Pacino's Pixilated Princess

Aug. 23, 2002 -- She's an actress-director-singer-poet-philanthropist, but she's not real. In hyphen-happy Hollywood, maybe that's not important.

Introducing Simone, the digital creation of down-on-his-luck director Victor Taransky, who is desperate to save his career after his spoiled-rotten leading lady walks off the set.

Taransky is played by Al Pacino, and the pouty actress is Winona Ryder. But who plays the title character in Simone? The movie's credits don't include her name.

As a marketing gimmick, New Line Cinema kept the secret under wraps for two years, hoping to create buzz.

"What does it matter if celebrities are real?" asks writer-director Andrew Niccol, who takes on media-driven reality, as he did in The Truman Show.

"Our celebrity-obsessed culture can't tell the difference anyway. Our ability to manufacture fraud exceeds our ability to detect it."

As Pacino's character says, "It's easier to make 100,000 people believe than just one."A Dash of Hepburn, a Touch of Kelly

Now we know that Pacino's pixilated princess is Rachel Roberts, a Canadian model who has been on the covers of Vogue and Elle and appeared in the latest Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

In the film, a dying computer programmer gives Pacino experimental software that will allow him to splice together style, looks and talents of great actresses from a library of legends. He takes a dash Audrey Hepburn, mixes in Grace Kelly, and some contemporary beauties.

Presto! The results are Franken-actress Simone. Best of all, she delivers the lines exactly how Pacino wants. He speaks through a mike and the words come out of her mouth.

This new star is quirky, so reclusive that she insists her scenes are shot without other actors and spliced into the film, leaving her a mystery to everyone but Taransky — who suddenly becomes the hottest director in town.

But like any mad scientist, Pacino's Taransky is all but destroyed by his creation.

"What made her attractive was that he was able to express all the things he wanted to about the business and the treatment he's had by people in higher places," Pacino says. "He's able to speak through her, because all the words are his. He's the voice behind her."Playing computer ventriloquist nearly drives Pacino crazy, as his computer doll seemingly develops a life of her own, and Pacino's grip on reality starts slipping.

Synthespians UniteWhile Niccol's story is played out as a comic farce, he says he was inspired by today's stars, who are increasingly becoming computer creations.

"Before you see them on screen, the stars have editors digitally erase their wrinkles. They're getting virtual face lifts," he says.

"Look at all these rock stars who look younger today than they did 10 years ago."

Filmmakers routinely create digital people to serve as "extras." The screaming Coliseum crowds cheering Russell Crowe in Gladiator and the marching army of androids in Star Wars are computer creations.

Last year, the adventure Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within featured animated characters in place of actors.

Niccol can imagine a future where stars may even lease out parts of their body to digital wizards.

"I alter real actors all the time," Niccol said. "You stretch them to make them look thinner or do face replacement on stunts. There's a lot of manipulation that goes on."

To emphasize that point, the film's production notes exclude Robertsand describe Simone largely as a computer amalgam of voices and body parts from other Hollywood leading ladies.Now that the film has opened, the gag order has been lifted. When Simone leaves theaters, Roberts' name will be added to the credits.

Of course, Roberts' voice and body were augmented by computer with elementsof other actresses.

But, as they say in Hollywood, that sort of thing happens all the time.

"All synthespians are part pixels and part flesh and blood," Niccol says. "We're just not going to say which part is which."

Niccol assures us that Simone is 98.6 percent Roberts, and he said he only picked that number because it's the body temperature of a real live human, whatever that means in show business these days.

Pacino acknowledges Hollywood hocus pocus is part of the game, but he says it's a mystery to him. "I have an 18-month-old son," he says. "He is better at the computer than I am."