U.S. film stars chase invitations to fete for Mexico's Fox, paper says

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (Reuters) -- Just call him 21st Century Fox.

Stars interested in attending celebrations for Fox, center, reportedly include, from top left: Downey Jr., Cage, Coppola and Snipes

Some of Hollywood's best-known celebrities are jostling for invitations to Mexico's festivities December 1, when President-elect Vicente Fox, a charismatic rancher and former businessman, takes office, according to local media.

Actors Wesley Snipes, Nicholas Cage, Forest Whitaker and Robert Downey Jr., as well as veteran producer and director Francis Ford Coppola, are just some of the stars who have expressed an interest in attending the celebrations to congratulate Fox personally, the daily Reforma said Sunday.

Fox, representing an alliance of the conservative National Action Party and Green Party, won a landmark general election July 2, bringing to an end the one-party rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which has governed Mexico since 1929. Fox succeeds President Ernesto Zedillo.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in Mexico. These people who are my friends are showing a very special interest in Mexico," actor Raul Julia Jr. was quoted as saying by Reforma.

"They see Fox as a Pancho Villa of 2000, the modern Pancho Villa. They see him as an idol, a hero," he added.

Fox's insistence on wearing his trademark cowboy boots at even the most formal occasions, his bushy mustache and his brash manner of speaking have prompted comparisons with the colorful Mexican revolutionary Francisco "Pancho" Villa, who was assassinated in 1923.

A spokeswoman for Fox's office said nothing had yet been made official regarding the celebrations.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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