Everything you need to know about BECAUSE I SAID SO. …and how it relates to you and the world around you. Includes info on the actors, director, with news, reviews, and photos. Visual Review visual review by david bruce visualhollywood.com

Daphne Wilder is a mother whose love knows no bounds or boundaries. As a single parent, she has raised three fantastic girls—klutzy, adorable Milly stable psychologist Maggie and sexy and irreverent Mae to become the kind of women any mom would die to have. The only problem is…they’re just about ready to strangle her... SHORT SYNOPSIS MOVIES CONTAIN THE ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN

DIANE KEATON (Daphne) Keaton made her film debut in the comedy Lovers and Other Strangers and rose to fame inThe Godfather. KEY ACTORS MANDY MOORE (Milly) A multitalent who is poised to have a banner year in 2007 with a new album and three feature films set for release. GABRIEL MACHT (Johnny) marks his film debut in Why Would I Lie? (1980). He recently appeared in The Good Shepherd. CINEMATIC ART HAS TRANSFORMING POWER

MICHAEL LEHMANN (Director) He has directed nine feature films, including Airheads, The Truth About Cats & Dogs, 40 Days and 40. KEY TALENT KAREN LEIGH HOPKINS (Writter/Associate Producer) Her credits include Searching for David’s Heart, which won a Humanitas prize in 2005 JESSIE NELSON (Writter/Producer) wrote, directed and produced the I Am Sam. Nelson is currently producing Fred Claus., based on her original story. OUR ARTISTS ARE OUR LIBERATORS

ARTIST HIGHLIGHT LAUREN GRAHAM (Maggie) In 2000, Lauren Graham began playing Lorelai Gilmore on Gilmore Girls, the program that would launch her to stardom. She was nominated for a Best Actress (Drama) Award at the 2001 Golden Globes. Her motion picture roles including several NYU student films and multiple major studio releases, including Bad Santa, The Pacifier and Sweet November. In the movie Evan Almighty, she plays the role of Evan's wife. ACTORS ARE LIBERATORS IN MASQUERADE

ARTIST HIGHLIGHT PIPER PERABO (Mae) Piper has been working non-stop since her big-screen splash in Jerry Bruckheimer’s Coyote Ugly. Some of her more recent films include Cheaper by the Dozen 2; the romantic comedy Imagine Me & You, She was most recently seen in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johansson. She also stars in First Snow, a film directed by Mark Fergus that co-stars Guy Pearce and Adam Scott. Actors help us: laugh, be happy, cry, get angry, and even think. Can there be any better gifts?

ARTIST HIGHLIGHT MICHAEL LEHMANN (Director) Lehmann attended Columbia University. His first job in the film industry was answering phones at Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope film company. Later he supervised cameras on films that included 1983's The Outsiders. Lehmann attended film school at USC and graduated in While at USC he made a student film, Beaver Gets a Boner, the title of which he believes helped get the attention of film executives who would later hire him. Lehmann is probably most noted for directing the black comedy Heathers. He also directed 40 Days and 40 Nights, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Hudson Hawk and Airheads. His recent films include Your Word Against Mine, and Mary Warner, which reunite Lehmann with Heathers actress Winona Ryder. FILMMAKERS ARE REVOLUTIONARIES POSING AS ENTERTAINERS

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS Daphne Wilder (DIANE KEATON) is a mother whose love knows no bounds or boundaries. As a single parent, she has raised three fantastic girls—klutzy, adorable Milly (MANDY MOORE), stable psychologist Maggie (LAUREN GRAHAM) and sexy and irreverent Mae (PIPER PERABO)—to become the kind of women any mom would die to have. STORIES ARE TRANSFORMING

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS The only problem is…they’re just about ready to strangle her. In a comedy that explores when it’s finally time to cut the apron strings. In order to prevent her youngest, Milly, from making the same romantic mistakes she did, Daphne decides to set her up with the perfect man. The one thing Daphne decides not to tell Milly, however, is that she placed an ad in the online personals to find him. ALL KIDS ARE BORN ARTISTS. WHAT IS NATURAL IS ESSENTIAL.

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS TOM EVERETT SCOTT as one of Milly's love interests, the stable architect Jason Is the man of Daphne’s (erm, Milly’s) dreams the responsible architect Jason (TOM EVERETT SCOTT), or is he the free-spirited rocker Johnny (GABRIEL MACHT)? Daphne will continue to push, cajole, suggest and nudge her way into Milly’s smallest of decisions until she rights the wrongs of her own life choices or drives her girls nuts. GABRIEL MACHT as one of Milly's love interests, the carefree musician Johnny STORIES EMBODY THE ESSENCE BEING HUMAN

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS But once Johnny’s own father, Joe (STEPHEN COLLINS), catches a buried spark within Daphne, things really start to heat up for the Wilder matriarch. Finally letting herself begin to fall, Daphne begins to wonder if she is just pushing her girls as a way of ignoring her own issues. CINEMATIC STORY TELLING IS A PROFOUNDLY HUMANIZING ENDEAVOR

