Associated Press:

As Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn film ‘The Interpreter’ on location in the United Nations, many ambassadors are mad because all the diplomats in the movie are impostors. “It was my dream that I was going to be in a movie with Sydney Pollack directing it. He’s certainly one of my heroes in the movie industry,” said Spain’s UN Ambassador, Inocencio Arias, who has appeared in many Spanish films and said he had lined up a part as a prime minister.

“But then the day before the shooting they called and said the union had some reservation, some qualms,” Arias said. “I wasn’t even going to charge any money. If they had to give me some money, I was going to give it to research, or to AIDS.”

Jordan’s UN Ambassador, Prince Zeid Al Hussein, had wanted to keep up a family tradition: His parents were extras while in Italy during filming of 1963’s ‘Cleopatra’, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. He had hoped for the same chance in Pollack’s thriller, starring Kidman as a UN interpreter who comes from a fictional African country filled with civil strife, ethnic cleansing and political turmoil. Penn plays a Secret Service agent trying to prevent the leader of a country from being killed.

“It’s a great shame we weren’t allowed to have bit parts in this movie because we’re very familiar with the setting,” said the prince. There was some confusion over just why the diplomats can’t be actors. Pollack, an Academy Award-winning director, initially said “it’s a UN decision not mine. ... If they let one, they have to let all 191” ambassadors perform.

But UN undersecretary — General Shashi Tharoor said, “We’re very happy to have the ambassadors play themselves and do whatever they want. It’s up to them, their governments

and the filmmakers. The UN doesn’t employ the ambassadors.” Pollack then explained that a lot of ambassadors and UN staff don’t have the US work permits they need to be paid by an American film company. Pollack said he wanted his film “to be consistent with the goals of the UN, and an alternative to violence, in a way.” “It’s ridiculous,” said Arias, the Spanish Ambassador, adding: “So my opportunity to have a nomination for the Oscar next year went away because of some stupid regulation of the unions.”