Final Word from Friday, June 9, 2006
The remake of "The Omen" opened on 06-06-06 and, as unlikely as it may sound, it was an ominous moment for Czech film and tourism. One of the stars, Julia Stiles, went on U.S. television and spoke of her stay in Prague, where the film was shot. She went into a pharmacy one day for some aspirin. Not speaking Czech, and not encountering a clerk who spoke English, she pantomimed what she needed. Later during shooting she realized that the clerk had given her a laxative, not an aspirin. She got the trots, she said, but at least she'll always remember the Czech word for laxative. So why couldn't the manufacturer just put a comprehensible language - English, for example - on the label? Oh, no, that would make grey-market imports into more-expensive markets too easy. Stiles said she loved Prague but couldn't believe how difficult little, ordinary things were. She sounded part-Czech already.[Czech Republic filmmaking cinema]