Just came from the Paris Theatre screening of Raiders (I was seven years old again for two hours, I'd have watched twice if they'd shown it twice). Karen Allen's Q&A was great and thought you might want a quickie report on some highlights.

1. Karen has not been contacted or approached on Indy 4 yet, but would be delighted to reprise her role in the film.

2. She's heard rumors that Natalie Portman might play Indy's daughter in part 4. She didn't reveal where she heard this, but noted that when Indy and Marion wake up on Katanga's ship before it's seized by the Nazi sub, Marion grabs her nightgown off the bedpost, indicating that Indy and Marion might have in fact had a hot time together that night on the ship and conceived, perhaps... a daughter (on a personal note, after the Star Wars prequels, the thought of Natalie Portman showing up in Indy 4 made me break into a cold, nervous sweat).

3. Karen's version of the Cairo swordsman story: Everyone on the production was getting sick from the food because it was constantly infested with flies; so everyone's patience was short. The actor playing the Cairo swordsman showed up at the set and was not adept at using the sword (she said he was quite bad at it). After numerous attempts to get him looking good with the sword, Ford (who was sick like everyone else) suggested the "why don't I just shoot him" version of the scene. Steven laughed and agreed and that's how it was shot.

4. Karen auditioned with several different Indy's including Tom Selleck, Jeff Bridges, Tim Matheson and others. She beat out several actresses for the part of Marion, including Debra Winger, and she said George Lucas was instrumental in casting her.

5. Karen said that the on the set, Spielberg was always trying to make Marion more of a damsel in distress and she had to fight to keep the character strong.

6. She says that she was furious about the scripted version of the scene where Marion puts on the white dress for Belloq because she felt Marion was truly in love with Indy and the scene as scripted had her making the change of clothes in an attempt to seduce Belloq. She thought this was a betrayal of Indy and Spielberg told her if she could come up with something better she'd use it. She and Paul Freeman spent hours reworking the scene and decided that Marion changes dresses so that she can use the other dress to cover the knife (thus changing her motivation from a seduction to an escape plan). Spielberg liked it and went with the change.

7. She said that Spielberg had no idea what would be coming out of the Ark when they shot the scene of Indy and Marion tied to the pole with their eyes closed. She and Harrison kept asking what it was they were supposed to be reacting to and Spielberg just said they hadn't figured it out yet and told them just to look frightened.

Those were the most interesting points I can remember. It was a lot of fun and the audience loved her and the film.