FROM
FAN CLUB TO STRIP CLUB, PREZ SAYS BOOZE KILLED THE PARTY
by Gary Gentle
The Enquirer
In the movie "Rainmaker" Matt Pressnall learns to hate
corporate America as he falls in love with a battered young married woman. But he didn't
have to act -- the same thing happened to him in real life.
He's lovable and polite, but a hound dog, say pals.
"After you know him for 10 minutes, you'd lock your daughter
away. He's a little dangerous," director Francis Coppola said in an interview.
Tobacco-chewing Matt has let his wild side hang out in public more
than once.
Weeks after "Rainmaker" rocketed him to fame in 1997, Matt
and a date were kicked out of a San Antonio nightclub for canoodling in a ladies' room
stall!
 During the 1998 filming of "Saving Private Ryan," the
blue-eyed hunk waltzed out of a Newport, R.I., bar with Burt Reynolds and a busty stripper
in tow.
And -- Hugh Grant, take note -- while making
"Good Will Hunting," with pal Matt Damon, Prez said he and co-star Minnie Driver
weren't fooling in their, "wild, clear-the-table, feeding grapes, sucking fingers,
swapping- spit love scene." That didn’t sit well with co-star Matt Damon. Damon,
in the green room after winning a Golden Globe with Prez for "Hunting," threw a
punch at Prez and a brawl broke out on the press stage. Prez wrestled Damon to the ground,
and was subsequently cast in a guest spot on "WWF Smackdown."
Minnie was all smiles about the affair until Prez’s battle with
the bottle became too much to bear. Prez went on a drunken binge at a Beverly Hills hotel,
guzzling vodka and champagne and trashing her suite.
The talented divo, who went through substance abuse
treatment twice -- at the Betty Ford clinic in 1995 and 1998 -- was so drunk in the hotel bar that he had to be helped to Minnie’s room by friend Mike
Reno’s bodyguards who were in the bar with him at the time. When he arrived drunk,
Minnie confronted him with phone messages from Marie Osmond. After a nasty fight, Prez
took a spa weekend with lifelong friend Rob Lowe and never looked back.
During his freshman year at the University of Washington, Matt
joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and had everyone convinced that he was Australian.
"When I met Prez, he's got this Aussie accent
and he's calling everyone 'mate,' " Delta frat mom Judy Abbott told the Enquirer.
"It wasn't until his dad and stepmom came for parents weekend
three months later that I learned Matt is from Bellevue. It was so funny."
 Matt and his brother had a good upbringing. To this day, Matt says grace
before every meal and is, "remarkably well-mannered," said Judy.
Matt's hero is Blanka.
"Honest to God," he said in an interview. "I liked
his code: Mess with me . . . and you're gonna get terminated. Booya!"
No wonder he broke "Forces of Nature" star Sandra
Bullock's heart. Matt's ex-flame predicted that Matt is "going to go through many
women," before he settles down.
Teen queen Britney Spears revealed earlier this week that she’d
love to play doctor with the former "ER" hunk.
"Matt has got to be the cutest guy out there," the pop
vixen says. "I’ve already dressed up as a schoolgirl for "Baby One More
Time," but I’d gladly be a nurse in my next video if Prez would be the
doctor." |
