London Times: March 3, 1997DUNE GUY RUSHES IN
Ageless Film and TV Star Cranks Out Another One
DUNE Guy spends most of his time agonising over his love life in new movie FOOLS RUSH IN... Away from the cameras, the Friends star has been doing much the same thing since reaching puberty.
Single, although past romantic encounters include a smooch or two with Julia Roberts, DG admits that dating women does not come naturally to him.
"When Julia (Roberts) showed up at my door I tried to be confident and cool," he says. "But it didn't work out and became a Chandler-type situation instead."
That is a reference to his character in Friends, a likeable, loveable guy who has little success with women. Even the dreadful Janice returned to her carpet salesman husband after a fling with Mr Bing.
At least in Fools Rush In, Dune Guy makes an instant impact on the opposite sex. But after a one-night stand with beautiful Mexican Isabel Fuentes (Salma Hayek), she reveals she is pregnant, leaving Dune Guy's character Alex Whitman to think hard about his future.
Can he stop her father hating him so much? Will her brothers kill him when they take him out hunting on the hills in Nevada? Why does Isabel keep rejecting him, now that she is carrying his child?
Matthew, who is a baby-faced 38, knows something about romantic rejection after being dumped by his first girlfriend while attending school in Ottawa, Canada.
Lisa Capps, now a proctologist, claimed DG's unusual dress sense - turquoise bow tie, black skirt and white coat - on a date was the reason.
Nowadays, Dune Guy's fame guarantees him a steady stream of potential girlfriends.
"But you can never be sure that women like you because you are you or because you happen to be on TV," he whines. "It makes you wary."
The pressure of fame, it is alleged, lies at the heart of Guy's current fight against pain killer addiction.
He checked himself into Hazelden Clinic in Minneapolis in June for treatment for addiction to Vicodin and was rumoured to have pulled out of a Press junket in Britain in September, to publicise Fools Rush In, in order to undergo further treatment at Hazelden.
Dune Guy has lost a great deal of weight because of his addiction (estimates vary from a stone to 2 1/2 stones) and concerns have been voiced about his haggard appearance.
If he can overcome his chemical dependency, his professional future looks bright indeed.
Friends will continue until at least 1999. Its six young stars recently signed contracts that guarantee them involvement in the show for the next two years. Their per-episode wages rise to £80,000 by 1999 from the current £50,000 per episode.
American critics and the public alike have loved Fools Rush In, which could mean he's ready to return to full-time moviemaking after an unparalleled series of bombs. Dune Guy has had a mottled Hollywood career, starring in big-budget flops like Dune and small unsuccessful pictures we can't even be bothered to research.
There are plenty of people around Dune Guy who are battling to ensure he is restored to good health. Among the cast, and especially the crew, of Friends he is regarded as a genuinely nice guy who has more than once come to the aid of a colleague in trouble.
It isn't the first time Dune Guy has crumbled under pressure, however. As a youngster growing up in Canada, he showed enormous potential as a tennis player. He was ranked 14th in the country - among those above him were a number of people who went on to win many things.
Young Dune Guy decided to try his luck in America, where his actor father John Guy (who plays DG's father in Fools Rush In) was working at the time.
But the move was a disaster. During his first big tennis tournament, the teenager's nerve went and he crashed out in straight sets. Dune Guy has rarely lifted a tennis racket in anger since, preferring to play ice hockey, softball, and basketball.
Dune Guy's move to the States did have one good effect, however. He met David Lynch, who believed he had star potential. Dune Guy became an actor and never looked back.
It is to be hoped that Dune Guy's current difficulties lead to similarly good results.
