For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith

Robin Williams: Cage No Drag
Hollywood -- Feb. 12, 1996 -- As a fan of the original "La Cage Aux Folles," Robin Williams says his first response to the idea of an American version of the French farce was: "Why would you want to redo it? It's wonderful as it is." What changed his mind was the script for "The Birdcage" turned in by Elaine May. "It really worked. Setting the story in South Beach [FL] worked; it works in America. And I do think it's a good time to do it again. These are strange and interesting times we're in, politically and otherwise, and Elaine's script touched a lot of it." The March-debuting MGM/UA "Birdcage" -- in which Robin stars with Nathan Lane -- has a whole new political overlay, in fact. The tale, in which a long-time gay couple try to play it straight when meeting the prospective in-laws of the son of one of them, ups the original ante. Instead of merely being straight-laced, the fiancee's father (Gene Hackman) is an ultra-conservative Republican senator. His wife (Dianne Wiest) quotes Rush Limbaugh and gushes about socializing with Jeb Bush. The media's another target of May's pointed screenplay. As Williams puts it, "Nobody's safe. Everybody gets hit." Williams is quite aware that many in the gay community would much rather have seen a gay actor play his role than Robin. His response: "Yeah, you want to see gay people play gay parts. You want to see the system change. But meanwhile, you want to try to expand the boundaries. You want to get people to a level of acceptance. If someone like me plays this part and the movie gets done, that helps." Robin also reveals that he was first asked about playing the "Birdcage" role of the flamboyant drag show headliner, Albert (a.k.a. Starina) -- the role that wound up being played by Nathan Lane. He wasn't interested. Says the actor of "Mrs. Doubtfire" fame, "Been there. Done that." So Robin instead essays the low-key half of the gay pair. He loved working with Broadway star Lane. "We're kind of like Abbott and Costello in drag!"

Curry Favors Treasure Island
Hollywood -- Feb. 13, 1996 -- Tim Curry laughs over the fact his image is showing up on everything from trading cards to McDonald's giveaways -- with "Muppet Treasure Island," in which he plays Long John Silver, opening Friday, Feb. 16. "It's not a bad thing to appear next to a burger," he says. The British thesp, who will always be thought of as Dr. Frank N. Furter to the "Rocky Horror Picture Show" cult of fans, notes that he's used to being merchandised. "They had stuff for 'Congo.' I still have a painted plate of my part in 'Annie'...You look at the plastic figure and say, 'It looks nothing like me.' But it does what it's supposed to do, I suppose." Curry, a longtime fan of the Muppets, was thrilled to join the latest film endeavor of Kermit, Miss Piggy, and the gang for other reasons. "Having grown up by the sea, I always wanted to play a pirate. I was in Cornwall in Devon as a child; every little cove and inlet there had some smuggling tale attached." Curry was also a great fan of the original book "Treasure Island." And, he notes, he's from a family of seafarers. His father was a naval chaplain, and his grandfather was a rigger. There was yet another consideration in playing the ruling pirate of "Muppet Treasure Island." "I got to sing, which was great," Curry says. "The score is really wonderful, and rare in this time when they're really not doing movie musicals. It's by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill. It's sort of half Brill Building, half Gilbert & Sullivan." We can tell you the movie is a lot of fun for anyone, and parents can take kids to see it with no worries.

