Sharon Stone missed out on appearing in Alan Parker's new flick Angela's Ashes when her scenes were left on the cutting room floor, even though she offered her services for free. Stone wanted to play the first girl who sleeps with Irish writer Frank McCourt - on whose best-seller the film is based - when he arrives in America.
Parker explained, "Poor Sharon, that's the one thing we left out. The film actually ends with Frank's arrival in America. The book goes on for one more chapter where he has this affair in upstate New York. I don't know why. I think probably because Frank was easing into his next book 'Tis." While 'Tis is already shaping up as a best-seller, it is unlikely that Parker will film a sequel. The director has a reputation for never making sequels, and has even turned down any involvement in a second Commitments movie. Meanwhile at last night's London premiere of Ashes the director found himself overcome with emotion, because it was held in the same Leicester Square cinema he'd visited as a child. London-born Parker took one look at the celebrity crowd arriving at the Odeon in Leicester Square and realised how far he'd come from young film buff to director. He told reporters, "You pinch yourself because you're so lucky. I came here as a kid and I never would have dreamed that one day it would be my premiere and I'm amazed to think that it is. Sometimes you take it for granted, but now and again I pinch myself."