Show WV 1998 NTHEBIgREEN 14 August The 8 Page Daddy tell me a story The 'Baby Dance' Just call her mom Friday LOS ANGELES (AP) —Jodie Foster the thinking person's actor is now the thinking baby's mother Any kid with an ounce of sense would be delighted to land a mom like this: brainy beautiful accomplished and with (he smarts to recognize that even the most dedicated parent doesn't know everything The lucky heir to this mother lode is Chutes Foster who was bora July 20 Just one week before in a Hollywood touch the mom-to-was promoting a Showtime movie she had A daughter's look Once G-nt- be Its title: The Baby Dance The film which stars Stockard Charming and Laura Dem debuts Sunday on the cable channel It is about parents and would-b- e parents who seem to get things wrong as much u right Charming and Peter Riegert are a professional couple who unable to conceive conWanda and tract with hard-luc- k A1 (Dem and Richard Lineback) to ing and can't afford to keep Written and directed by Jane Anderson and based on her play the film pits jarringly different people against ran other and at times against the baby's best interests The simplest of wishes to have a child becomes the cat- high-power- The drama appealed to Foster 33 who doesn't like to keep t simple love the complicatedness of upon a time there a war began all the stories my father told me about a time before I wu bora when he felt bound he said as a bird feds bound to fly south for winter to leave his family and fight for his country Unlike Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan my father's war stories were They had no battles no bullets no blood or bowels or severed limbs no soldiers crying for their mothers They were about history and geography not heroics and gore : them up the way he Hedeane always tried to clean up everything for me My favorite was his story about the Panama Canal To get to the war in Europe he said he and his brother Charlie took a train to San Rrandsco where they boarded a ship foil of young mm like themselves — all homesick seasick and scared he said but ready to do what they had to Jodlt Foster left confers with witter and dractor Jane Anderson on the set of Tho Baby Dance' a Showtime movie that debuts Sunday Aug 16 on the cable channel all the characters how nobody's a hero or villain" she said “I like movies about people the things we do to each other and why we do them” Foster's own decision to rear a child alone seems thorny and even morally questionable to some observers It wasn't an unconsidered or uninformed step: Here’s what she had to say about family career and what happens when the two combine Q: How would you describe your own childhood? A: I think it was a happy childhood but it was a complicated childhood We're all very complicated people in my family I know 1 didn't have the Ozzse and Harriet family but I'm very happy for the childhood that I had Q: Can you envision what kind of parent you’ll be7 A: Gosh I really don't know I think the best advice is really to try and be yourself and try to be as true to yourself as you possi-bl- y can and as honest with your kids as you possibly can Beyond that I've got all the books And I’m a little older I’m not a Q: How do you balance baby and career? A: I am directing a film next spring-summ'99 which seems like a nice amount of time (after the baby's birth) The nice thing about the movie business is you can bring your kids wherever you go I’ll just see as I go akmg Q: How will you deal with the effect of your celebrity on your er child’s lire? A: That's really too bad 1 don't know what to do about iL You just try to be as healthy as possible da Sometimes as he told the story he'd trace their mute on a globe from North Carolina to California then down to Panama using his thumbnail to etch on my memory aline still sharp after 40 some years When he got to dm part about the Panama Canal he'd pauae for effect let his eyes grow wide and sky blue with wonder then he'd describe in detail the locks — how they filled and emptied one after the other to cany the ship and its soldiers foom me Pacific to the Caribbean This wu heady stuff for a mountain boy who'd never been more than a Sunday drive away from home and the impact wu not lost on his daughter: When he finished if I were still awake Pd say "TH1 it again Daddy" Then he'd smooth my hair with his hand and say "Once upon a time there wu a war " He told me about forests in Germany mountains in Switzer at 'Private Ryan' land faces of strangers who looked like folks back home He even said he wu sent to Puis to study at the Sorbomm He didn't mind bragging about thu But he never mentioned being wounded I wu 8 when I first noticed the scar on his shoulder It wu round big aqusrter like the scar from my smallpox u Unlike Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan my father's war stories were Grated They had no battles no bullets no blood or bowels or severed limbs no soldiers crying far their mothers vaccination only deeper and more foreboding "What's that?" I said firing questions to pull from him this story He wu shot crossing the Rhine River in Germany men sent to a Swiss hospital where he heard about another patient with the same last name When he could walk he went down the hall to find the man badly wounded but healing — his brother Charlie Is Saving Private Ryan every bit violent graphic and offensive you’ve heard? Absolutely it is And that is how it should be It's a story my father wouldn’t tell me and one I needed to hear In the film Tbm Hanks and his men fight to uve Private Ryan In reality my dad and his brother and others like them fought to u u BVCOKWOU a The best I movie is that I still alive tore could see it tot After the credi for coffee and Then Pd say wuylbUnu " 1 Canal —By Sharon RandaE News Sendee Howard 8crlppe READING HELP FOR ADULTS 753-504- 4 1 |