EDWARD NORTON - NORTON BUYS RICE FIELD FOR FILM

Actor EDWARD NORTON went to extreme measures to make his new movie THE PAINTED VEIL look perfect by purchasing an entire village's rice crop so the plants would be the right height. The AMERICAN HISTORY X star was also a producer on the lush period piece and negotiated with the Chinese government to make the purchase. He explains, "We had to avoid the rainy season, but we still wanted to have the big, beautiful green rice. "Earlier we went into the valley and spoke to the provincial head and he said, 'You can't cut the rice.' I said, 'We've got to have rice for these shots. What do we have to do?' "We ended up buying the rice crop of the entire county in advance to get them to plant it a month late. "We gave it back to them to sell it - so they got a two-for-one deal. They thought we were insane!"