For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith

Why Ricki Likes Shirley
Hollywood -- April 15, 1996 -- Ricki Lake, who co-stars with Shirley MacLaine in TriStar's "Mrs. Winterbourne," says that among the things she admires about the older actress is the fact that "she really takes charge. She is the consummate professional, who can be tough -- I admire that. We women have to be tough these days." Lake has had to be tough to overcome some of her hardships of the past. "Being 260 pounds, being involved in an abusive relationship..." She says she still can't believe she's become such a success. Ricki claims that "The Ricki Lake Show" was "the first TV talk show that geared itself toward the younger, hipper audience. A lot of imitations came along, but they're all gone now. Me, I'm in it for the long haul." The 27-year-old Lake notes that when she got her original break in John Waters' "Hairspray," she didn't worry about her private life. "But as I've become more famous, I've become more of a hermit," she says. What don't her fans know? "What I'm really like," she says. "I'm actually very private -- and boring."

Duchovny Preps for Pics
Hollywood -- April 16, 1996 -- Looks like "X Files" hero David Duchovny will be closely watched by the FBI during his series hiatus -- in a manner of speaking. Duchovny is getting ready to start lensing of the big-screen "Playing God," with Andy Wilson directing, for Beacon Communications -- for which he's reportedly getting a star-sized salary of $2 million. He'll play a drug-addicted former doctor whose license has been revoked, who goes to work for a bizarre underworld figure. His job: secretly patching up mobsters wounded in the line of dirty doings. The underworld boss, whose name is Raymond Blossom, has a girlfriend and aye, there's the rub. She and Duchovny fall for each other, and making things even more complicated is the fact that she's secretly an FBI informant. She is being cast now, and you'd better believe this showcase part opposite the ultra-hot Duchovny is being vied for vehemenently. Duchovny is also committed to doing the screen adaptation of drug-addled TV writer Jerry Stahl's "Permanent Midnight" autobiographical book. What does that mean to the much-talked-about "X Files" feature? Obviously, it's not going to be shot this summer as was once talked about. Fox insiders note that a more key player even than Duchovny won't be available until after the series breathes its last, in all probability. That player: series creator Chris Carter, who's just too immersed in getting the series out to worry about writing a feature. Carter signed a three-year deal with Fox in 1992, and reupped with the studio for a five-year overall deal last November. Part of the latter contract included a series commitment to develop another sci-fi drama ("Millennium") -- plus developing "X Files," the movie.

HBO's "Soul of the Game" Telepic a Lesson for Blair Underwood
Hollywood -- April 17, 1996 -- Blair Underwood plans to attend a premiere screening of HBO's "Soul of the Game" tonight. Later this week, he'll take a tape of the drama, in which he plays the legendary Jackie Robinson, out to the desert retirement home in which his great-uncle Eli resides. Great-Uncle Eli played baseball for the old Negro League. Indeed, he played alongside the great Satchel Paige when Paige was a rookie. So, as you can imagine, Blair got a lot of input from his great-uncle for "Soul of the Game," which tells the story of the League via the personal sagas of Robinson, Paige (played by Delroy Lindo) and Josh Gibson (Mykelti Williamson). "It was truly a labor of love, and a lot of hard work went into it," says Underwood of the drama that debuts Saturday. "Hopefully, with a piece like this, it can also educate." What did Blair learn? "I didn't realize Robinson and Paige played on the same team until I did this movie....I didn't know Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson owned the New York Black Yankees, and that he would come out on the field and dance sometimes between innings....There was a lot I didn't know about Jackie Robinson. Sure, I knew he broke the color barrier in major league baseball. I knew he was court-martialed. But I didn't realize he had a history in the Negro League as well." Underwood says that when he learned about the project, he turned to his "Just Cause" co-star (she played his grandmother in the Sean Connery picture), Ruby Dee. "Jackie Robinson told the story of Jackie Robinson himself, in a film in which he played himself. And Ruby Dee was in that film. I asked her how he carried himself when he was off the field. She said, 'He was honest, sincere, and direct. Not a man of games. What you saw is what you got.' She also said, 'He had an underlying fire in him.' That's what I found the most intriguing. I had had the notion that he was a passive individual, because he'd had to put up with so much. But she said no, he had quite a temper at one time, and he had to master controlling it. The fact that he did so, and that he carried himself with such dignity, is part of what makes him such a great American hero." We couldn't help wondering whether Blair had kept up with the tough exercise regime he undertook in order to get into shape to play Robinson. He laughed and said, "I'm trying to stay in shape, no question about it. Doing this movie was a real opportunity -- and an excuse -- to get into top form. If you're playing a major-league baseball star, you've got to at least look the part."

