Though it is following on the heels of Robert Altman's inside-Hollywood satire "The Player," and to some degree resembles that film, "Mistress" came first in terms of its development.
"It was all done beforehand," according to Robert Wuhl, interviewed in Los Angeles by telephone earlier this week. "In fact, Barry Primus (the director of `Mistress') had offered Altman the part of the old screenwriter in our film."An actor, writer, standup comic and aspiring film director, Wuhl has his first starring role in "Mistress," though he is perhaps best known as the newspaper reporter Alexander Knox in "Batman" (for which his billing was fourth, just below Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton and Kim Basinger).
Wuhl auditioned on tape for the role in "Mistress" and had to be approved by Robert De Niro, who co-produced the film through his Tribeca production company. "De Niro was shooting `Cape Fear' at the time, and Barry took my tape down there and got his approval.
"It's a good film, a great part - a great character. And I've always been a big supporter of the idea that you do your best when you're with the best people." In this case, Wuhl found himself surrounded by some hefty veteran acting talent - Eli Wallach, Martin Landau, Danny Aiello and, of course, De Niro. "If you want to do good work, stand next to good people."
Actually, Wuhl has completed another starring role, a comedy with Eric Idle called "Missing Pieces." But the film is tied up in the bankruptcy of Orion Pictures. "I like to say, `Some of my best work is in litigation.' "
Wuhl was disappointed not to be called for "Batman Returns" but says he would rather look at the positive side - the enjoyment he had working on the first "Batman" and the possibility that he could be called again if "Batman 3" happens.
And what did the success of "Batman" do for his career? "I got turned down by higher-up people."
At the moment, however, Wuhl is very busy. He's currently shooting a cable movie for TNT's "Prestige" series. "It's called `Percy and Thunder,' by Art Washington, a playwright. It's a boxing movie with James Earl Jones, Billy Dee Williams - I'm the only white guy in the film. I play a sleazy boxing manager."
Wuhl is also working up two HBO projects, a sports satire and a variety show. And he's in the midst of getting financing to direct a low-budget movie he has written, called "Open Season." In the spring, he'll play a part in the next film by writer-director Ron Shelton (for whom he worked in "Bull Durham") about the last days of baseball legend Ty Cobb.
If that's not enough, Wuhl also has an inside-gag cameo in "The Bodyguard," starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston (which opens in theaters next week), as the host of a fictional Academy Awards broadcast toward the end of the film. It's a joke because Wuhl is an Emmy award-winning writer of material for real-life Oscar host Billy Crystal.
"Billy had seen me doing standup years ago and asked me to help him when he was the first comic to host the Grammies. He just asked me to jam with him and it was really nice. It was very successful. We come from similar sensibilities on how we approach it. So, everytime he's hosted he's called me to come down.
"Yeah, right now I'm really busy."
Despite his optimistic outlook, however, Wuhl laments that he would like to see "Missing Pieces" get out of its legal limbo and says it would have been nice if "Mistress" could have gotten a wider, more general release.
"I'm starring in movies playing at a theater nowhere near you," he says with a laugh.