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 From what I can gather, this movie is about a man called Ray who is so blue with cold that he’s turned into ice. Or something like that. The reality is not much less preposterous frankly.
Back the early 1990s, rapper Vanilla Ice (a ridiculously weak pseudonym for someone trying to project toughness) became a major celebrity. It was a simpler time. His hit song ‘Ice Ice Baby’, continues to haunt the airwaves to this day. As is the way for the entertainment industry, it couldn’t let a potential cash-cow like this go un-milked so it made a movie especially for it. Fortunately, such aberrations seem to be rarer these days. They just get reality TV series on obscure channels instead.
For those unaware of this little slice of Kathryn’s early career, Cool As Ice was her second credited role. She’s only in a couple of brief scenes as a friend of the female lead (Kristin Minter, ER). It’s hardly Kathryn’s big break, a couple of blink-and-you’ll-almost-miss-her moments, but every actor has to start somewhere.
The plot is standard boy-meets-girl type stuff. She’s the good girl. He’s the bad boy who rolls into town. Swoon.
Last week a new Blu-ray version of Cool As Ice was released in the US by publisher Kino Lorber. I believe that is a new 1080p (full HD) transfer so should be better than any previous version. The disc also includes an audio commentary by two film experts and some trailers. There doesn’t appear to be any versions of the disc for other parts of the world, so be aware if you were to import it to your part of the globe it may not play on your equipment. I don’t have details of the region coding.
Cool As Ice on Blu-ray and other formats can be found on the US Amazon site HERE.
Amazingly, this film has gone largely unmentioned here on KM UK, though there have been some decent sized screencaps in the Gallery since this site’s inception.
 Sometimes you don’t get the credit you deserve. Sometimes someone takes credit for your work. And then there’s the film business, where you get the credit but somehow it is still not you.
All of which fits in so very well with the topic of the film we are going to talk about here.
 Stand-ins is a 1997 film starring Jordan Ladd (Death Proof), Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs), and Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy). It is very play-like with just a small number of characters mostly in a single setting. Our leading ladies are in fact not leading ladies. They are movie stand-ins, look-alikes that take the place of the real stars for parts that don’t clearly identify the person, such as an over the shoulder camera shot. Think stunt performer but less dangerous.
The story is set in the 1930s in what is often called the Golden Age of Cinema. It centres around a meeting of a group of these stand-ins at a birthday celebration for one of them. Each of them had dreams of making it big in Hollywood but has found themselves in this anonymous profession standing-in for the likes of Greta Garbo, Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis, Jean Harlow, and Marlene Detrich. The audiences sees them all the time but doesn’t know them at all.
 Kathryn, mis-credited as Katherine Morris (perhaps they just copied Ms. Heigl’s spelling), is only in the very first couple of minutes of this one. She doesn’t have any lines as such, just some grunting and crying. Kathryn plays a ‘legitimate actress’, unlike our leads. I’m not sure what the implications of stating the actor or the films they star in are ‘legit’. The mind boggles. A shown news article (typo-ridden headline and all) says that her character, Lillian ‘Peg’ Entwhistle, killed herself by jumping off the Hollywood sign. I think Kathryn could legitimately claim a stunt acting credit as well for climbing a frame structure in uncomfortable and inappropriate shoes, and a skirt.
I feel like we’ve finally been able to give Kathryn the credit for this one, as it has passed largely unnoticed for so many years.
 On KM UK we definitely do our best to give credit where it is due. We very much stand on the shoulders of giants and benefit from other’s generosity. In this case the credit goes to Mel Smith. Recently, Mel very kindly reached out to me about Kathryn being in this film. I was sceptical but checked it out and was happy to find out it was true. Over the years I’d stumbled across places suggesting Kathryn was in this film but have been burnt too often. The name was spelt differently and by the projects 1997 release, Kathryn’s career was reasonably well established, even allowing for a year or so ahead of then for the filming to have actually taken place. Only one site I’ve found has linked the mis-credit to Kathryn. I’ve submitted a correction to IMDb about this, though they have yet to correct the obvious error over Malibu Hot Summer (aka Sizzle Beach USA) so I’m not holding my breath on this one.
