The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • Page 58

Inside: Barbie's newest challenge: beating Gore and Bush at the polls Class needn't bid 'Goodbye' to Ozzy song THESUN Friday, April 21, 2000 Section Inside Debate brews over attitudes about Canada i I takes a tongue-in-cheek shot at common misconeeptiorm Americans have almit their northern neighfxrr. ysr (if it'Vvv; 'f 1 I ii i I i. I im ill in ll -iiiir imi By Deborah Bach CONTRIBUTING WRITER to play Cannes John Waters' Hollywood satire, starring Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt and Mel-anie Griffith, will play in the festival's non-competitive section in May. Films by Brian De Palma, Ang Lee and Dave Stewart will also be featured. Page 6e More inside Ann Landers: Having dogs guard cabs is a nice idea, but not a practical one.

Page 10e Hints from Heloise: Reader offers pointers for preparing to paint a room. Page 5e Liz Smith: "Dish" tells all about the world of gossip and its evolution. Page 4e Index Young love: Quincy (Omar Epps) and Monica (Sanaa Lathan) share a competitive spirit in "Love and Basketball. In his four years working in Philadelphia, Brett Marchand learned plenty about being a misunderstood Canadian. Marchand's friends would ask if Ontario was a state or a city.

His colleagues at Campbell's Soup where Marchand worked in marketing, snickered when he said "past-a" instead of "pawsta." Once, during a meeting where an Australian was delivering a speech sprinkled with war metaphors, the company's former CEO turned to Marchand and remarked that an Aussie talking about war was about as absurd as hearing about it from a Canadian. "He literally did not know that Canada was in World War I and World War II, and this was a guy with a master's degree," says Marchand, now the vice president of marketing for the Molson Canadian brewing company. Americans' dearth of knowledge about their northern neighbors is nothing new. U.S. history is commonly taught in Canadian schools, but despite the two countries being each other's closest neighbors and biggest trade partners, American students learn next to nothing about Canada.

That fact was aptly illustrated when a Canadian comic tricked presidential candi- See Canada, 3e if ii ll Ii in QJjj lU. 1L Ji kl nrtTi V4 Comics Movies 8e Crossword 9e 4e Television 7e A Loe and Basketball 9 the conventional and the cliche are slam-dunked in favor of a fresh, authentic take on passion, ambition and coming of age. In brief Overweight adults need to exercise more often By Ann Hornaday SUN FILM CRITIC ft i Mr wm Wr 7 ri ove and Basketball" is "Hoop Dreams," OO "A Star is Born" and Movies this week "Love and Basketball" "U-571" "Croupier" Pa9e 10e "Gossip" itir Page 6e The Terrorist" -kick Page 10e Rating system: Excellent: Good: Fair Poor. 1 every John Hughes movie you've ever seen, all rolled into well, a ball. In any ftX 1 1 "Love and Basketball" follows Quincy and Monica as they pursue parallel courses: They both win scholarships to the University of Southern California, where their healthy-sized egos get a reality check from older, better players.

And they both have an eye on the pros, although their futures are dramatically different. It's assumed that Quincy will wind up in the NBA (where his father, played by Dennis Haysbert, is a star), but Monica's career is not so assured. Prince-Bythewood gracefully evokes the sexism that has vexed women's basketball, a situation that thankfully is beginning to change. But the cardinal question of "Love and Basketball" is whether Quincy and Monica will get out of their own way and realize they were meant for each other, and it's a question that Prince-Bythewood keeps dangling with finesse. None of the obstacles that are thrown in the couple's path or that See Love, 10e ASSOCIATED PREB8 "Regular Jeff Douglas performs his "lam Canadian "routine at the Toronto Maple Leafs-Ottawa Senators hockey playoff game.

one else's hands, this would not be a good thing. But first-time director Gina Prince-Bythewood has taken the conventional coming-of-age romance genre and invigorated it with such vivid characters and such alertness to the culture she's representing, that she makes what might have been derivative into something brand new. Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan play Quincy McCall and Monica Wright, who meet as 11-year-olds and bond over their mutual love for basketball. At first Quincy doesn't know whether to be impressed or intimidated by a girl who shoots hoops just like a boy. But after, some thought, he decides he should ask her to be his girlfriend.

Monica, who has just moved in next door to Quincy, agrees, and suggests that they seal the deal with a kiss. Their first kiss ends in a wrestling match on the front yard which pretty much sums up the dynamic that will play out between them into adulthood. He counsels millions, thanks to television VsytMoAlthough discussingamity relationships on Vprali, 'Phillip McGraw -eliminates the sleaze other talk shows seem to genera te. Surface flaws can't sink 'U-571' Review: Submarine thriller Jim no secret rimsageftjmt a stead) hand at the helm, an able-lxxlied cmtandseaofsusjX'nse. By Mimi Avins LOS ANOELES TIMES ATLANTA The vast majority of overweight adults trying to shed pounds aren't getting enough exercise, the government said yesterday.

