- Title: USA: "LUCKY NUMBERS" WORLD PREMIERE
- Date: 14th October 2000
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 14) (REUTERS) MCU (English) JOHN TRAVOLTA SAYING OF KUDROW, "She is to "Friends" what I was to "Kotter," you know, like, the dim-witted one that gets all the laughs, you know, so, putting us together is actually a good idea. The chemistry is very similar. Her timing is very similar to mine and we can just go where those char
- Embargoed: 29th October 2000 12:00
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- Location: LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA2NVDVQOJB1WP7FCTBMW4TZMEI
- Story Text: A lottery win is EVERYONE's dream! But would you be prepared to make your dream come true - and try and rig a lottery? In America it happened. Now John Travolta teams up with 'Friends' star Lisa Kudrow for 'Lucky Numbers' - a new movie inspired by a real-life lottery scam. 'Lucky Numbers' has had its World premiere in Los Angeles and Reuters was there Inspired by a well-publicized real life incident, "Lucky Numbers" is the story of Russ Richards, played by Travolta, a local celebrity TV weatherman who's on the verge of losing everything due to poor financial judgement.
Desperate to avert financial catastrophe, he joins forces with Crystal Latroy, played by Kudrow, the TV station's lottery ball girl.
Together they devise a plan to rig the Pennsylvania State Lottery and reap the millions of dollars in rewards! Although they successfully get the right numbers to come up, just about everything else goes wrong and their plan starts to unravel as the game suddenly turns deadly.
Also in the cast are Tim Roth as a shady nightclub manager, "Married With Children" star Ed O'Neill as the TV station's general manager, Michael Rapaport as a dim-witted thug and Bill Pullman as a cop half-heartedly following the case.
The film is directed by Nora Ephron, who previously directed Travolta in the comedy about an angel called "Michael."
She also collaborated with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan on the romantic comedies "Sleepless in Seattle" and "You've Got Mail."
The screenplay was written by Adam Resnick, who was inspired by a real life incident that unfolded in 1980.
That year, the Pennsylvania State Lottery was rock by a scheme to fix the Daily Number drawing. The resulting scandal, then worth more than one million dollars, inspired endless speculation, editorials, and now a fictionalized big screen feature film.
By all accounts, Travolta and Kudrow got along even better then most co-stars typically do on a big budget Hollywood set.
Travolta attributes that to the fact that they both have similar backgrounds in comedy.
Kudrow gained fame playing a dim-witted and ditsy airhead on the television sitcom "Friends" just like Travolta did many years ago playing a comparably thick-skulled buffoon on the series "Welcome Back Kotter."
"Lucky Numbers" opens in theatres throughout the US this month. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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