EXTENDED SYNOPSIS In a battle of strong wills, the mother-daughter dynamic is tested in all its fierce, wacky complexity. Now, the girls will try their best to help Daphne finally discover the truths and impossibilities of motherly love…all while trying to answer the questions: where does it begin and where should it end? (L to R) Daphne Wilder (DIANE KEATON) Milly (MANDY MOORE), Maggie (LAUREN GRAHAM) Mae (PIPER PERABO

LIFE CONNECTIONS I've never struck a woman in my life, not even my own mother. --W. C. Fields ( ) THE SUBJECT IS MOTHERS! The movie asks: “Is there any ‘good’ time to detach yourself from your mom, cut the apron strings.” There are problems with overprotective mothers as Betty Friedan accurately notes: “Strange new problems are being reported in the growing generations of children whose mothers were always there, driving them around, helping them with their homework - an inability to endure pain or discipline or pursue any self-sustained goal of any sort, a devastating boredom with life.” It goes the other way too. Children bring their share of pain to a mother’s heart as Mark Twain famously noted: “My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.” An excellent bottom line comes from the late writer and Nobel Prize winner, Pearl Buck: “Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same.” Indeed, despite the quality of relationship, loving “mom” is basic even in all of her faults –which we all have! ART AS A LIBERATING FORCE

CRITICAL OPINION “Innocuous, self-centered and disconnected from any parcel of meaningful human experience.” Kevin N. Laforest Montreal Film Journal “Because I Said So gets a 'C’” Emanuel Levy emanuellevy.com “The film's gift for laying contrivance atop insult is as uncanny as it is inhuman.” Ed Gonzalez slant magazine “THE BOTTOM LINE: Movies like this are widely suspected to cause simultaneous ovulation.” Premiere Magazine Sara Brady THE FREE SPEECH DISCUSSION OF THE ARTS IS THE MARK OF A FREE SOCIETY

VISUAL HOLLYWOOD REVIEW: ‘IN BECAUSE I SAID SO’ by david bruce This film has not been received very well. Too bad, because its topic of ‘Mothers’ connects with all of us. The other focus here is ‘how not to parent.’ The idea for this film project began with a routine dentist appointment. Co- screenwriter Karen Leigh Hopkins was passing time in the waiting room when she overheard the story of a mother who was proud of setting up her daughter on dates with men she believed to be quite eligible. Oh by gosh! Too much parenting is never good and, of course, too little is not enough. Here is a tremendous theme, and with such a great cast, it is too bad that the final production was not as inspired as the original idea. ART IS THE LANGUAGE OF LIBERATION

FINDING TRUTH ‘IN BECAUSE I SAID SO’ Insight from Karen Leigh Hopkins (Co-screenwriter): “Everybody has a mother, and though all mother/child relationships are unique, I have no doubt every mom in the world wants to see her kids healthy, happy, successful and in love with the right person. The meddling mother comic possibilities are endless, and all could be based upon real truths. Everyone can relate, which is why the project took on great momentum once we started moving forward.” “This is a movie about very flawed characters who learn and grow and step on each other’s toes along the way. But at the end of the day, they love one another fiercely. There’s a certain hilarity within family dynamics. If you peel back the layers of any family unit, there’s going to be black comedy there. This is about, at the end of the day, how insane love is— motherly love, sisterly love, romantic love. It’s messy and impossible, but that’s what makes it so incredible.” Society is only as free as its arts. Art is the voice of human freedom.

TRIVIA AND NEWS: ‘IN BECAUSE I SAID SO’ HAIR IN THE NUDE? In 1968, Diane Keaton became an understudy on the original Broadway production of Hair. She gained some notoriety for her refusal to disrobe in the portions of the musical when the entire cast performed nude, even though nudity in the production was optional for actors. (Those who performed nude received a $50 bonus) THE TRUTH ABOUT ANNIE HALL. Diane Keaton was born Diane Hall. In 1977, Keaton starred with Woody Allen in the romantic comedy Annie Hall, in which she played one of her most famous roles. "Annie" is a nickname of hers, and "Hall" is her original surname. MOORE’S SPECIAL FEDEX DELIVERY. Mandy Moore's interest in singing grew after seeing the musical Oklahoma!; she was also encouraged to perform by her maternal grandmother, who was her inspiration. After she sang the national anthem at several athletic events, a FedEx employee spotted her and sent her demo to Epic Records, where she was subsequently signed to a record deal.

WHY MOVIES ARE SO IMPORTANT "The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions" --Albert Camus (Existentialist thinker. "The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions" --Albert Camus (Existentialist thinker). In “Movies and the Meaning of Life” author Kimberly Blessing points out that movies can help us reflect on five of life’s most important questions: 1) What is reality and how can I know it? 2) How can I find my true identity? 3) What the significance of my interactions with others? 4) What’s the point of my life? 5) How ought I to live my life? The idea behind Visual Hollywood is that Movies can and must play an essential role helping us explore the meaning of our existence and our life together. No other quest is more necessary or important. Movies are powerful. Movies bring personal meaning, and can contribute to a peaceful world. Cinematic story telling can be a transforming event. Visual Hollywood takes an existential approach to life. We celebrate with human freedom. We use movies and the arts as a means of understanding the human condition and our collective relation to the world around us. Our basic quest is: 1. To know what it means to be human in the world. 2. The pursuit of human freedom. To restrict creativity is to restrict the very nature of the Creator

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