ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703040083
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: the people column
Brooks & Dunn, LeAnn Rimes and George Strait were the top nominees Monday for the Country Music Awards.
Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn led the pack with six nominations, including entertainer of the year. Strait, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw were also nominated for that honor.
Rimes, the 14-year-old Patsy Cline sound-alike who won Grammy Awards last week for best new artist and best female country vocal, was nominated for top female singer, new artist, and album, song and single of the year.
Strait, who tied Rimes with five nominations, also received male vocalist, single, song and album nominations.
The awards will be televised April 23 on NBC. |n n| The months of coy references are over. ABC said Monday that ``Ellen'' will come out as a lesbian.
The character played by Ellen DeGeneres will talk to a therapist, played by Oprah Winfrey, about her attraction to a gay woman in an episode of the sitcom set to air April 30.
While other television shows have featured homosexual characters, ``Ellen'' would be the first prime-time show to have an openly gay lead.
Executives for ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Co., said they took their time giving ``Ellen'' the go-ahead because they wanted to be sure the coming out fit into a quality story line.
Tim Allen's workdays recently have included bugs, bad food and sweaty days in wool suits.
During the making of his movie ``Jungle 2 Jungle,'' Allen had a few problems with the shooting location, a village in the Venezuelan rain forest.
``I lost 11 pounds,'' Allen said. ``Horrible food - so we brought a chef in.''
There were plenty of insects to keep the ``Home Improvement'' star company, too, like an ant that crawled on his rear end.
``They said if it was a fire ant, `You'll die or you'll wish you were dead,''' Allen recalled. It turned out to be a harmless sand ant.
The movie, which opens Friday, is a remake of a French comedy with Allen as a father who flies to the jungle and finds the 13-year-old son he never knew he had. |n n| TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Kevin Costner is a pretty decent baseball player on and off screen.
He took a break from filming his latest movie, ``The Postman,'' to work out Sunday with the Colorado Rockies. He hit several line drives during batting practice and then fielded capably at both shortstop and right field.
``When he put on a uniform and went in there, I thought he was one of the guys,'' said Rockies bullpen catcher Todd Maulding, who threw 70 mph pitches to Costner.
The players also didn't hold it against Costner that he's a Los Angeles Dodgers fan. They lined up to get autographs from the actor, who played high school baseball and has starred in a couple of baseball movies, ``Bull Durham'' and ``Field of Dreams.''
``They found a good equilibrium between trying to make me feel loose and ribbing me,'' Costner said. ``But you know, this is the thing: They also don't want to baby anybody. The game deserves that kind of respect, and if I didn't think I could make some of the plays, I wouldn't be here.''
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB