answers, "We'll see, won't we?" and has other tales of his newfound beliefs about abortion, molesting priests and every other aspect of becoming one of the faithful. And Joe is still funny.

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"WHEN A girl marries she exchanges the attentions of many men for the inattention of one," wrote Helen Rowland.

I looked in vain for a non-cynical wedlock quote because today we have a marriage that looks pretty damned good. Peter Bart, the head guy at the Bible of Showbiz -- Variety -- has wed his three-year girlfriend, the delightful Phyllis Fredette. Peter and Phyllis live in L.A. but have a getaway house in Palm Springs. They went quietly to the City Clerk of this desert oasis on Aug. 8 and found two other couples waiting to get hitched. So the six of them -- Peter and Phyllis, two guys who were marrying, and then two women who were saying, "I Do! I Do!" -- got the deed done between them. "The gay couples made a big fuss over us, as if we were something a little offbeat," laughs Peter. Mr. Bart can laugh these days; he is no longer a movie producer as in days of yore.