Hopper of Hollywood / THU 5-22-25 / Film editor ___ Allen / 1990s Israeli president Weizman / A, to a Frankfurter / Olympic diver's pride, maybe / Aphorism about the effect of sudden wealth / National park with a working sled dog kennel / Cardio exercise program / Biblical figure seen in the sauna?

Constructor: David J. Kahn

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium 

THEME:  "It's ALL about the money!"— the letter string "ALL" is replaced in five theme answers with the currencies of [indicated] countries. Why? Because MONEY / CHANGES / EVERYTHING (i.e. currency replaces "ALL") (5A: With 11-Down and 58-Across, aphorism about the effect of sudden wealth ... or a hint to the answers to the starred clues):

Theme answers:

• STAND TRIAL (17A: *Be brave and proud [Iran]) ("stand tall," where "all" becomes "RIAL")
• ORDINARY (24A: *How some medications are taken [Jordan]) ("orally," where "all" becomes "DINAR")
• FIREBRAND (35A: *Luminous meteor [South Africa]) ("fireball," where "all" becomes "RAND")
• COLONIES (51A: *Ones on your side [Costa Rica]) ("allies," where "all" becomes "COLON")
• WON OVER (40D: *Ubiquitously [Korea]) ("all over," where "all" becomes WON)

Word of the Day: Dennis HOPPER (4D: Hopper of Hollywood) —

Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He was considered one of the key figures of New Hollywood. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.

Hopper studied acting at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and the Actors Studio in New York. He made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in two of the films that made James Dean famous, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). He then played supporting roles in films like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Hang 'Em High (1968) and True Grit (1969). Hopper made his directorial film debut with Easy Rider (1969), which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern. The film earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Debut, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He also began a prolific and acclaimed photography career in the 1960s.

He became frequently typecast as mentally disturbed outsiders and rebels in such films as Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The American Friend (1977), Apocalypse Now (1979), Rumble Fish (1983), and Blue Velvet (1986). He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Hoosiers (1986). His later film roles included True Romance (1993), Speed (1994), Waterworld (1995) and Elegy (2009). He appeared posthumously in the long-delayed The Other Side of the Wind (2018), which had previously been filmed in the early 1970s.

Other directorial credits for Hopper include The Last Movie (1971), Out of the Blue (1980), Colors (1988), and The Hot Spot (1990). He received Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nomination for his role in Paris Trout (1991). His other television roles include in the HBO film Doublecrossed (1991), 24 (2002), the NBC series E-Ring (2005–2006), and the Starz series Crash (2008–2009). (wikipedia)

• • •

Pretty straightforward, in the end, and yet still sufficiently thorny (for a Thursday) and very much enjoyable to solve. I discovered the revealer early, and all (!) at once, but what I did not discover was what the hell it was supposed to mean.

But here's the great thing about *this* theme ... Sometimes when you get a revealer early like this, the whole puzzle opens up and all the themers become transparent. I know I've shown you all various times when I've gotten the revealer early and then gone around and filled Every Single One of the theme answers in with no further help. Well ... not today. Today, despite having the revealer in hand, each one of themers remained a unique and interesting struggle. I had the key, but I had to figure out how to make the key work in each case. I had to know the currency involved, first of all (totally forgot the COLON, despite having vacationed in Costa Rica before!), and second of all, I had to work out the base phrase and then do the "all" / currency transformation (or, as happened a couple times, find the currency using the crosses I already had in place and then mentally replace it with "all" in order to get the base phrase). Getting the themer early didn't mean that the puzzle suddenly became boring. Each themer required attention. Pretty cool that both the base phrases and the grid phrases are absolutely solid, actual answers. And the grid was clean overall, with neither a ton of trivia nor a ton of crossword arcana. A good puzzle from an old pro.

The biggest struggle, as usual, came in the NW (I wonder how many paragraphs I've started with that exact sentence, or something close to it—whatever, true is true, gotta tell the truth). The x-referenced ACID / BASE should've helped me, but did the opposite, as I could think of nothing for 1A: It burns except RASH, an answer I got because unlike most solvers (I'm guessing), my first thought for 4D: Hopper of Hollywood was HEDDA. Been listening to way too many "You Must Remember This..." episodes, I guess. HEDDA Hopper was a Hollywood gossip columnist of massive influence in the mid-20th century. HEDDA wouldn't fit, but since RASH seemed possibly right, I didn't pull HEDDA, but rather assumed (because it's Thursday) that something tricky was going on ... maybe there's a blank square in her name ... for some reason. Maybe we'll add a letter or her name will be jumping something, I dunno, some weird Thursday stuff. Thankfully, I knew enough to abandon that area entirely and move on, and luckily the area I moved to had the first part of the revealer in it (see partially-filled grid, above). Once I got the theme, I made far fewer errors. EINS for EINE (20A: A, to a Frankfurter). CAWL (?) for COWL (38A: Brother hood?). EDER for EZER (64A: 1990s Israeli president Weizman). No idea who this DEDE person is (67A: Film editor ___ Allen), but I don't feel too bad about that, and luckily the crosses down there in the SE were all perfectly fair. EZER / DEDE seems like an unfortunate / tough name stack (it was tough for me), but ... crosses! They're magical! (OK, as a solver, I don't feel bad about not knowing DEDE Allen, but as a movie lover, I do now kinda feel bad—she was thrice Academy Award-nominated (for Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Reds (1981), and Wonder Boys (2000)).

Bullet points:

• 1D: Olympic diver's pride, maybe (ABS) — I don't think you get points for good abs. I mean, yes, divers tend to be cut, but if I were an Olympic diver, I'd probably take pride in my ... diving? Anyone can get "good" ABS, but Olympic diver? That seems like a distinction worthy of pride.
• 5D: Support for a tumbler (MAT) — I looked at this clue multiple times, and multiple times I saw [Sport for a tumbler]. My brain just locked into the misread and would not let go. Bah.
• 22D: Name that aptly completes the missing letters in Th_r__n (UMA) — cute, but I don't know if "aptly" really applies. It's more weird structural coincidence than "aptness." 

• 66A: Seeded #1, say (ON TOP) — I guess ... still, this seems off, though. In sports, ON TOP just doesn't mean this. You're only ON TOP when you are literally ranked #1 or you are actually winning (a game, a match, a tournament, whatever). You'd say someone was the "top" seed, but ... I know I'm being picky here, but I just don't like the fit of this specific clue for ON TOP. So many other valid, potentially colorful, and (to my ear) more in-the-language ways to go. I did, however, like that this answer inadvertently tells you where to look for the revealer (it's the only theme element that seems to be out of symmetry, but if you read it like secret directions to the revealer, then ... voila, symmetry!)
• 8D: Biblical figure seen in the sauna? (ESAU) —whoa. Cryptic clue. ESAU is literally found in the phrase "thE SAUna." Imagining solvers at home going "... I don't ... remember that? ESAU is ... hairy ... he's a twin ... sold his birthright ... but, when did he take a sauna?"

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]