Is There a ‘Star Wars’ Curse

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Inside Edition

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The Phantom Menace introduced us to a whole galaxy, new Star Wars characters. But while newcomers, like actress Natalie Portman, and 11 year old Jake Lloyd are looking forward to a stellar success, you should be warned that being part of the Star Wars phenomenon doesn't always mean the force will be with you. Movieline magazine's Larry Grobel. There is some talk about a Star War curse. I'm not afraid. You will be. Take Mark Hamill, who played the farm boy hero, Luke Skywalker. I got him Right before the movie's premier in '77, Hamill was in a devastating car crash. Basic destroyed his nose, they had to rebuild his nose from cartilage from his ear. Jason Harper, who's the associate editor of the new men's magazine, Gear, which reveals twenty things you didn't know about Star Wars. The beginning of the second movie they have a large space alien Wampa hit him in the face. Would explain the scarring on his face. Then there's Carrie Fisher AKA feisty Princess Leia. Somebody has to save our skins. Today, she's a successful screenwriter, but in the 80's, after the collapse of her marriage to singer Paul Simon, Carrie plunged into heavy depression and drug use, ending up in rehab. Last year Carrie checked herself back into a clinic, struggling with prescription drugs. Carrie's mom, entertainer Debbie Reynolds, who's a spokeswoman for osteopetrosis, says her daughter is now doing fine. She's not the type to fall apart, and she picks herself up and she goes right on. Star Wars creator, George Lucas, may be worth an estimated 2.5 billion dollars, but the unmarried Lucas has not been able to create a fantasy life offscreen. George's wife of 16 years, film editor Marcia Griffin, left him, he says, for a younger man. He had a very difficult divorce in 1983. And remember Billy Dee Williams from The Empire Strikes Back? Back in 1996, bad luck hit Williams when he was ordered to attend counseling after allegedly roughing up his then girlfriend. He's denied the charges and they've since been dismissed. It's forgotten and I'd like my life to move on. Billy Dee will soon make a movie comeback, he's written a novel and is an artist. His paintings, some of them Star Wars influenced, fetch up to 35 thousand dollars each. Skywalker will join us or die. You probably recognize Darth Vader's distinctive voice as that of actor James Earl Jones, but did you know it wasn't Jones underneath the helmet? But a British weightlifter named David Prowse. Pre-Star Wars, Prowse played the Frankenstein monster, and was also in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. His misfortune was having his voice dubbed. He had to put up with anonymity despite being one of the most famous villains in all of history. Star Wars magic will soon repeat itself with The Phantom Menace. Hopefully the new cast can avoid the dark side of the force. The force will be with you, always.