UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Oscar-winning actors Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn have been filming their new movie, The Interpreter, on location in the United Nations and many ambassadors are mad, because all the diplomats in the movie are impostors. Kidman met dozens of real UN ambassadors at a jam-packed reception Monday in the visitors' lobby of UN headquarters co-hosted by the ambassador from her native Australia, John Dauth, who said she was in the pantheon of the country's most famous people. But ambassadors haven't had luck landing cameo roles, the diplomats are being played by actors. Spain's UN Ambassador Inocencio Arias, who has appeared in some Spanish films, said he had lined up a part as a prime minister in the thriller and set aside the two weekends for shooting. "It was my dream that I was going to be in a movie with Sydney Pollack directing. He's one of my heroes in the movie industry. But then the day before the shooting they called and said the union had some reservation, some qualms," he said. "I wasn't even going to charge any money. If they had to give me some money, I was going to give it to research, or to AIDS," Arias said. "It's ridiculous. So my opportunity to have a nomination for the Oscar next year went away because of some stupid regulation of the unions." Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid Al Hussein had wanted to keep up a family tradition: His parents got a chance to be extras when they were in Italy during the filming of Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, which came out in 1963. He had hoped for the same chance in The Interpreter. "It's a great shame we weren't allowed to have bit parts in this movie because we're very familiar with the setting," said the prince. "We're very familiar with the work of interpreters. God knows there have been enough mishaps on occasion, not too frequently thank goodness but with open mikes, and we feel well attuned to do that sort of thing." "After all, this is the great stage and we are part of the theatre here, the permanent theatre," he said. There was some confusion over just why the diplomats can't be actors for a day. Pollack, an Academy Award-winning director, initially said "it's a UN decision not mine. . . . If they let one, they have to let all 191" ambassadors perform. But UN Undersecretary General Shashi Tharoor said: "We're very happy to have the ambassadors play themselves and do whatever they want. It's up to them, their governments and the filmmakers.

 

The UN doesn't employ the ambassadors." Pollack then explained that a lot of ambassadors and UN staff "don't have work permits in the United States." "This is not the United States. This is international territory, so the people that are here legally aren't allowed to work in the United States. They have to have an American work permit to work and get paid by an American film company," he said. Jordan's Zeid had a solution: "We could become unionized for a day or two." But Pollack was more focused on the movie itself, telling the crowd at the reception that he wanted it "to be consistent with the goals of the UN, and an alternative to violence, in a way." Shooting has gone on for the past seven weekends and there's another seven weekends of filming left, none is allowed during the work week. Pollack expects the film to be out in February. In the movie, Kidman plays a UN interpreter who comes from a fictional African country called Matobo with a lot of civil strife, ethnic cleansing and political turmoil. Penn plays a secret service agent trying to prevent the leader of a country from being killed. Diana Liao, the chief UN interpreter, told Kidman "how interpreters behave in the booth, how you switch on the mike, how you interpret, and when you are stuck, what do you do." Kidman also looked at their clothes and asked "many intelligent questions." It didn't matter that she didn't speak at Monday's party. At the reception afterward, she did say "Things are going fine - busy." Her words were almost drowned out by the noise of the crowd trying to get near her, get autographs, talk to her or pose for a photograph with her. Even several ambassadors were spotted with cameras.

 

END