Nomadic documentary team joins Hollywood starlet

It's difficult to picture successful Hollywood stars without attitude, glamour and luxury. Most actors seem to be unsophisticated and shallow and have no desire to step out of their comfortable surroundings. \n Despite their adventurous screen personalities, actors come off as sheltered. And often, the most they would do for a PBS documentary is lend their voices as narrators.\nBut those who tuned in to watch "Nature" on PBS this week were probably pleasantly surprised by what they saw -- "Wild Horses of Mongolia with Julia Roberts." No, Roberts is not merely a narrator. She is actually on location with the documentary crew. Roberts exceeds our expectations of typical spoiled Hollywood brats. She is surprisingly down to Earth, humble, strong and smart.\nRoberts gets paid $20 million a picture, but she decided to put herself in the midst of Mongolia, where there are no four-star hotels or even bathrooms. Although the camera crew is constantly around, she didn't demand to be the center of its attention. She is passionate about horses, and her enthusiasm showed in her actions.\nRoberts arrived in the middle of nowhere to stay with a Mongolian nomadic family for a few weeks without the aid of a translator. They had never seen her movies, and they didn't really know who she was. \nRoberts soon blends in as one of the nomads. She cheerfully listened to Mongolians explaining things to her, and did her best to understand the meaning. She also learned to play games with Mongolian kids and taught them simple games played in American nursery schools.\nWearing no makeup, Roberts dressed in traditional Mongolian outfit each day. She savored the exotic horse milk and lamb dishes among the Mongolians. She rode wild horses and helped assemble tents. She milked horses and got poop stains on her jeans. All this and not a word of complaint from her -- she said in her interviews that she was happy to be there.\nIn the scripted voice-over narration, Roberts briefly recounts the history of the legendary Mongolian leader Genghis Khan, and reflects the similarities between Mongolian nomads and American cowboys. Roberts convincingly explained what really intrigued her about the Mongolians and why she was there soon after Mongolia opened its doors to Western visitors.\nWhen Roberts shed tears as she said goodbye to the nomad family, it's impossible to doubt her genuine affection for the family. There was no script, and she was not acting. While the documentary is obviously informative about the Mongolian way of life and how it is inseparable with the wild horses, it's also amusing to see Roberts putting herself through such an adventure. She's convinced us that she's got beauty, talent, guts and a good heart. \ntrailer trash\nAlthough the movie does not officially open until Memorial Day 2001, moviegoers in Bloomington are already being tirelessly bombarded with the trailer for "Pearl Harbor," the latest trash from director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer.\nWhat's this? "Armageddon" meets "Saving Private Ryan"? The premise of the movie is completely frightening, and the trailer certainly lives up to its promise. As if the trailer itself is not nauseating enough, Kerasotes Theatres is attaching the trailer in front of every single movie it is now showing. How much longer must we put up with this?\nAnother truly disgusting sight that Kerasotes regulars must frequently endure is the trailer for the new Ben Affleck/Gwyneth Paltrow flick, "Bounce." If we have to hear Gwyneth's rant about how she picks up smoking in an effort to quit "the gum" one more time, it's very likely that we will vomit all over our seats. This trailer has as much cheese as Steak 'n Shake's Chili 5-Way. Must we continue to indulge Gwyneth and her pettiness all the way through the Oscars ceremony next March?