For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith

More Sinatra' On The Way?
Hollywood -- June 10, 1996 -- If you're enjoying the rebroadcast of the award-winning "Sinatra" miniseries (it began last night and winds tomorrow evening), you may be interested to know that an even longer version could be on the way. "We may do a director's cut [video release] or something," reveals Tina Sinatra, daughter of Frank and producer of the miniseries. "There were some scenes we didn't have time to use in the original -- very special scenes, some of them -- that would be nice to put back for a special release." Scenes such as what? "One in particular, between Frank and Nancy Senior -- played by Philip Casnoff and Gina Gershon. For the balance of the film, my mom was pretty much on the losing end in that part of the story. This scene showed, as in life, she wound up with both feet firmly planted. The children are older, and they're all gone for the evening when Frank drops by. It was a slumber party for me. Nancy was in Vegas with her future husband. Frank (Jr.) was out with friends...And mom was dressed and ready for a date, looking like a million dollars. It was a sweet transition in the story, and I remember the day we shot it. It really showed that Big Nancy was on her way." Tina says she realized Warners was considering a special "Sinatra" miniseries release when she called about getting the unused footage back to put into "our personal family archives. I spoke with Barry Meyer, who is fourth in line here under Mr. (Bob) Daly and Mr. (Terry) Semel, and he told me, No, we want to keep that,'" for there may be more "Sinatra" in store.

Kids, Dogs On 'Dr. Quinn' Set
Hollywood -- June 11, 1996 -- Jane Seymour says that the set of her "Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman" would remind you of your home -- if home happens to be filled with babies and dogs. They have some eight or nine babies on the set every day -- including her twins, the twins of producer Beth Sullivan, and the triplets who play Dr. Quinn's infant daughter. As for the dogs, Joe Lando, who plays Dr. Quinn's husband, brings one to work ("His dog is his life," says Seymour), Seymour brings her two pups, "Everyone brings their dogs to work -- we're tripping all over them." As for babies, "I pass mine around to everyone. I'll be holding one of the twins, will be needed for a shot, and will pass the baby off to the person standing next to me." She has a trailer set up as a nursery for her twins, and another trailer for the infants who work on the show, and she says, "The nurseries are very popular places. Everyone loves the babies." As for Jane, "I'm adament that the children who work here be treated extremely well. If we're doing a scene with a baby and it starts crying, I want to find out what's wrong. And if the baby is sleeping, we'll rewrite the scene, instead of waking the child up."

Travolta-Cage Twisted Misters
Hollywood -- June 12, 1996 -- They're casting supporting players for the John Travolta-Nicolas Cage thriller, "Face Off," which is set to go into production by the beginning of fall. We can tell you it's going to be a real trick to keep this movie from becoming confusing. It has Travolta as a police detective who trades identities with a terrorist -- Cage -- in order to go under cover. Set in the near future, it makes the trade complete via surgical swapping of facial features. Here's one of the twists: Travolta's character has a wife, who's been suffering his neglect since the murder of their 8-year-old son. Ah, but just when she's feeling ready to leave her husband, suddenly he becomes attentive, loving, sexy. She doesn't know that her man just looks like John Travolta, but is actually Nicolas Cage, the terrorist. Similarly, that man suddenly acting so different with the other prisoners in the penitentiary -- he just looks like Cage, but he's really Travolta. Anyway, the wife will love the transformation, until the real Travolta shows up -- somehow, though he looks like Cage, he'll convince her he's her husband -- and tells her who the imposter really is! If you can't make sense of all that, we'll keep the explanation simpler: two big stars, two dual roles, two tour de force prospects.

Meanwhile, from the music scene...

