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- SHOW BUSINESS, Page 81BEST OF 1991
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- 1. BEST DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY NOT NAMED KENNEDY
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- The Jacksons, who proved you can never be too rich, too
- thin, too bleached, too naked, too . . . too Jackson to keep the
- gossips mum. Just sign a multimedia deal that could bring you
- a billion (Michael) or a record contract worth $32 million
- (Janet). Or pose nude in Playboy (La Toya). Or chastise your bro
- as "reconstructed, been abducted" in a rap song (Jermaine to
- Michael). Or put crotch shots and a car trashing in your music
- video (Michael). The worst of it is that on the side, a couple
- of them (Michael, Janet) make good music.
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- 2. BEST OPENING LINE BY A COMEDIAN AFTER CHARGES OF
- MASTURBATING IN A PORN-MOVIE THEATER MADE HIM THE TARGET OF SIX
- WEEKS' WORTH OF SMIRKS
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- Pee-wee Herman's as he resurfaced at the televised MTV
- Music Video Awards show for the first time since his arrest:
- "Heard any good jokes lately?" Fans suggested that next time he
- stay home and amuse himself with some of Clarence Thomas' video
- favorites.
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- 3. BEST REASON FOR A BROADWAY MUSICAL TO POSTPONE ITS
- OPENING INDEFINITELY
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- The saga of Nick & Nora, which played full-price previews
- for a near record nine weeks while its creators struggled to
- fix the show, derived from The Thin Man. Then, just a week
- after it opened to scorched-earth reviews, it was Asta la vista,
- Nick & Nora.
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- 4. BEST TUMMIES
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- Demi Moore's and Delta Burke's. The Vanity Fair cover
- portrait of Moore, nude and spectacularly pregnant, provided her
- husband Bruce Willis (Hudson Hawk) with his only hit production
- of 1991. Burke, whose extra poundage sparked disputes backstage
- on Designing Women, was finally fired from the sitcom. Such is
- the weigh of all flesh.
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- 5. BEST A LA CARTE ITEM ON THE DINNER MENU
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- Cabaret theater, at which audience members get to eat,
- join a conga line or be a murder suspect. Two Manhattan
- standouts: Pageant, which would be a delicious parody of beauty
- contests even if you didn't get to vote for the winner, and Song
- of Singapore, which would be a sparkling evocation of '40s music
- and fun even if you didn't get to dance the night away.
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- 6. BEST REASON TO GO BOWLING
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- TV's ubiquitous sex talk. If it's not born-again
- transsexuals with psoriasis on Oprah and Phil or the latest
- investigative expose of swimsuits on A Current Affair, it's the
- R-rated dishing and dissing on Studs, the syndicated hit that
- is to the old Dating Game what Sodom was to Sparta. Call them
- all dirtysomething.
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- 7. BEST UNSCHEDULED SOLILOQUY BY AN ACTOR
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- Nicol Williamson's in I Hate Hamlet, after the notoriously
- erratic performer smote co-star Evan Handler with the flat of
- his sword during a dueling scene, and Handler -- believing the
- blow was deliberate -- walked off and quit the show. "Well,"
- said Williamson to the stunned audience, "should I sing?"
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- 8. BEST NEW FACE
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- Katie Couric's. At first a Today show fill-in for wicked
- stepsister Deborah Norville, Couric stayed on to shine -- the
- understudy turned star -- and brought her perky common sense to
- the job of grilling politicians, tasting new recipes and coping
- with Bryant Gumbel.
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- 9. BEST ARGUMENT THAT GOD IS FED UP WITH HOLLYWOOD
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- The plight of hitmaking movie studios. Carolco, producer
- of 1991's top-grossing Terminator 2, neared its own Armageddon
- and had to cut projects, budgets and staff. Orion Pictures,
- which released the mega smashes Dances with Wolves and The
- Silence of the Lambs, is in bankruptcy court.
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- 10. BEST SLOW BURN
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- David Letterman's, on learning he would not replace Johnny
- Carson when the Tonight show king retires this May after 30
- seasons. The job went to map-of-Italy-jawed Jay Leno, the
- permanent guest host of Tonight since 1987. The press had
- Letterman threatening to bolt to ABC, but the only removal
- constant viewers noted was that of his show's most popular
- segment, the 10 Best lists.
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