Stand-ins is available on various video platforms including Amazon Prime, and DVD in some territories. The Amazon US page with a video of the opening sequence, and a link to Prime version, is HERE.
There are a small collection of screencaps and a short video clip from Stand-ins now in the Gallery.
 The BBC has decided, after more than 5 years, to put Minority Report on TV again.
As a way to end the extended holiday weekend, the Tom Cruise-led sci-fi action film is being shown again at 11pm on Monday (28th December 2020) in England. Those in Wales have to wait until 11:30pm and Scotland another 15 minutes on top of that. Looks like Northern Ireland aren’t getting a broadcast this time.
Rules in place in the UK at the moment require that you watch the film or Tom will shout and threaten to fire you if he sees you not doing so again. You have been warned!
KM UK already has a comprehensive set of HD screencaps and a large sized promotional photograph seen above above in the Gallery.
Full details can be found on the BBC website here.
 Finally, a clip from The Protocol with Kathryn really in it.
This follows on from the previously found video as Xen Sams (as Agent Chase) goes into the interrogation room to talk to Kathryn (brilliantly playing very pregnant woman).
 No longer is she just a lady, sat alone in a room watched on a TV screen. She’s actually a living, breathing, talking lady.
Kathryn’s character appears to be seeking asylum from an outer realm to this apparently wonderful place. Wonderful if you like all your citizens drugged up to the eyeballs to prevent anything as horrible as feelings. The snowflakes can’t handle, snowflakes. It also prevents violence etc. too. The drugs giveth, the drugs taketh away.
A copy of this new video has been added to the KM UK Gallery as well a small set of screencaps taken from it
  
 Kathryn’s The Protocol co-star Xen Sams has been doing some promotional work following the screening of the piece at the recent New York Short Film Festival.
It has consisted mostly of interviews on various small YouTube channels and Facebook groups. Xen’s main focus has been to talk about mental health issues the film was created to highlight. The specific details of The Protocol; the plot, the cast, etc.; were largely glossed over during the chats. However, one of them did start with a clip from the film. Xen also started to say the project was being developed as a “network…” but was cut off before she could finish. There has been talk from the beginning of looking at The Protocol as a possible TV series. That must still be being tried.
 The clip also emerged on Xen’s on YouTube channel and has been described separately as a trailer and a teaser. To me a teaser is very brief and just gives a hint of the project in question. A trailer should be a longer video containing more information about the story, with a few of the highlights shown. Ideally it should be spoiler free but all to often these days major film trailers show too much. This is more of a clip. As it happens it dovetails into the clip KM UK previously found over 2 years ago. It fits into the middle of it.
Kathryn only features in the background on a screen, sat in the interrogation room, as we’ve seen previously.
Watch the new clip of The Protocol courtesy of Xen Sams on HERE on YouTube. A small copy has been added to the KM UK Gallery as well.
The video description from YouTube gives a lot more information about the film:
In a dystopian future, after decades of war, the leadership of a new government, called The Federation, was formed to provide a safe haven for those that wanted to rid themselves of the raw human emotions that devastated an entire generation. On the verge of collapse, the government directed the nation’s scientists to develop a drug therapy that inhibits all emotional imbalance. No longer would race, religion, crime, or violence impact these citizens. In the few remaining city-states, the drug therapy is mandated for all citizens… because of the Protocol, a modern-day Utopia was born. But just outside of the gates in the Exclusion Zone… a new enemy was born. One that resisted the drugs. Their sole purpose of destroying everything that the Federation had built. Welcome to Paradise.
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Welcome Welcome to Kathryn Morris UK, a website dedicated to the actress Kathryn Morris. Here you will find news, images, videos and information presented from the perspective of an English fan. This site has become the chief source of information for Kathryn's fans and fansites alike around the world.
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Shout Outs To… Those suffering in war-torn areas
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