Star power

In Hollywood, they call it "star power." It's the ability to get a picture made and earn $20m in the process. Tom Cruise topped Forbes' star-power list last year. The only actor in HN's recent list of the 10 most-influential Czechs was Zdeněk Svěrák, whose new film, "Returnable Bottles," is breaking records and has probably received more free publicity than all other recent Czech films combined. Svěrák has star power, but he's more like Clint Eastwood (minus the violence) than Tom Cruise. Svěrák is modest for an artist, soft-spoken and not prone to jumping up and down. He was either doing a fine acting job on Czech Radio yesterday or was endearingly unaware that HN had ranked him the seventh most-influential Czech. He was dismayed to be ahead of the CEO of Czech TV. Svěrák said he'll use his star power to attract more money for the Paraple paraplegics foundation. [Czech Radio Hospodářské noviny Jiří Janeček Television Vratné láhve]