Angels. It is fitting that as we head toward a new millennium and angels -- in the form of jewelry, books, and T.V. shows ("Touched By An Angel") -- have become the new trendy icon for a weary world , that hauntingly Angelic-voiced Joy Askew would be making her solo album debut. With a style that manages to be both ethereal and soulful, the singer/songwriter/musician/producer performed in concert June 10 at the record release party for her "Tender City" album. Joy got her big break as a backup singer for Peter Gabriel on his "US" album tour and, like Gabriel, she is a keyboard player who specializes in lushly atmospheric music with crackling percussive beat and confessional lyrics about looking for redemption. Gabriel lends his voice to the album track, "I'm Still Looking For A Home." Joy performed at the Roxy backed by a sharp three-piece band as she moved from keyboards to tamborine and sang with a spiritual fervor that gave the cavern-like theater a churchlike feel. At times she was joined on stage by a bongo drum player and, for the final scheduled song, three baritone back-up singers. She amused the audience when she explained how she became involved in music: " I tried to think of the most moving or important force that propelled me into music when I was a teenager." She came up with three things: to meet guys, to "Cop their drugs"; and to find fame. She mesmerized the audience with a final number -- a soaring a cappella rendition of her song "Cool Water". She received a standing ovation. There were 345 people -- including a large industry turnout -- in attendance.

Rosie O'Donnell Carson Wannabe
Hollywood -- June 13, 1996 -- Rosie O'Donnell hopes she can be even a fraction as good on her new talk show as Johnny Carson was on "The Tonight Show." "He was the best," she says. "He always knew how to make a guest feel relaxed. He could outshine anyone, but he never did -- he knew it was his job to make the guest look good." "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," which debuted to tremendous numbers this week, might remind you a lot of the vintage shows hosted by Merv Griffin, Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore, but there will be a difference. Like them, it will lean on guest appearances by performers and authors, but Rosie won't be booking entertainment writers, as the others frequently did. "We're trying to be very celebrity friendly and how would it look if we had an actor on one week, and the next week had someone on gossiping about them?" Rosie's scheduled to do her live show without a break until the 4th of July weekend, then take six days off. She gets a break of two weeks in August, one week in September, and then goes straight through until year's end.

Tracey, Sammy, and Satan
Hollywood -- June 14, 1996 -- Tracey Davis says she started planning to write a book about her father, Sammy Davis, Jr., right after receiving a call from the late super agent, Swifty Lazar. "Swifty called right after Dad died," she says, and explains that Lazar was trying to quickly sew up rights to the Davis story in order to get a book deal moving. "He said, In 10 years, no one will know who your Dad is.' Well, you ass! I thought, If anyone's going to write a book about Dad, it's me.'" Plain- spoken Tracey's book is just out. It's called "Sammy Davis, Jr.: My Father," and it's a grabber -- but not for the reasons one might expect. Tracey's book is heavy on the painful father-daughter relationship between herself and Sammy -- culminating in their reconciliation -- and on her unique world. She describes, for instance, her childhood confusion at being fawned over inside a nightclub, then leaving with her mother, May Britt, and practically being spit upon by passers-by outside the club. In other words, one moment she was treated as The Daughter of a Celebrity, the next as an unknown mixed race child with a white woman. She admits that selling her book took work, because publishers "were like: Okay, let's hear all the bad stuff.' Well, my Dad's dead; I'm not going to sit there and do a litany of everything wrong with Sammy Davis, Jr." Tracey did mention -- in less than one page -- her father's dabbling with Satanism in the 60s. The National Enquirer got hold of that passage of the book and published it a few weeks ago. Sammy's mother responded in another tabloid, saying she was disappointed that Tracey sold out for a few bucks. But once her grandmother saw the book in its entirety, Tracey says, she completely changed her mind. She points out that her father talked about his interest in the devil in his own book. "My dad did a lot of squealing on himself," she notes. She also downplays the Satanism. "Don't get me wrong. In those 89 bags he traveled with, there were no roosters with their heads cut off to shake around before going on stage or anything like that. It was: become famous, get the cars, get the money -- what's my next thrill? Drugs? Okay. Satanism? Hey, what's that about? My Dad always used to say: Just don't bore me!'" As far as Tracey (who is 34, married, with two kids) is concerned, Sammy's doing drugs and playing with the occult "was not about escaping, which some people have suggested. It was what happens frequently to people in his position, that they want bigger and bigger things to entertain them. If you're not careful, you get screwed. He was lucky enough to grow up and move on."

Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.


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