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For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith
Laura Innes Says Character's Limp Remains a Mystery on "ER"
Hollywood -- Jan. 8, 1996 -- "ER" actress Laura Innes says don't
expect to find out anytime soon why her Dr. Weaver character
walks with a limp and a crutch. "We still haven't figured that
out," says Innes, who's become a standout of the Emmy-winning hit
drama as the cranky, obnoxious chief resident. "But the
writers are so smart I trust they'll do it in an interesting
way." Her character has become a little more likable in recent
weeks, however. Innes tips that as time goes on there's "going to
be a little bit more of the peeling away of the layers of Dr.
Weaver's bureaucratic outside. And she slowly gets a little
closer to Dr. Susan Lewis [Sherry Stringfield's character, with
whom she initially bumped heads] and their relationship gets a
little more complicated." The actress says her family couldn't be
more thrilled that she's become part of the popular medical drama.
"My mom was pretty surprised at how intense the character was at
first, but she loved it. She's more worried that they're going to
soften her up too much. She likes that Dr. Weaver's kind of a
tough cookie." She adds that her brother has become a celebrity
at his office because of her. "He's a librarian and everytime he
goes to work there's something new pinned up on the bulletin
board about 'ER' or 'Laura Innes.' He told me, 'You've really rocked
my world,'" says Innes with a laugh. "It's been really fun for
them."
Rocker Stephen Stills Now Writing Music for TV
Hollywood -- Jan. 9, 1996 -- We may be in for a whole new wave
in TV theme songs. Till recently, chart-topping hits have only
sporadically been made out of title tunes for our favorite shows
(the old "Mission: Impossible" and "Hawaii 5-0," for example).
But recently, the pace has been picking up, in case you haven't
noticed. Stephen Stills HAS noticed. The legendary rocker of
Crosby, Stills & Nash and solo fame points out that today's TV
hits aren't necessarily instrumental, "or campy, like the theme
song from 'The Jetsons.'" Instead, we have The Rembrandts scoring
a pop hit with "I'll Be There for You," the theme from "Friends,"
pointing toward a new direction. Stills, who makes his entry
into the TV tunesmithing trade with the theme song for ABC's
upcoming series "Second Noah," reports the TV theme market is
"in a state of flux...I have a feeling that the kind of
sensibilities I write with can take hold now. They're turning
away from the kind of music-jingle companies that churn stuff
out. There's a new generation producing in television now;
they're looking for more." Stills, of course, has a real
advantage in the fact that he often tries to sell his talents to
baby boomer execs who'll begin meetings "by saying things like,
'Hey, man! I was in the front row at the Hollywood Bowl when you
were playing there in 70' -- or whatever." Stills certainly
imparted deep emotion in his "Second Noah" theme. He says he
came up with the key lyric while driving home from his first
meeting with exec producer Pam Long. "She had done this
wonderful show" -- about a family that includes eight adopted
children and a mother who's the chief veterinarian at a wildlife
preserve. "Some of the things she said clicked, and I started
thinking of these words -- 'Everybody needs somewhere to go, and
room to grow...' I did a little demo as soon as I got home. It
was pretty sloppy, but it was enough, I guess, for them to know
it was what they wanted." Besides his TV endeavors, Stills
continues writing for his own future album, as well as doing
ongoing work with CS&N. The speed of penning the "Second Noah"
tune was unusual for Stills today. "It takes longer to write
songs than it used to," he says. "We're older. We're not so
sure anymore."
Glover and Pesci Reunited in "Gone Fishin'"
Hollywood -- Jan. 10, 1996 -- Danny Glover is reunited with his
"Lethal Weapon II" and "III" co-star Joe Pesci in the upcoming
"Gone Fishin'." But Pesci won't be a pain in his side in the
flick about a fishing trip gone awry. "We're two entirely
different characters," says Glover. "We're two working-class guys
who've been buddies since we were nine years old and we live next
door to each other. It's a ritual for us to go fishing every year
and we go down to the Florida Everglades for what we think is
going to be the fishing experience of our life." Unfortunately,
when they get there, the two buddies end up getting involved with
a "very slick, very shrewd thief." Glover says he and Pesci shot
the first part of the film in the actual Florida Everglades. And
he says they were not wading into the water. "Oh no, you don't do
that. You see a lot of gators there, seriously....That's no joke.
They're not on the television screen. They're right there."
