There
has been the skulk and secrecy of Hollywood in San Felipe,
Baja, Mexico in the past. Richard
Burton and Liz Taylor back in the early seventies.
More recently, Ray Liotta
in the sublimely forgettable Infierno, as it
was called in its Mexican release. And then Vin "The
Desert" Diesel and the largely unseen final scene
of The Fast and Furious, an Easter Egg that
followed the credits.
San Felipe is close to the US border,
has a comparatively inexpensive pool of labor, cheap
property leases and a wonderful geography that can double
for any tropical or desert country. It has been ripe
fruit for the Hollywood orchard pickers for years. And
now maybe, perhaps, it has finally arrived at full blush
and ripeness with the latest rumor that buzzes through
its tatty streets. Harrison Ford is in town..
|
Priti explaining the
'Hero
with a Thousand Faces'
theory to Ford. |
Tom Luxon, an Associate Professor
of English from Dartmouth College, saw Harrison Ford
dining at the Baja Mar last night (January 2, 2004).
Tom's son Isaac shook hands with the actor and told
his father "...the guy was really drunk."
Harrison's private plane is said to be sober and tethered
down at the airport.
Priti Joshi, visiting San Felipe
for the first time, also met Harrison at the Baja Mar.
"He was very nice," she said and went on to
describe Mr. Ford's demeanor as unpretentious, "...not
what I expected from a Hollywood luminary." She
added that once Harrison was recognized and word spread
throughout the restaurant, people began to crowd him
and buy him drinks. "He got really tanked,"
Priti admitted.
The photos shown here were taken
by Priti's sister Priya, below, under Indy's whipless
right hand.
Several other people recounted meeting
Ford at Al's Backstreet Bar, which he apparently
found after his meal at Baja Mar. All of them said Harrison
was very friendly and approachable, didn't begrudge
the shuttering cameras that gathered around him. Blueroadrunner
will try to get some of these Backstreet Bar shots and
post them here.
These sightings certainly beg the
question What is Harrison Ford doing in San Felipe?
Well, an obvious logical leap would be Indiana
Jones IV, because the food at the Baja Mar is not
that good.
An attempt to verify this theory
(the movie, not the food) needed recourse to that consumate
rumor mill --the internet. Crawling through the information
and disinformation debris uncovered the following hearsay
and gossip:
Pensive or Pie-eyed? |
-
-
Artists have begun work
on story boards and concept artwork for
Indy IV.
-
The script, based on a George
Lucas story, was written by Frank Darabont.
-
Indy 4 is scheduled to shoot
for 8 weeks in Kauai, Hawaii.
-
Directed, of course, by
Steven Spielberg.
-
Two of the Indy girls
will be his old team mates Karen Allen and
Kate Capshaw.
-
Filming of Indy IV will
begin sometime in 2004, either in June or
late summer.
-
The latest word on the release
date of Indy IV is July 1st, 2005.
|
Harrison with the Joshi family.
|
No word on Baja or San Felipe. So what
is Harrison Ford doing in San Felipe? Maybe
he wants to show us he can hold his liquor better than
Ray Liotta or Richard Burton. Who's next? Tom Hanks?
A website called starswelove.com
has offered the following bit of yellow journalism:
Wednesday, 14 Jan 2004
Movie star Harrison Ford has revealed his relationship
with Calista Flockhart is "on the rocks",
during a drunken night out in Mexico. The Indiana Jones
star, 61, was presumed to be pressing ahead with wedding
plans with the former Ally McBeal star, 39, after the
finalization of his divorce from ex-wife Melissa Mathison
last week. But, after downing at least five tequilas
with beer chasers and dancing and flirting with local
women in a bar in San Felipe, Baja California, the "drunk
and bewildered" actor told revelers of his two-year
relationship with Flockhart, "It's on the rocks".
Locals were stunned to find themselves in the company
of the normally reclusive star, after he flew himself
in on his own private jet and stayed in a local hotel.
To put fanciful rumors to rest, Harrison
did NOT stagger away from El Marinero (Al's
Backstreet Bar) using a blonde woman for a crutch. As
you can see above (click thumbnails to enlarge),
he politely offered himself as mannequin and camera
fodder to anyone with a camera. And later, he was driven
back to his hotel by Al, the owner of the bar.