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For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith
Molly Ivins Will Surely Spice Up "60 Minutes"
Hollywood --Feb. 26, 1996 -- Political writer/humorist Molly Ivins, who's
joining the "60 Minutes" team for on-air debates with social critics
Stanley Crouch and P. J. O'Rourke, says she's caused more than a
little trouble in her life. There was the time, for instance, when
she was writing for the now-deceased Dallas Times Herald, that she
wrote of one politician, "If his I.Q. sinks any lower we'll have to
water him twice a day." The politicos' aides phoned the paper
screaming for a retraction. Instead, it inspired the Herald to
start a billboard campaign with the message, "Molly Ivins can't say
that...can she?" Then there was the period when the Texan was
writing for the New York Times and, as she puts it, "really upset
editor Abe Rosenthal. I was stationed out west, serving as the
Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief, and covered a chicken-killing festival
in this little town in New Mexico. Everybody came to town with the
chickens they'd raised and spent all day killing, plucking, and
dressing them while they drank beer and listened to country music. I
wrote that it was a gang pluck. It didn't get in the paper but
Rosenthal was enraged at the mere idea I would think of such a
thing." Sounds like she's going to spice up things on "60 Minutes."
"Dragonheart" Still in Post-Production
Hollywood -- Feb. 27,1996 -- Director Rob Cohen reports his "Dragonheart"
epic, which started production in 1994, is still not complete.
"It contains so many special effects that I've been working all
this time -- even while I was making 'Daylight' in Rome -- on its
editing via satellite. Now, after so many months of work, I'm
taking a two-week vacation with my family. We've rented a house on
an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida -- and we had to rent a
second house for the editing equipment they're shipping there for
me to use." "Dragonheart" boasts a cast including Dennis Quaid,
Pete Postlethwaite, David Thewlis, Julie Christie -- and Sean
Connery as the voice of the dragon being created by George Lucas'
Industrial Light and Magic wizards. Cohen reports that the project
is close enough to completion that he has been able to show it to
Universal studio execs, "who promptly gave it the best date they had
-- May 31." One of the dates that kicks off the summer cinema
season.
Pauley Foresees "Dateline NBC" Surge
Hollywood -- Feb. 28,1996 -- Jane Pauley, whose "Dateline NBC" news
magazine show goes four nights a week starting March 17, reports
things have gotten a lot bigger and more bustling behind the scenes.
"I keep seeing people in the halls I don't know; we've expanded our
staff by 20, give or take a few." Pauley says "Dateline" came to "a
defining point in the last year or so. It became obvious that the
growth of news magazine shows had maxed out -- and that there was
going to be a little contraction." In other words, lotsa news
magazine shows started getting the axe. On the other hand, she says
NBC chief and news chief Bob Wright and Andy Lack "took a big risk
and decided that the situation gave us an unique advantage. Our
show was growing, and they believed it could continue to grow." So
they threw resources into "Dateline" and made it a frontrunner.
Enough of a frontrunner to pose any serious threat to Sunday night
competition "60 Minutes"? Pauley only expects the show anchored by
herself and Stone Phillips to do better than other NBC products of
the past. She also expects the new Sunday "Dateline" to exceed the
numbers of her own defunct Sunday night show of a couple years back,
"Real Life with Jane Pauley." As she sees it, "Real Life" suffered
due to its later timeslot. "I think there's a psychological breakpoint
in the weekend ending. At 7 o'clock, viewers are still with
you. At 8 o'clock, the weekend is over. People are getting their
children off to bed and organizing themselves for their work week."
"ER's" Noah Wyle on Stage with "Chicago Hope's" Peter Berg
Hollywood -- Feb. 29, 1996 -- "ER" star Noah Wyle begins a six-week
run of the play "The 24th Day" today with Peter Berg -- the hunk from
that other medical drama, "Chicago Hope." Wyle insists it was not stunt
casting. "I know it seems that way, but I've known Peter for a
really long time. We played brothers in a film called 'Crooked
Hearts' five years ago." The play, playing at the Coronet Theater
in Hollywood, is about two men who are forced to come to terms with
their moral responsibility involving a brief encounter from years
earlier. Wyle says that when he read the script, "I thought Pete
was perfect for the other part, and I asked him to do it....
It just sort of came together." Wyle was ripe to do a play. It had
been three years since he'd been on stage. "I just felt like it was
time to wear a different hat for a little while. There's something
about the intensive rehearsal process of a play that you don't find
in television. You work at a much quicker pace in TV and hope you're
not superficially getting to the core of whatever scene you're doing.
Rehearsing a play, you're really getting into the guts and grist of
the character you're playing and what the scenes are about." Wyle
says he "needed to work with someone who would have the same schedule
I was on, so we could work out some semblance of a rehearsal
schedule. It all came together beautifully with Peter." Wyle admits
he's a little anxious about getting back on stage, but "I think it's
a normal kind of nervous," he says, "...it's humility."
Rosie Rips Stern in Aspen
Hollywood -- March 1, 1996 -- It was all light quips and laughs at
yesterday's press conference for HBO's 2nd Annual U.S. Comedy Arts
Festival in Aspen -- that is, until Rosie O'Donnell decided to show
just how disgusted she was with Howard Stern as director Ivan Reitman
discussed plans to do Stern's upcoming "Private Parts" movie.
Actually, Stern had many detractors on the dais that included Steve
Martin, Bill Maher, Dennis Miller, John Landis, and former National
Lampoon owner Matty Simmons. When Reitman first said he was a big
fan of Stern's, Simmons moved his chair about a foot away. "Look,
he's moving away from me," quipped Reitman, who was in Aspen for
an "Animal House" reunion with Simmons and Landis. Reitman tried
to defend Stern as one of the most consistently funny people around
and Dennis Miller broke in with, "Wait till he shithammers you, Ivan!"
At which point, Rosie let loose..."Wait till he says he wants to ----
your daughter up the ass! Then he's going to be really funny....Wait
till he talks to a rape victim and makes fun of how she was raped -- like
he did to Fran Drescher...that's really funny! He's a man of quality
and integrity and you're proud to be in business with him. On that note,
I will never be in an Ivan Reitman film." Dennis Miller tried to relieve
the palpable tension by quipping, "All families have their squabbles..."
and Bill Maher piped in with, "We will now sing 'Kumbaya' and join hands,
turn to the person next to you and blow them!"...For Steve Martin,
who was being honored with an AFI Retrospective of his work, the
festival marked a return to his old stomping grounds. "I used to live
here," reported Martin. "I went looking for the places I used to stay.
Two of the homes are gone... but it brought back a lot of memories --
mainly having to do with sex and amyl nitrate." When asked if he'd
looked up any old friends, he said sarcastically, "No, I refuse to
see them...I'm too big now! Though I did want to look up an old
girlfriend who said, 'You're never going to go anywhere. Why
should I continue to see you?'"...Another funny moment came
when a reporter asked the panel if their perception of what's
funny has changed as they've gotten older. Dennis Miller piped
up, "Prostate jokes are no longer funny," to the agreement of
the rest of the men on the dais. But Rosie O'Donnell said, "I
still like them!"
Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.
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