Jack of Hearts
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 8, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 Hal, played by Jack Black (right) reacts
to some questionable advice from his equally shallow friend
Mauricio (Jason Alexander).
By Ryan Joe
Daily Bruin Contributor
Looking to weigh roughly 300 pounds, Gwyneth Paltrow waddles
down the dim-lit lobby of the Tribecca Grand hotel. Nobody
recognizes her; in fact, nobody dares even make eye contact.
She’s large; she’s obese; she’s just plain
fat.
“Shallow Hal”, the new film from sibling directors
Peter and Bobby Farrelly, has a message about acceptance and
kindness. With its sweetened emotional quality, the movie throws in
an Aesop moral to boot.
Self-help guru Tony Robbins, who plays himself in the film,
usually doesn’t grace the celluloid with his presence unless,
he claims, there’s something that has a great
message.”
 Gwyneth Paltrow is Rosemary, a Peace
Corps volunteer whose inner beauty is seen as physical splendor by
her new and also hypnotized boyfriend. Indeed, Gwyneth Paltrow, who
wore the fat suit at the Tribecca in order to research her role as
the obese love interest of “Shallow Hal,” seems to have
gained a newfound sympathy for the overweight community.
And, Jack Black, who portrays the film’s title character,
claims to be no less lovable than Paltrow.
“The main thing I took away from it is that I’m
adorable,” Black said. “You can’t deny it. Now go
and print it. Cause it’s just plain true.”
Black, who credits his “snugaliciousness” as well as
his “scrum-didly-iciousness” as his most appealing
assets, also understands the inherent, all-too-human shallowness
that exists in society.
“I could never get the hot girls when I was young.”
Black said.
But with all that said and done, Black keeps in mind that
physical appearance probably is still important.
“I think it all comes down to the boner,” he said.
“You can love someone in that they’re great inside but
if you don’t get a boner then “¦ oh forget
it.”
But Black, having made out with many overweight girls without
the use of liquor, quickly 180s his comment.
“I’ll tell you what. I love all shapes and
sizes,” he said. “I think that a woman can be beautiful
in any package.”
But even Paltrow, despite being the physiological envy of many a
woman, admits to having insecurities with herself.
“I’m never going to look like me either, the way
they air-brush my pictures,” she said. “I don’t
look like that.”
Hal (Jack Black) cannot understand why the
undergarment of his lithe girlfriend is the size of a small
tent.
The fact that Paltrow wears a fat suit for a meaty portion of
the film, however, had become an object of criticism throughout the
overweight community; they felt that such an act was akin to racial
prejudice. But Paltrow shrugs off these claims as being meagerly
thin and lacking in substance; their opinions, she believes, will
change after they watch the movie.
“I think they’ll really embrace the film,” she
said.
Ultimately, Tony Robbins, famous self-help guru who even has his
own domain name on the Internet, feels that “Shallow
Hal” contains a strong, yet undeniably humorous,
sensitivity.
“When I read the script, it made me laugh, it made me
cry,” he claimed right before discussing his multi-million
dollar clients and how much he helps people.
If there was one thing that Black did need help in it was toward
the beginning of filming, being comfortable acting opposite the
Oscar-winning Gwyneth Paltrow.
Paltrow, much admired for her body as well as her body of work,
was able to calm the anxious Black down with the aid of the
Farrelly brothers.
“These guys really, truly, nurture the people,”
Robbins said, since he wouldn’t nurture Black.
Despite Black’s inquiries, Robbins refused to dispense any
free counseling.
“I did ask (Robbins) for some advice in between
takes,” Black said. “He’s like “˜you know,
you should really come to my seminars.’ His seminars, I
think, are 70 bucks or something, But you’re in an auditorium
with 20,000 people and I wanted some one-on-one love. Apparently
that costs much more.”
