From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Hidden finger, the film

Rugby League bad boy John Hopoate and his infamous onfield fingering scandal have been immortalised in a Hollywood film starring Alec Baldwin and Matthew Broderick.

The film, The Last Shot, has nothing to do with rugby league and its American writer-director Jeff Nathanson is not a fan of the sport and knows little about it. Nathanson, however, thought a brief, out-of-the-blue mention about Hopoate's notorious 2001 finger probing incident in the offbeat, witty comedy would fit well in a scene, despite it having nothing to do with the context of the film.

In the scene Tony Shaloub, who plays an eccentric mobster, is watching a game on TV and begins ranting about how a player was banned for sticking his fingers in other players' rear ends. "You'll notice Tony Shaloub is always watching some obscure sporting event, some weird thing like bowling, so it was something to do," Nathanson said.

Nathanson was holidaying in Europe in 2001 when he first read about Hopoate's notorious 12-week suspension for putting his fingers up the backsides of three North Queensland players during a game. "I was travelling in Europe and I was reading the newspaper and reading about the incident and just kept it in the back of my mind," Nathanson said.

The Last Shot, which also stars Calista Flockhart, Ray Liotta and Australian actress Toni Collette, is scheduled to open in Australian cinemas in October.



[ This Message was edited by: sportznut on 2004-09-01 07:22 ]