People

AN STYLE='font-size: 100%; color: #990000; font-weight: bold; '>Who's That with Andre?
With a movie called Be Cool, the cast had better, well, be cool. In next year's sequel to the 1995 Mob flick Get Shorty, chill rapper ANDRE 3000 (real identity: Andre Benjamin) and Bill killer UMA THURMAN (real identity: foxy movie-star mama) supply the requisite edge. Andre, the sex-symbol half of the Grammy-winning hip-hop duo OutKast, plays Dabu "a trigger-happy parody of all rappers," he says. "He's a dude from the street, and he's kind of crazy. He'll be in a normal conversation just itching to shoot somebody." Thurman's Edie runs a record label that's in debt to Dabu, but she's being protected by boyfriend and entrepreneurial mobster Chili Palmer (John Travolta). This is the first meaty film role for Andre, who had a bit part in last year's Hollywood Homicide. He is next set to play Jimi Hendrix in a biopic. "Once you're an entertainer, you pretty much sell your real life," says Andre. "In movies, you can actually play a real person." And we thought only audiences escaped in the cinema.

From China, a Comeback
And people complain that getting their films made in Hollywood is a trial. Try China, where director TIAN ZHUANGZHUANG'S award-winning The Blue Kite (1992) earned him a government blacklisting. In his several-year break from directing, Tian spent a lot of time watching movies and helped produce a few. But "the kind of film I wanted to make was not allowed," he says through an interpreter. "And those the government likes I didn't want to do. I waited to see if either the government changed or I was changed by them." Lucky for filmgoers, Beijing blinked first, and Tian is back with Springtime in a Small Town, a remake of a classic Chinese film, opening in the U.S. this week. The new tyranny in Tian's life, however, is the box office; China's young moviegoers, he says, prefer simpler fare.

See Jen Run
Now that the flame Rachel carried for Ross has been snuffed out of prime time, JENNIFER ANISTON fans have another hot event to anticipate. The torchbearers for this summer's Olympics in Athens were announced last week, and there on the list among the athletic likes of Magic Johnson, Gail Devers and Carl Lewis was the Greek-American actress. Aniston, whose father's original name is Anastassakis and whose godfather was Telly Savalas, certainly has Hellenic cred. But we still bet My Big Fat Greek Wedding's Nia Vardalos is peeved.

A Match of Rock Royalty
It must be tough to bring dates home when Dad is a rock icon. Mick Jagger's daughter ELIZABETH JAGGER, a model, found a harmonious solution — date a guy who understands the gig. "They are so in love," Elizabeth's mom Jerry Hall told the British press of Elizabeth and her new beau, SEAN LENNON. "We had all these incredible family sing-songs with him around the piano." Lennon's rep declined to comment, and Elizabeth's says the pair are "friends." Here's hoping they progress to procreating — their children could frolic with Coldplay's tykes.