For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith

Cosby Afraid of Getting Serious?
Hollywood -- Feb. 5, 1996 -- In 1994, the great veteran playwright Budd Schulberg created a TV project for Bill Cosby -- and now wants to ask the star what happened to it. The vehicle would have featured Cosby playing a man who finds success and puts something back into the community -- and was based on Schulberg's own experiences. After L.A.'s Watts riots of the 60s, Schulberg started the Watts Workshop for writers and other creative talents. Later, with four Watts writers he brought to New York, he founded Harlem's Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center. Now, speaking of the story he wrote for Cosby, Schulberg said, "I really did a good job and I'm still quite bullish about it. I want to ask Bill why he didn't take it forward. It might be that he's feeling safer with a sitcom -- which he's now starting. That's where he had his successes. The other, 'Write On,' would have been quite a stretch for him."

Disabled "Louie" Actress Lauds Christopher Reeve
Hollywood -- Feb. 6, 1996 -- Nancy Becker Kennedy hopes her role as the wisecracking secretary on Louie Anderson's CBS "Louie" sitcom helps viewers get over misconceptions and discomfort involving people who are disabled. The disability rights activist/comic, who has been a quadriplegic (paralyzed from the neck down with only partial use of her arms) since breaking her neck in a diving accident 24 years ago, knows from experience that "when you live around people with disabilities over a period of time, the chairs disappear." She notes, "With Christopher Reeve's injury, he's really going to have a lot to do with raising America's consciousness. Now we all know somebody who's disabled -- he's like our beautiful older brother. And man, what a beauty. I saw him being interviewed by Barbara Walters, and he has the consciousness it took me 20 years to achieve. He'll be an incredible activist," she says glowingly of Reeve, who indeed is already lobbying hard on disability issues. Adds Kennedy, "Sometimes I think the higher power recruits people who are good and strong and smart enough to make changes that need to be made." Kennedy has written two musicals that were mounted at L.A.'s prestigious Mark Taper Forum. One of them, "Tell Them That We're Mermaids," went on to be produced for TV by Norman Lear, and garner accolades and an Emmy nomination. Although many critics have been negative on "The Louie Show," some have singled out Kennedy as a bright spot. One trade reviewer wrote that Kennedy would be big "if the show were going anywhere."

Dana Carvey Hypes His New ABC Sketch Show
Hollywood -- Feb. 7, 1996 -- Dana Carvey, whose ABC comedy series debuts March 12, says he's particularly grateful that the show has been given the time slot following the powerful "Home Improvement" because "I know all the sketch shows have bombed. We can use the help." As it is, Carvey considers himself "the luckiest guy in the world. I remember when I was a bus boy in San Francisco in 1975, smoking pot -- I don't advocate the use of drugs, but I grew up in the 'Just say yes' generation - - and wondering what I was going to do with my life. Now I've got a great career. " He gags, "All I ask is don't hate me, don't be mad at me. I know it's a hard, weird road we're trying to travel with the show, and I know some would like to see us fail, but I think we have a shot." He wants us to know his famed Church Lady character will be back -- and that he'll be featuring surprise celebrity guests on "The Dana Carvey Show."

Paul Sorvino High on Shakespeare Redux
Hollywood -- Feb. 8, 1996 -- "The mood on the set is extremely high; I think everyone knows we're onto something special here." That's Paul Sorvino, reporting on the Mexico City production of "Verona Beach" -- which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes as Romeo and Juliet, transplanted to contemporary Miami. They're using the Shakespeare play word for word, but the setting creates its own very different texture. Sorvino, for instance, is directing Capulet with an Hispanic accent, which automatically "turns him into a Cuban or Latin American." Sorvino is thrilled with the movie's stars: "Claire Danes is so gifted, and so young -- only 16 years old, which is what Juliet should be. I haven't worked with Leonardo, but I've watched his performance on tape, and he's an appealing and magical presence. We have a lot of excellent actors...John Leguizamo, Vondie Curtis-Hall [of "Chicago Hope"] -- he's quite good. I think we're making one heck of a film here." Sorvino's last go-round with the Bard was a Central Park production of "King Lear." He says he loves doing Shakespeare: "It feels natural to me." Sorvino's most recent feature -- Oliver Stone's "Nixon" -- won him kudos for his portrayal of Henry Kissinger, but he says he's not thinking about an Oscar nomination. First, "I don't think like that." And second, "It would be an outside chance. I don't think my role was big enough."

Susan Saint James' Life Good Sans Acting
Hollywood -- Feb. 9, 1996 -- Susan Saint James is out of retirement -- very temporarily -- to tape a guest appearance on "The Drew Carey Show" slated to air Feb. 27. Susan's older brother is the father of "Drew Carey" co-star Christa Miller. "My niece really made it on her own," Susan notes proudly. "I never made so much as a phone call for her. She did do a little bit on 'Kate and Allie' years ago, but even then, she read to get it." This weekend, Christa and Susan fly to join Susan's husband, NBC exec Dick Ebersol, at the NBA All-Star game. They'll return to L.A. with her and Dick's children, ages five, nine, and 13, along to watch Mom in action at Tuesday's (2/13) taping. "My youngest has never seen me on TV -- except in a couple of 'Sesame Street' reruns," says the former "McMillan & Wife" and "Name of the Game" star. It's been six years since Susan left the showbiz scene to devote all of her time to her home life in Connecticut. (Her eldest daughter, Sunshine, graduated from Princeton two years ago, and elder son Harmony is now in college.) She says she can't see resuming her acting career until her youngest son is grown, "which means I'd be back about in time to do a remake of On Golden Pond' in the Katharine Hepburn role." Saint James, who's been in L.A. this week for "Drew Carey Show" rehearsals, notes, "Some of my best friends in the world are the guys in the Doobie Brothers." That band that had its heyday more than 20 years ago was, she says, "playing the House of Blues the other night in L.A. and I wanted to see them. Then they said they went on at 10:30, and I said, 'I'm going out at 10:30 at NIGHT? I'll be exhausted.' I had to crank it way up to go. Those days of going out late are WAY gone," she laughs. Saint James' last acting gig was in a local charity production of "The Miracle Worker" in Connecticut last year. She played Annie Sullivan complete with an Irish brogue. The production raised $70,000. "It reminded me why I retired; I was never home!" she says. "My husband's job takes him all over the world. If I was working too, our children would be like orphans." As it is, her kids complain about all the time she spends on various civic activities. "I sit on about 11 boards. I've been doing the International Special Olympics for years...I'm a trustee of the Mystic Marine Life Aquarium...I'm a Parks and Recreation Commissioner, which is a big deal. Some days my kids go, 'Mom, if you were still an actress, would you be home at night?' All these meetings are at night. I can't tell you how I admire the mothers who don't have the help I do and sit on these committees." Saint James is also a member of the local Garden Club. "I absolutely love my garden. I make my own maple syrup...I keep honeybees..." The desire to act "just went away, something I would never have believed if you had told me at the height of 'Kate and Allie.'"

Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.


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