'GMA' Host Charles Gibson on Disney Takeover of ABC
Hollywood -- April 18, 1996 -- ABC "Good Morning, America" host Charles Gibson is unimpressed with CBS' newly-announced plans to convert "CBS This Morning" into a sort of mix n' match program into which local affiliates can plug in as much of their own material they want to. "I don't know how you program a show for just a few stations...I don't know how you structure that," says Gibson, who, with Joan Lunden, will be broadcasting special shows from Canada the week of May 13-17. "I don't think it's the answer to these successful local shows that have been eating into the margins of the national shows." According to Gibson, ABC already had -- and passed on -- its own expanded local format idea for "GMA" a few years ago. "There was some discussion at one point of our doing a cooperative program, with local stations weaving in and out of 'Good Morning America' from 6 a.m. to 9. It turned out they weren't interested. They wanted to keep 6 to 7 and let us do 7 to 9." On another front, last August, when Disney took over ABC, Michael Eisner and Tom Murphy (Chairman of the Board and CEO of Cap Cities/ABC) appeared on "Good Morning America" to talk about the news. A memorable TV moment ensued, when Murphy asked Gibson whether he was happy to now be a part of the Disney family, and Charlie answered with a resounding silence. He now says neither Eisner nor Murphy were miffed about it, understanding he was caught short in the heat of an interview. So, now that nine months have passed and he's had a chance to think it over, what does Gibson say? "You know, my first thought on hearing the news was, 'This is a BIG story!' Then later, I thought, 'Gee, those of us who have ABC stock are going to make some money out of this.' Then a few more days went by, and I wondered what it would mean to the health plan, and what it would mean to the guys with desks near mine...[Charlie just started a new three-year contract in September.] Then, more time passed, and, as anyone would expect, we started to see that many of the new shows proposed for ABC were coming from Disney....Personally, once we had the assurance that there would be no interference in the news department, it was fine with me."

"NYPD Blue's" Sharon Lawrence to Be on Both NBC and ABC
Hollywood -- April 19, 1996 -- "NYPD Blue's" Sharon Lawrence, who signed a deal with NBC that calls for her own series plus two TV movies a year for five years, says that just a few years ago she would have never dreamed she would ever hit it so big. "Ten years ago I was in the chorus of the first national tour of 'Zorba' with Anthony Quinn. Even five years ago I hadn't moved to Los Angeles. Even a year ago I never would have imagined all this would have happened." She credits her background in musical theater for the fact she's going to star in a sitcom now. "As a singer/dancer in New York I developed a physicality that works well in comedy. When I did my guesting this season on 'Caroline in the City' I realized how much from the past I could apply to those cameras." It was that guesting -- as the neurotic, abrasive owner of an employment agency -- that motivated NBC to invite her to join that network with her own show. "I did the guesting in January, it aired in February, and things have been amazing ever since." Sharon, who plays D.A. Sylvia Costas (who married Dennis Franz's Detective Sipowicz) on ABC's "NYPD Blue," does not plan to leave the ABC series. She says, "I'll do the first 13 segments in the fall -- my series won't be on until midseason -- and then I'll guest-star on the hour show during the rest of the 96-97 season and during the 97-98 season. I'll be working for two networks." In addition to all that work, her NBC deal calls for her to do two TV movies a year for five years. She expects to have time for everything, she says, because "after all, a sitcom isn't that much work." The sitcom, she says, will have her spinning off the character she played on "Caroline in the City" -- "A brash and irreverent urban woman, who's quick- witted and sarcastic."

Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.


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