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Julia Roberts tells EW about ''America's Sweethearts'' | sweetslarge
FRESH ROLES From left: The assistant (Roberts), the publicist (Crystal), the leading lady (Zeta-Jones), and the ex (Cusack)
America's Sweethearts: Andrew MacPherson

The following is an excerpt from EW's July 20, 2001, cover story.

''I had this notion about two years ago,'' says Billy Crystal, taking a break from playing a game of catch with a pal on the set of filming ''America's Sweethearts,'' starring Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and John Cusack. ''What if Meg [Ryan] and I had made 10 'Harry and Sally's in a row, and on the last one she fell for somebody else? And John's [character's] name is Eddie because of Eddie Fisher: Liz Taylor and Eddie Fisher were like this thing, and then she had an affair on 'Cleopatra' with Richard Burton, and Eddie looked like a dope, and people sided with him and so on.''

The conceit was enough for Crystal to start peppering his friend, ''Analyze This'' collaborator Peter Tolan (whose writing stint on ''The Larry Sanders Show'' now seems like on the job training for this showbiz savvy script), with ideas for a Hollywood farce about love and profit. ''At the core of it,'' says Crystal, ''there's a very sweet story of a lost guy, Eddie, who has realized that his marriage was really the longest location romance.'' And in the role of Eddie, Crystal originally envisioned... himself.


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