LOS ANGELES — Hollywood is home to movie studios, a thriving fashion industry and more beautiful people than seems reasonable, but Sunday night a few hundred lucky fans got a first look at what real style is all about, thanks to an Israeli hairdresser who aims to please (and then some!). Adam Sandler was on hand to inaugurate MTV's first ever Sneak Peek Week with a showing of "You Don't Mess with the Zohan" and an audience Q&A hosted by MTV Movies editor Josh Horowitz at the world famous Mann's Chinese Theater.
"I don't miss stand-up," Sandler quipped in answer to an audience question on whether or not he would ever go back to his roots. "This is close to it, and I don't like this too much!"
That didn't show when he appeared as the credits rolled on his newest film, the Judd Apatow-penned story of a top military commando who fakes his own death to follow his dream of making the world "silky and smooth" in an American salon. Sandler joked with questioner after questioner, explaining everything from what he wanted to be when he grew up ("A baseball player," he said, "but my father told me I was too slow!") to why he doesn't do more dramas in the mold of "Reign Over Me."
"The guys that do dramas, they're in a bad mood all the time," he laughed. "I like coming home and having fun with my family."
"I have a few questions," a gentlemen said when he got up to the mic.
"You get two," Sander replied.
"I'm a big fan of your films."
"OK, then," Sandler smiled. "You get four!"
Since the movie has a plot that centers on silly terrorists and the Middle Eastern conflict, a big question the audience wanted answered was whether or not Sandler ever felt pressure to portray the politics more realistically.
"Yeah," he answered. "Our hope was to balance it on both sides. There's a lot of poking fun at everybody. We just wanted to make the funniest movie possible."
But the serious quickly gave way to the jovial. When a 10-year-old boy named Ramsey told Sandler he wanted to be an actor, Sandler joked that he'd start him on the path by cutting his hair. "Do you want me to style it for you," he asked in his Zohan accent. When another 10-year-old, Gabrielle, came up to ask a question, Sandler tried to play matchmaker. "Have you met Ramsey yet?" he joked. "He's gonna be big someday!"
In the end, after nearly 20 minutes of questions, the opportunity to meet their favorite comic left more than a few people tongue-tied. "Can I shake your hand?" one man asked of Sandler.
"You bet!" Sandler answered, ending the evening as he began it, by welcoming and embracing his newest fans.
"You Don't Mess With the Zohan" opens June 6.
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