Oscar Nomination Surprises
Hollywood -- Feb. 14, 1996 -- And the nominees weren't...Among the big surprises at the announcement of the nominations for the 68th annual Academy Awards was the omission of "Get Shorty" -- and its stars, John Travolta and Gene Hackman. The critically acclaimed "Seven" and its stars Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt were overlooked (though Pitt received a Supporting Actor nom for "12 Monkeys"). And how about the fact that Nicole Kidman failed to be recognized for "To Die For" -- after so many months of talk that she was a frontrunner in the Oscar race? Also surprising were the lack of directorial nominations for Ron Howard for "Apollo 13," and Ang Lee for "Sense and Sensibility," both Best Picture nominees. And then there was the failure of "Leaving Las Vegas" to get a Best Picture nod, though its lead actors and director -- Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, and Mike Figgis -- are all Oscar nominees for the film. "The Postman" director Michael Radford, for one, feels "Leaving Las Vegas" was the best picture of the year. He's not surprised, however, that it didn't receive more nominations. "Academy members might have considered it too dark," he says. The man who helmed "Leaving Las Vegas" insists he wasn't disappointed. "To be honest, I wasn't really expecting anything," says Figgis. "I know it sounds like false modesty, but when you get as far as the Academy Awards, well, they're a different thing from the critics' awards. I've seen people make predictions in the past that are completely wrong. There's such a danger of overinvesting in the Oscar race, I refused to allow myself to get sucked into it." Still, Figgis admits, "You do start to anticipate....And you really feel responsible for a film and everyone who worked in it" -- wanting everyone to be acknowledged. Ultimately, he says, the nominations came as "a relief, a tremendous relief....To me, we got the best picture nomination in a way, because the block of nominations we did get are the four cornerstones of the film." That block, of course, includes Best Actor (Nicolas Cage), Actress (Elisabeth Shue), Director (Figgis), and Screenplay (Figgis).

Dixie Carter's Loving New Career as Writer
Hollywood -- Feb. 15, 1996 -- No one, says Dixie Carter, was more shocked than she to find out she had a talent for writing. The former "Designing Women" star's first book, "Trying to Get to Heaven: Opinions of a Tennessee Talker," is doing well, and she says, "I'll never quite understand how I could have been so old before I realized I'm thrilled to be able to get to write. I wish I could do it as a career -- turning to performing when I want to, not under any pressure." Carter, who starts a cabaret gig at New York's Cafe Carlyle Feb. 22-Mar. 16, adds, "I would never want to give up singing, but if I could write another book I'd be so thrilled. That's one reason I worked as hard as I could to promote it." In "Trying to Get to Heaven," she talks about "how it feels to be over 50 years of age and living in Los Angeles, having come from a little town of 200 people and still loving who I came from. It's for men and women of any age about the idea that we can, with a certain amount of effort, make our lives beautiful." The book is filled with anecdotes and memories, but Carter says she finds it "a little bit dismaying" that some people insist on calling the tome an autobiography. "I'm not Winston Churchill...I haven't won the Second World War...I haven't invented penicillin. I don't think the world is screaming for my autobiography and I wouldn't set myself up to write one. It was a really good job that Simon and Schuster offered me and 'Designing Women' had been cancelled, so I grabbed the money."

Stanley Kamel on "Murder One's" Rating Woes
Hollywood -- Feb. 16, 1996 -- While Steven Bochco's "Murder One" has received critical acclaim, the ABC drama simply can't seem to find its lion's share of an audience. "I think two things happened that didn't help," says Stanley Kamel, who plays sleazy psychiatrist Dr. Graham Lester on the show. "One was going up against a phenomenon in its second year like 'ER,' with an unproven show. When 'Frasier' went up against 'Home Improvement,' 'Frasier' had already formed its audience. We go up against not just a formidable opponent, but a phenomenon -- and you lose your momentum. When you come back, that stumbling process makes it very hard to build it back up." The second thing Kamel feels may be slowing down the show's ability to establish its audience is that the storyline arc -- which covers the murder, the arrest, then the trial -- takes the entire season to play out. "Audiences used to instant gratification, or at least gratification at the end of the hour, may not really want to commit to 22 weeks of following a story. It's like the difference between a Danielle Steel novel and a Pat Conroy ["Prince of Tides"] novel...one involves a commitment, the other is quicker gratification. So what it may come down to is that -- regardless of the time slot, regardless of the fact critics have really championed 'Murder One' -- the show may just be something audiences don't want to embrace."

Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.


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