Glover's been juggling his acting duties with his exec production
chores on HBO's "Deadly Voyage" with Omar Epps and Joss Ackland.
Glover says HBO came to him with the offer to exec produce the
telepic based on the true story of the life-and-death struggle of
eight African stowaways. "They came to me after reading the
story. They had a script they'd begun to develop and asked me if
I was interested. It's all about lending your name to a project
to give it some credibility." He's also exec producing HBO's Feb.
17 "America's Dream" trilogy based on three short stories by
prominent black writers, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, and John
Henrik Clarke. Glover co-stars in "Long Black Song," the 30-minute
vignette that's based on Wright's tale of longing, desire,
and repression in the South circa the late 30s.
Hagar Jams for Hard Rock Cafe Benefit Opening
Hollywood -- Jan. 11, 1996 -- "Obviously, Van Halen would have
been too expensive and it would have caused a little too much
hoopla." So says Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar, referring to his
participation tomorrow, Jan. 12, in the benefit opening of the
Universal City Walk's Hard Rock Cafe. Performing at the event
will be Sammy plus bassist David Lauser, plus a drummer, who call
themselves Los Tres Gusanos, "the three worms, as in tequila,"
Sam explains. Hagar's appearance -- and "guitar lesson" for
1,000 students -- brings in an extra $175,000 to the $350,000
already pledged by Hard Rock founder Peter Morton for the "Grammy
in the Schools" program being put on by the National Academy of
Recording Arts and Sciences to help student musicians. Hagar
notes that Los Tres Gusanos "is really just for fun. We usually
only play in my club, Cabo Wabo, in Cabo San Lucas, on my
birthday and on New Year's. We do two shows a year, as opposed
to Van Halen, which did 140 shows last year." Hagar's Baja,
Mexico, nitery frequently features unusual musical
conglomerations. For instance, this past New Year's Eve, they
had the Neurotic Boy Outsiders -- which Hagar describes as a
"really good punk band...a cool little side band" -- made up of
members of Guns N' Roses, The Sex Pistols, and Duran Duran!
Another time, Hagar joined in performance with the drummer from
Metallica, the bass player and guitar player from Alice in Chains,
and "Stephen Stills, if you can imagine that weird grouping!" He
adds, "I'll get a call and find out somebody's goin' down, and
I'll say, 'I'll meet you there.' It's the kind of place where you
feel like you can do anything you want. The most we ever charge
to get in is $10 at the door, but usually there's no door fee."
We asked Hagar, by the way, whether he thought his old hit, "I
Can't Drive 55," had anything to do with the recent lifting of
the speed limit. "Absolutely," he said. "I will take full
responsibility for all the positve side of it, but of course, if
anything negative comes of it, I don't want anything to do with
it." Naturally. Indeed, adds Hagar, one of the strongest
proponents of lifting the speed limit was Orange County, CA,
congressman Dana Roherbach -- who is a big Van Halen fan, and who
invited Hagar into the White House in 1984 (when he was a Reagan
speechwriter). "He was a big fan of my 'VOA' album" -- on which,
of course, the "I Can't Drive 55" song appeared. "He's a surfer,
which you don't see much of in congressmen. He gets down to
Baja, too...has that Baja sensibility."
Montel Williams on Tough Schedule with "Matt Waters"
Hollywood -- Jan 12, 1996 -- And you think you have a tough
schedule! Montel Williams stretched his time-juggling ability to
the max shooting the first seven episodes of his new CBS "Matt
Waters" series about a Navy Seal turned high school teacher. "I
taped my talk show on Thursdays and Fridays; I had to get
through three shows in a day," he says. "And I worked on the
series Saturday through Wednesday." Add to that his daily
workout that starts at 4:30 a.m., and Williams could count on
getting "maybe 3 and a half to 4 hours of sleep a night." All of which
would seem to make Williams' family time practically nonexistent,
right? Nope. "My wife Grace does my makeup for both shows, so
she's with me all the time. And she brings our babies to the
set," says Montel, who has a year-old daughter and two-year-old
son by his current marriage (in addition to two daughters via a
former marriage). Now back to just one job -- his talk show --
while waiting to see whether the network will order more "Waters"
episodes, Williams says he won't go back to such double-duty if
the series continues. "Hopefully, I'll be able to shoot most of
the series during my regular hiatus from the talk show."
Copyright (c)1996 Beck/Smith Ent.
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