LAS VEGAS - Now that she's a bona fide
poker champion, Jennifer Tilly says she'll probably scale back
on making movies to focus on the card games.
Tilly stunned the poker world last week
by winning the World Series of Poker's No Limits Texas Hold
'Em Ladies Event and a $157,625 prize.
She's hungry for more.
"The movies are annoying because they
get in the way of my poker playing," Tilly said Tuesday at a
party at the Palms Hotel & Casino to promote the upcoming poker
documentary No Limit. "I have a new movie (Tideland) coming
out, and I am super-bummed because I have to do the publicity,
and it'll take place in the middle of a tournament I want to
play."
Tilly, a 1994 Oscar nominee for Bullets
Over Broadway, is so serious about poker that she recently bought
a unit in the Cosmopolitan, a high-rise condo on the Las Vegas
Strip to be built next to the Bellagio Hotel & Casino.
"I'd rather do this than be in some crappy
movie that will end up on cable," says Tilly, 46. "I'm financially
secure, and mostly I want to be with my man and play in the
tournaments."
Her man, Phil "Unabomber" Laak, 33, is
one of poker's biggest stars and her teacher "by osmosis," she
says. Laak is competing in this week's World Series of Poker
tournament here. It has a record purse of more than $8 million.
Tilly says she and Laak are amused that
she's now approached as often as he is for poker tips. "I started
as a big tag-along wannabe, but now I won, so I guess I know
what I'm doing," Tilly says. "To these people, I'm now a poker
player who happens to be a celebrity."
Well, not quite. One reason many professional
poker players are happy for Tilly is that her success boosts
interest in the game, especially among women. "If people are
inspired by her win, it only helps all of us," says Annie Duke,
one of the top female players.
Hollywood is taking a growing interest,
too. Lucky You, featuring Drew Barrymore as the girlfriend of
a poker pro played by Eric Bana, arrives in December. A biopic
about the late poker legend Stu Unger also is in the works.
No Limit filmmaker Tim Rhys started work
on his documentary in 2003, just as poker was bursting into
the mainstream.
In the 90-minute film, partially previewed
Tuesday, Rhys follows ex-girlfriend Susan Genard as she plays
six tournaments in eight months with their 4-year-old son in
tow. Interviews with dozens of poker celebs are interspersed
with Genard's journey. No Limit is expected to make its debut
at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
Tilly, who was not part of the documentary,
believes Rhys' timing is perfect. "These guys are like the last
American cowboys. There are some great stories to be told."
