For Immediate Release on Entertainment Drive
Released by Beck/Smith

Molly Ivins Will Surely Spice Up "60 Minutes"
Hollywood --Feb. 26, 1996 -- Political writer/humorist Molly Ivins, who's joining the "60 Minutes" team for on-air debates with social critics Stanley Crouch and P. J. O'Rourke, says she's caused more than a little trouble in her life. There was the time, for instance, when she was writing for the now-deceased Dallas Times Herald, that she wrote of one politician, "If his I.Q. sinks any lower we'll have to water him twice a day." The politicos' aides phoned the paper screaming for a retraction. Instead, it inspired the Herald to start a billboard campaign with the message, "Molly Ivins can't say that...can she?" Then there was the period when the Texan was writing for the New York Times and, as she puts it, "really upset editor Abe Rosenthal. I was stationed out west, serving as the Rocky Mountain Bureau Chief, and covered a chicken-killing festival in this little town in New Mexico. Everybody came to town with the chickens they'd raised and spent all day killing, plucking, and dressing them while they drank beer and listened to country music. I wrote that it was a gang pluck. It didn't get in the paper but Rosenthal was enraged at the mere idea I would think of such a thing." Sounds like she's going to spice up things on "60 Minutes."

"Dragonheart" Still in Post-Production
Hollywood -- Feb. 27,1996 -- Director Rob Cohen reports his "Dragonheart" epic, which started production in 1994, is still not complete. "It contains so many special effects that I've been working all this time -- even while I was making 'Daylight' in Rome -- on its editing via satellite. Now, after so many months of work, I'm taking a two-week vacation with my family. We've rented a house on an island off the Gulf Coast of Florida -- and we had to rent a second house for the editing equipment they're shipping there for me to use." "Dragonheart" boasts a cast including Dennis Quaid, Pete Postlethwaite, David Thewlis, Julie Christie -- and Sean Connery as the voice of the dragon being created by George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic wizards. Cohen reports that the project is close enough to completion that he has been able to show it to Universal studio execs, "who promptly gave it the best date they had -- May 31." One of the dates that kicks off the summer cinema season.

Pauley Foresees "Dateline NBC" Surge
Hollywood -- Feb. 28,1996 -- Jane Pauley, whose "Dateline NBC" news magazine show goes four nights a week starting March 17, reports things have gotten a lot bigger and more bustling behind the scenes. "I keep seeing people in the halls I don't know; we've expanded our staff by 20, give or take a few." Pauley says "Dateline" came to "a defining point in the last year or so. It became obvious that the growth of news magazine shows had maxed out -- and that there was going to be a little contraction." In other words, lotsa news magazine shows started getting the axe. On the other hand, she says NBC chief and news chief Bob Wright and Andy Lack "took a big risk and decided that the situation gave us an unique advantage. Our show was growing, and they believed it could continue to grow." So they threw resources into "Dateline" and made it a frontrunner. Enough of a frontrunner to pose any serious threat to Sunday night competition "60 Minutes"? Pauley only expects the show anchored by herself and Stone Phillips to do better than other NBC products of the past. She also expects the new Sunday "Dateline" to exceed the numbers of her own defunct Sunday night show of a couple years back, "Real Life with Jane Pauley." As she sees it, "Real Life" suffered due to its later timeslot. "I think there's a psychological breakpoint in the weekend ending. At 7 o'clock, viewers are still with you. At 8 o'clock, the weekend is over. People are getting their children off to bed and organizing themselves for their work week."

"ER's" Noah Wyle on Stage with "Chicago Hope's" Peter Berg
Hollywood -- Feb. 29, 1996 -- "ER" star Noah Wyle begins a six-week run of the play "The 24th Day" today with Peter Berg -- the hunk from that other medical drama, "Chicago Hope." Wyle insists it was not stunt casting. "I know it seems that way, but I've known Peter for a really long time. We played brothers in a film called 'Crooked Hearts' five years ago." The play, playing at the Coronet Theater in Hollywood, is about two men who are forced to come to terms with their moral responsibility involving a brief encounter from years earlier. Wyle says that when he read the script, "I thought Pete was perfect for the other part, and I asked him to do it.... It just sort of came together." Wyle was ripe to do a play. It had been three years since he'd been on stage. "I just felt like it was time to wear a different hat for a little while. There's something about the intensive rehearsal process of a play that you don't find in television. You work at a much quicker pace in TV and hope you're not superficially getting to the core of whatever scene you're doing. Rehearsing a play, you're really getting into the guts and grist of the character you're playing and what the scenes are about." Wyle says he "needed to work with someone who would have the same schedule I was on, so we could work out some semblance of a rehearsal schedule. It all came together beautifully with Peter." Wyle admits he's a little anxious about getting back on stage, but "I think it's a normal kind of nervous," he says, "...it's humility."

Rosie Rips Stern in Aspen
Hollywood -- March 1, 1996 -- It was all light quips and laughs at yesterday's press conference for HBO's 2nd Annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen -- that is, until Rosie O'Donnell decided to show just how disgusted she was with Howard Stern as director Ivan Reitman discussed plans to do Stern's upcoming "Private Parts" movie. Actually, Stern had many detractors on the dais that included Steve Martin, Bill Maher, Dennis Miller, John Landis, and former National Lampoon owner Matty Simmons. When Reitman first said he was a big fan of Stern's, Simmons moved his chair about a foot away. "Look, he's moving away from me," quipped Reitman, who was in Aspen for an "Animal House" reunion with Simmons and Landis. Reitman tried to defend Stern as one of the most consistently funny people around and Dennis Miller broke in with, "Wait till he shithammers you, Ivan!" At which point, Rosie let loose..."Wait till he says he wants to ---- your daughter up the ass! Then he's going to be really funny....Wait till he talks to a rape victim and makes fun of how she was raped -- like he did to Fran Drescher...that's really funny! He's a man of quality and integrity and you're proud to be in business with him. On that note, I will never be in an Ivan Reitman film." Dennis Miller tried to relieve the palpable tension by quipping, "All families have their squabbles..." and Bill Maher piped in with, "We will now sing 'Kumbaya' and join hands, turn to the person next to you and blow them!"...For Steve Martin, who was being honored with an AFI Retrospective of his work, the festival marked a return to his old stomping grounds. "I used to live here," reported Martin. "I went looking for the places I used to stay. Two of the homes are gone... but it brought back a lot of memories -- mainly having to do with sex and amyl nitrate." When asked if he'd looked up any old friends, he said sarcastically, "No, I refuse to see them...I'm too big now! Though I did want to look up an old girlfriend who said, 'You're never going to go anywhere. Why should I continue to see you?'"...Another funny moment came when a reporter asked the panel if their perception of what's funny has changed as they've gotten older. Dennis Miller piped up, "Prostate jokes are no longer funny," to the agreement of the rest of the men on the dais. But Rosie O'Donnell said, "I still like them!"

Copyright (c) 1996 Beck/Smith Ent.


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