-A 1998 national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 53.8 percent of American adults reported being overweight and that half of them were trying to lose weight. Most of those trying to lose weight 62.7 percent were exercising, but only 28 percent said they exercised 30 minutes a day at least five days a week, the minimum government recommendation. The average overweight person trying to lose weight exercised three days a week generally by walking. t'The good news is that many people are using physical activity and we want to encourage that, but promote dqing it more frequently," said Mary Ellen Simpson, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. The CDC considers anyone up to 30 pounds over the target weight for his or her body size to be overweight.

Anyone above the 30-pound mark is considered obese. This study looked only at overweight people. i The study found that overweight adults in Southern states are least likely to exercise, while those in the Midwest are the most active. Among the adults trying to take off pounds, 66.6 percent of men and 62.2 percent of, women said they exercised. "Among men with a college degree, 72.7 percent said they exercise, while only 47.4 percent of those without a high school education exercise.

Among college-educated women, 71.9 percent said they exercise, while 44.6 percent of women without a high school diploma do. Simpson speculated that highly educated people are more likely to belong to health clubs or play social sports such as golf. Associated Press By Ann Hornaday BUN FILM CRITIC In too From left, Jake Weber, Jack Noseworthy, Harvey Keitel and Matthew McConaughey as soldiers who must somehow steal a German submarine. Phillip C. McGraw is a tall, balding, broad-shouldered former college middle linebacker who has never had a dialogue with his inner child, and doesn't want to.

In his 49 years, he has been a recreational pilot, accomplished amateur athlete and coach, expert witness, clinical psychologist, seminar leader, entrepreneur, author and, lately, television personality. Now McGraw is doing very well at an endeavor that he doesn't think much of and for many years didn't like doing: therapy. Thanks to a chance meeting with the woman who has had more influ-; ence on book sales than anyone since the invention of movable type, he has become a guru to millions. Twice a month, he counsels troubled couples on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and his book, "Relationship Rescue" (Hyperion, 2000), has sold more than half a million copies and been at the top of the New York Times list of best-selling self-help books since its publication two months ago. Better educated and with more practical expe-' rience in psychology than many mass media pundits, McGraw reserves his greatest contempt for the buzzwords and psychobabble that attach, like, mold, to the crust of therapy.

As Winfrey says when she introduces him to her rapt audience, "Dr. Phil is here to cut through all the phony baloney. Vail know Tell-It-Like-It-Is Phil, right?" Anyone who doesn't might try to excuse their! shortcomings by running some meaningless sett- help jargon past McGraw. They'd risk hearing him, drawl, "I tell you, my friend, around my house, that dog won't hunt." (That's how people talk in Texas where McGraw, an Oklahoma See McGraw, 2e "U-571" is the kind of war picture that William Holden used to star in the kind where he rallies his co-stars (let's say Frederic March, Mickey Rooney, Alec Guinness and Don Taylor) to outsmart the enemy, manages a few sardonic cracks and never gets his hair mussed. Matthew McConaughey is no William Holden, but "U-571" still makes good use of his limited range in a World War II submarine thriller that is executed with efficiency and skill.

McConaughey plays Andy Tyler, a Navy lieutenant who has just been turned down for a command of his own submarine when he is called upon by his lieutenant commander, Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) to execute an extraordinary mission: With the help of a couple of U.S. Marines, Tyler and Dahlgren will "rescue" a troubled German submarine and in the process steal a code machine called the Enigma, which the German forces use to send secret messages. That's probably already saying too much about a movie that sets up a mood of tensile suspense from the beginning and never, lets it go. Director Jonathan Mostow clearly knows how to maneuver men and special effects 'U-57V to create a niftily twisty thriller, and he gets good performances from his cast, who could be described as the "Not 'Saving Private Ryan' Players." (In one of the movie's most shocking plot twists, Mostow actually lets the one African-American character survive the second reel, a refreshing departure from the usual formula of bumping him off right away.) If "U-571" is light on character development and emotion, it still accomplishes what it sets out to do, with smarts and style. After all, it's not Mostow's fault that Holden was unavailable.

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey KeiteL Jon Bon Jovi Directed by Jonathan Mostow Rated PG-13 (war violence) Running time 1 hour, 56 minutes Released by Universal Pictures 'Sni score i.