He wanted to make a flick fast and cheap. so Soderbergh got digital cameras, set up a $2 million, 18-day shoot in L.A., and banned all time- and budget-busting accoutrements, including limos and makeup artists. ''I wanted to shoot a movie like [the TV show] 'Cops,''' says Soderbergh. ''My girlfriend [E!'s Jules Asner] turned me on to it.'' The script, a sequel to Soderbergh's 1989 career-maker ''sex, lies and videotape'' only ''in the karmic sense,'' follows new characters over 24 hours, as a magazine journalist (Roberts) shows up on set to interview a major movie star (Underwood). The pair shot their scenes together in five days, and Underwood reports, ''We almost never worked past 5 or 6 o'clock. The whole process was streamlined'' -- except for extensive improvisations.
Choosing a title involved some riffing too. The first choice, '' How to Survive a Hotel Fire,'' ''just didn't seem very amusing after September 11,'' says Soderbergh. He's fond of his second choice, ''The Art of Negotiating a Turn,'' but it made Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein so unhappy, Soderbergh says, ''I thought he was going to do himself harm.''
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