For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith

Laura Innes Says Character's Limp Remains a Mystery on "ER"
Hollywood -- Jan. 8, 1996 -- "ER" actress Laura Innes says don't expect to find out anytime soon why her Dr. Weaver character walks with a limp and a crutch. "We still haven't figured that out," says Innes, who's become a standout of the Emmy-winning hit drama as the cranky, obnoxious chief resident. "But the writers are so smart I trust they'll do it in an interesting way." Her character has become a little more likable in recent weeks, however. Innes tips that as time goes on there's "going to be a little bit more of the peeling away of the layers of Dr. Weaver's bureaucratic outside. And she slowly gets a little closer to Dr. Susan Lewis [Sherry Stringfield's character, with whom she initially bumped heads] and their relationship gets a little more complicated." The actress says her family couldn't be more thrilled that she's become part of the popular medical drama. "My mom was pretty surprised at how intense the character was at first, but she loved it. She's more worried that they're going to soften her up too much. She likes that Dr. Weaver's kind of a tough cookie." She adds that her brother has become a celebrity at his office because of her. "He's a librarian and everytime he goes to work there's something new pinned up on the bulletin board about 'ER' or 'Laura Innes.' He told me, 'You've really rocked my world,'" says Innes with a laugh. "It's been really fun for them."

Rocker Stephen Stills Now Writing Music for TV
Hollywood -- Jan. 9, 1996 -- We may be in for a whole new wave in TV theme songs. Till recently, chart-topping hits have only sporadically been made out of title tunes for our favorite shows (the old "Mission: Impossible" and "Hawaii 5-0," for example). But recently, the pace has been picking up, in case you haven't noticed. Stephen Stills HAS noticed. The legendary rocker of Crosby, Stills & Nash and solo fame points out that today's TV hits aren't necessarily instrumental, "or campy, like the theme song from 'The Jetsons.'" Instead, we have The Rembrandts scoring a pop hit with "I'll Be There for You," the theme from "Friends," pointing toward a new direction. Stills, who makes his entry into the TV tunesmithing trade with the theme song for ABC's upcoming series "Second Noah," reports the TV theme market is "in a state of flux...I have a feeling that the kind of sensibilities I write with can take hold now. They're turning away from the kind of music-jingle companies that churn stuff out. There's a new generation producing in television now; they're looking for more." Stills, of course, has a real advantage in the fact that he often tries to sell his talents to baby boomer execs who'll begin meetings "by saying things like, 'Hey, man! I was in the front row at the Hollywood Bowl when you were playing there in 70' -- or whatever." Stills certainly imparted deep emotion in his "Second Noah" theme. He says he came up with the key lyric while driving home from his first meeting with exec producer Pam Long. "She had done this wonderful show" -- about a family that includes eight adopted children and a mother who's the chief veterinarian at a wildlife preserve. "Some of the things she said clicked, and I started thinking of these words -- 'Everybody needs somewhere to go, and room to grow...' I did a little demo as soon as I got home. It was pretty sloppy, but it was enough, I guess, for them to know it was what they wanted." Besides his TV endeavors, Stills continues writing for his own future album, as well as doing ongoing work with CS&N. The speed of penning the "Second Noah" tune was unusual for Stills today. "It takes longer to write songs than it used to," he says. "We're older. We're not so sure anymore."

Glover and Pesci Reunited in "Gone Fishin'"
Hollywood -- Jan. 10, 1996 -- Danny Glover is reunited with his "Lethal Weapon II" and "III" co-star Joe Pesci in the upcoming "Gone Fishin'." But Pesci won't be a pain in his side in the flick about a fishing trip gone awry. "We're two entirely different characters," says Glover. "We're two working-class guys who've been buddies since we were nine years old and we live next door to each other. It's a ritual for us to go fishing every year and we go down to the Florida Everglades for what we think is going to be the fishing experience of our life." Unfortunately, when they get there, the two buddies end up getting involved with a "very slick, very shrewd thief." Glover says he and Pesci shot the first part of the film in the actual Florida Everglades. And he says they were not wading into the water. "Oh no, you don't do that. You see a lot of gators there, seriously....That's no joke. They're not on the television screen. They're right there." Glover's been juggling his acting duties with his exec production chores on HBO's "Deadly Voyage" with Omar Epps and Joss Ackland. Glover says HBO came to him with the offer to exec produce the telepic based on the true story of the life-and-death struggle of eight African stowaways. "They came to me after reading the story. They had a script they'd begun to develop and asked me if I was interested. It's all about lending your name to a project to give it some credibility." He's also exec producing HBO's Feb. 17 "America's Dream" trilogy based on three short stories by prominent black writers, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, and John Henrik Clarke. Glover co-stars in "Long Black Song," the 30-minute vignette that's based on Wright's tale of longing, desire, and repression in the South circa the late 30s.

