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2/17/2004
From VARIETY:
RAY SHINES IN DEBUT
RAY SHINES IN DEBUT
Wed Feb 11, 7:00 PM ET
JOSEF ADALIAN
(Variety) Everybody loves "Raymond" on the small screen. Now, Ray Romano (news) is hoping everyone will love him on the bigscreen.
Actually, the notoriously self-effacing thesp would probably be happy if audiences simply liked him a lot in "Welcome to Mooseport."
After lending his voice to the animated hit "Ice Age," the small screen superstar makes his debut as a leading man in the 20th Century Fox/Intermedia pic, which features Gene Hackman (news) as an ex-president who returns to his small town to take on Romano in a race for mayor.
At Tuesday's post-preem bash --- a low-key affair held at Westwood's Napa Valley Grille --- Romano quipped that audience members had pained expressions on their face while watching his performance. "There was a lot of this," he said, covering his eyes with his hand.
Donald Petrie-helmed laffer is debuting just as Romano and "Raymond" creator Phil Rosenthal are figuring out whether to bring the CBS sitcom back for another season --- and that makes the comedian squirm.
"The movie couldn't (open) at a worse time," Romano admitted. "The decision we make is going to have nothing to do with (the movie's B.O. perf). But it can't help how people interpret it."
Romano isn't the only TV vet featured in "Mooseport." Christine Baranski (news), Rip Torn (news), Fred Savage (news) and Maura Tierney (news) also have roles in the pic, and all were at Tuesday's bash. Also on hand: co-star Marcia Gay Harden (news); Fox's Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman; Intermedia's Moritz Borman and Scott Kroopf; and producer Basil Iwanyk, who recounted his introduction to the script days after 9/11.
Copyright © 2003 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Variety is a registered trademark of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc. and used under license. All Rights Reserved.
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