Matrix Revelations (continued)

> Who's the boss?
They write together, swapping script pages on yellow legal pads. They both offer occasional direction to the actors and are most comfortable sitting behind the monitor, observing the action onscreen. Andy is a burly, beer-drinking, sci-fi fan, while Larry enjoys a good restaurant meal and has more of an appreciation for philosophy. Davis says, "They're very intellectual and academic in a way, in terms of the research they do and the ways they conceive of and write things, but on set they have this kind of regular-guys-with-baseball-hats thing. Every other thing out of their mouth is just hilarious. They are deliberately letting the gas out of it, saying something that makes it clear that ultimately it's just a movie. Especially Andy. He's just a riot. He could be a stand-up comedian."

> Who has influenced them?
Stanley Kubrick, Herman Hesse, Homer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, John Huston, John Woo, Billy Wilder, Ridley Scott, George Lucas, Fritz Lang, and Cornel West.

> Cornel West?
Yes, Princeton University professor Cornel West, the author and philosopher. Larry called up West one day to tell him that his wide-ranging explorations of race, religion, and identity politics had significant influence on their scripts. "That blew my mind," West says. "Then Larry said, 'We've written a part for you in Matrix 2.' I said, 'You've got to be kidding, man!'" On set to film his small role as a counselor of Zion, West fell into a lengthy philosophical discussion with the brothers. "Incredible," he says of their talk about reality versus perception, truth versus untruth. "They have a kind of insatiable perplexity, deeper than insatiable curiosity, that makes them profoundly Socratic. It's not just bookish. These folks are in love with the life of the mind."

> OK. But what about the dominatrix?
We're back to those sleazy tabloid stories. Ilsa Strix, whose real name is Karin Winslow, is well-known in the West Coast sadomasochism scene. In 1996, she told Sexuality.org that her German mother was a "Nazi love child, a product of World War II." Winslow's résumé notes that she teaches, acts, and directs. Her classes include everything from "piercing and sterile technique" to "the fundamentals of flogging." In 2000, she both starred in and directed Trans Sex Slave, a video "with four transsexual beauties," and her video Fetish FAQ 1 was nominated for an adult Oscar in the Best Bondage category. It was Winslow who accompanied Larry to the premiere of The Matrix Reloaded last May.

> Is Larry really planning to undergo a sex change operation?
Probably not, although that doesn't make the reality any less strange. At the Reloaded premiere, Larry, who once favored jeans, flannel shirts, and Chicago Bulls caps, sported a floppy knit beret, delicate earrings, plucked eyebrows, and what appeared to be full makeup. Afterward, Jake Miller, Winslow's estranged husband and himself a female-to-male transsexual (try to keep up now), popped up in the London tabloids to explain that Larry had stolen his wife after the two met in Winslow's dungeon. Furthermore, Miller claimed, Larry was taking female hormones in preparation for a sex change operation. Now living in New Orleans, Miller admits he has no firsthand knowledge that Larry is planning to go through with the surgery and concedes he was paid for his story. "I lost everything," he says of his breakup with Winslow.

One source who knows the couple and the scene dismisses the sex change rumor, explaining that Larry is merely a cross-dresser, not a transsexual. "But what people don't get," he says, "is that Larry and Karin are genuinely in love - they're the perfect match."

> How did Larry's wife react to all this?
Thea Bloom is suing for divorce. A statement she filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court the day before the Reloaded opening reveals that the pair decided to split for reasons "based on very intimate circumstances, concerning which I do not elaborate at this time for reasons of his personal privacy." In the filing, Bloom alleges that her estranged husband is "hiding information from me regarding our financial affairs" and asks the court to block her husband from buying a $2.7 million house in San Francisco for himself and Winslow. In response, the judge issued a freeze order on the assets of "Laurence Wachowski, aka Laurenca Wachowski."

> What's next?
Like everything else about the brothers, their future is shrouded in mystery. Two Wachowski scripts are floating around Hollywood. One, a fanciful retelling of the Guy Fawkes story set in a postapocalyptic Britain, is an adaptation of V for Vendetta, the graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The other, Plastic Man, is based on the old DC Comics character. Plastic Man has long been rumored to be the Wachowskis' next film, but, of course, there's no official word.