Hagar Jams for Hard Rock Cafe Benefit Opening
Hollywood -- Jan. 11, 1996 -- "Obviously, Van Halen would have been too expensive and it would have caused a little too much hoopla." So says Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar, referring to his participation tomorrow, Jan. 12, in the benefit opening of the Universal City Walk's Hard Rock Cafe. Performing at the event will be Sammy plus bassist David Lauser, plus a drummer, who call themselves Los Tres Gusanos, "the three worms, as in tequila," Sam explains. Hagar's appearance -- and "guitar lesson" for 1,000 students -- brings in an extra $175,000 to the $350,000 already pledged by Hard Rock founder Peter Morton for the "Grammy in the Schools" program being put on by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to help student musicians. Hagar notes that Los Tres Gusanos "is really just for fun. We usually only play in my club, Cabo Wabo, in Cabo San Lucas, on my birthday and on New Year's. We do two shows a year, as opposed to Van Halen, which did 140 shows last year." Hagar's Baja, Mexico, nitery frequently features unusual musical conglomerations. For instance, this past New Year's Eve, they had the Neurotic Boy Outsiders -- which Hagar describes as a "really good punk band...a cool little side band" -- made up of members of Guns N' Roses, The Sex Pistols, and Duran Duran! Another time, Hagar joined in performance with the drummer from Metallica, the bass player and guitar player from Alice in Chains, and "Stephen Stills, if you can imagine that weird grouping!" He adds, "I'll get a call and find out somebody's goin' down, and I'll say, 'I'll meet you there.' It's the kind of place where you feel like you can do anything you want. The most we ever charge to get in is $10 at the door, but usually there's no door fee." We asked Hagar, by the way, whether he thought his old hit, "I Can't Drive 55," had anything to do with the recent lifting of the speed limit. "Absolutely," he said. "I will take full responsibility for all the positve side of it, but of course, if anything negative comes of it, I don't want anything to do with it." Naturally. Indeed, adds Hagar, one of the strongest proponents of lifting the speed limit was Orange County, CA, congressman Dana Roherbach -- who is a big Van Halen fan, and who invited Hagar into the White House in 1984 (when he was a Reagan speechwriter). "He was a big fan of my 'VOA' album" -- on which, of course, the "I Can't Drive 55" song appeared. "He's a surfer, which you don't see much of in congressmen. He gets down to Baja, too...has that Baja sensibility."

Montel Williams on Tough Schedule with "Matt Waters"
Hollywood -- Jan 12, 1996 -- And you think you have a tough schedule! Montel Williams stretched his time-juggling ability to the max shooting the first seven episodes of his new CBS "Matt Waters" series about a Navy Seal turned high school teacher. "I taped my talk show on Thursdays and Fridays; I had to get through three shows in a day," he says. "And I worked on the series Saturday through Wednesday." Add to that his daily workout that starts at 4:30 a.m., and Williams could count on getting "maybe 3 and a half to 4 hours of sleep a night." All of which would seem to make Williams' family time practically nonexistent, right? Nope. "My wife Grace does my makeup for both shows, so she's with me all the time. And she brings our babies to the set," says Montel, who has a year-old daughter and two-year-old son by his current marriage (in addition to two daughters via a former marriage). Now back to just one job -- his talk show -- while waiting to see whether the network will order more "Waters" episodes, Williams says he won't go back to such double-duty if the series continues. "Hopefully, I'll be able to shoot most of the series during my regular hiatus from the talk show."

Copyright (c)1996 Beck/Smith Ent.


[Home] [Back]