Tom Hanks Draws the Line at Turtlenecks

Tom Hanks may have sacrificed for his art in the past (like that time he lost 40 pounds and grew a beard for Castaway), but the two-time Oscar winner draws the line at high collars. “You can’t wear a red turtleneck in a movie!� he shouted at us Monday night at MoMA, at a screening for HBO’s mini-series John Adams, on which he’s an executive producer. Hanks was in the middle of telling us that the film version of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons looks set to begin shooting in June after being delayed during the writers’ strike (“We had a meeting and I said, ‘Sounds great to me!’�) when we asked about the plot of Brown’s upcoming novel, The Solomon Key. “That’s top secret. He doesn’t tell me anything. I will just keep apologizing for refusing to wear a red turtleneck.� Come again?

In Brown’s Da Vinci Code series, cryptographer-hero Robert Langdon — played on film by Hanks — is “always described as a Harvard guy in a red turtleneck and a tweed jacket,� he said. “I think it’s a different kind of movie if you’re wearing a red turtleneck throughout the whole thing, don’t you think? Maybe if you’re playing a member of the underground, you know, the resistance, you can get away with a red turtleneck. But not a guy from Harvard who’s trying to figure out the hijacking of the Pope’s election!� We have to admit, he’s got a point. We never expected Hanks to have such strong sartorial opinions — but why no veto on that hairstyle? —Justin Ravitz

Related: HBO Hosts the New York Premiere of ‘John Adams’ [NYM]