THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 28, 1994 TAG: 9407280049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long : 206 lines
BETWEEN BITES of sushi and sips of Snapple, here is what the Beautiful People have been saying while schmoozing with members of the Television Critics Association:
Ted Turner, cable TV mogul, chairman of Turner Broadcasting and husband of Jane Fonda: ``I've been around for a long time. I entered the billboard business when I was 12. Not long after that, I bought a television station in Atlanta. That's when I started watching television. I was appalled by how stupid it was. I said we'd have a country of idiots if people continued to watch that garbage. My prediction has come true.''
Jane Fonda, executive producer of a cable film about the American Indian movement (``The Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee'') and wife of Ted Turner: ``I've walked away quite happily from my acting career. I'm still active in films but only in projects where I am a producer.''
Tori Spelling of ``Beverly Hills 90210,'' and a co-star with Kellie Martin in an upcoming NBC movie, ``A Friend to Die For'': ``The downside of being in a television series is that you're living inside a fish bowl. You feel like everyone is staring at you all the time. That makes going to Disneyland difficult. You can't live your life like everyone else.''
Luke Perry of ``Beverly Hills 90210'' on how he relaxes after a hard day on the set: ``I love to watch television. I sit and watch for hours. You can't beat good ol' American television. I was raised on it.''
Melissa Gilbert, former child star of ``Little House on the Prairie'' who has starred in eight made-for-TV movies in the last two years, and will soon co-star with Cicely Tyson on a new NBC series, ``Sweet Justice'': ``I made each of the movies for a different reason. Either the role, the location, the cast or script was irresistible. To be totally honest, I made one of the movies strictly for the money. It bought me a house and put my son into a private school.''
Jane Pauley, co-anchor of ``Dateline NBC,'' on her start in network broadcasting when she was 25: ``I was this little anchorette who, despite my lack of credentials and experience, fit somebody's bill as a co-anchor of the `Today' show. Today, the women in network television have arrived at a point of credibility in spite of some network executive's notion of what role we should or shouldn't play.''
Woody Allen, soon to be seen on ABC in a film (``Don't Drink the Water'') based on his play: ``Acting is OK, but it's nothing I really care much about because I can't do it that well. I really can't act. I have no range at all. I'm almost always playing the same kind of character. I'm a personality who can be amusing under certain circumstances, but I'm really not an actor.''
Eightysomething Gene Autry, who will soon be honored with a retrospective on the AMC cable channel, ``Gene Autry: Melody of the West'': ``In the beginning, I doubted very seriously that I was cut out to be an actor. After I saw myself in my first picture, I said to my wife, `I don't think I'm cut out for the movies. Let's go back to Chicago. I'll do radio and make records, and let somebody else make movies.' I didn't think I was an actor then, and don't think I'm one now.''
Comic Ellen DeGeneres, whose ABC sitcom, ``These Friends of Mine,'' will be re-titled ``Ellen'' when it returns to the schedule: ``While I appreciate good reviews, I can't help thinking about bad reviews. It's the same when I'm performing on stage. In an audience of 3,000 people, if there is one person who isn't laughing, and that person is just sitting there and staring at me, I wonder why I'm not getting through to that person.''
Margaret Cho, who will be the first Korean-American to star in a network sitcom when ``All-American Girl'' premieres on ABC: ``The negative images that many people have of Asian-Americans really bothers me. My pet peeve is hearing that all of us are bad drivers. That offends me. By the way, I'm a fantastic driver.''
Harvey Fierstein, on playing a gay character in the new ABC sitcom, ``Daddy's Girls,'' which also stars Dudley Moore, who was seen often in Portsmouth when he was married to local actress-model Brogan Lane: ``There are more gay roles around now but nobody casts a gay person to play them. I am proud to be the first openly gay actor to be playing an openly gay role in an 8:30 (p.m.) show.''
Rutger Hauer, soon to appear in the HBO original work of fiction in which Germany won World War II: ``When it comes to acting, I'll take anything I like. I don't think about being cast as the hero, the villain, the lead or in a supporting role. I'm a working actor who likes to work. I need to work a lot.''
Former tennis great Billy Jean King on Richmond's Arthur Ashe, whose remarkable life will be the subject of an HBO special, ``Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World'': ``Arthur never played mixed doubles with women players because he was pretty much a male chauvinist pig until he got married. Even in practice, he wouldn't hit balls with me or the other women players. Quite frankly, that used to irritate me.''
Chad Everett, star of the new ABC series, ``McKenna,'' on returning to network television: ``I'd do for free what I'm getting paid to do on television. While doing other series, I developed a work ethic. I'm almost a workaholic. I really like pulling a big plow.''
Ed Asner, star of the ABC sitcom, ``Thunder Alley,'' with a different approach to working in a TV series: ``Nothing's easier for an actor than doing a half-hour TV show. Life couldn't be sweeter. I feel like I'm walking down the yellow brick road.''
Judith Krantz, author of nine novels including ``Dazzle,'' soon to be a miniseries on CBS: ``I have yet to meet a novelist who is a decent speller or knows how to punctuate properly. Those things have nothing to do with writing a novel, however. Knowing how to tell a story is everything.''
Dean Cain, co-star of ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman'' on ABC: ``I work out in a gym, and with a personal trainer, two hours a day, four hours a week. That's because every beer I drink, every piece of pastry I eat shows when I'm dressed in the Superman suit.'' For the record, Cain is 6-0, 195 pounds.
Jerry Van Dyke, younger brother of Dick Van Dyke, and a supporting player on the ABC sitcom, ``Coach'': ``I was ready to hang it up in show business when I got the job on `Coach.' I used to say to Dick, `Help get me a job or give me some money.' Being on `Coach' has given my life new vigor.''
Brett Butler, star of hit ABC sitcom, ``Grace Under Fire,'' on the changes in the show in its second season: ``We're trying to make more out of what we have, to flesh out the characters, to change things so that Grace has more people in her life and she's no longer best friends with herself''
James Garner, who has accepted CBS's offer to revive ``The Rockford Files'' in three 2-hour movies: ``I have two bad knees, so I've told the writers not to put me in situations where I have to run and carry on. I can't do that any longer. The writers said I shouldn't worry. They'll hire doubles.''
Chuck Norris, starring in ``Walker: Texas Ranger'' on CBS: ``Don't believe all that talk about this being a violent show. When I shoot, I never shoot to kill anybody. You never see blood spurting out of anyone's chest on this show. If I have to subdue lawbreakers, I use my hands and feet. Would parents let their 4-year-olds watch `Walker' if it were a violent show? What bothers me is seeing all the sexual suggestiveness in prime time. It's totally inappropriate.''
Raul Julia, who will soon be starring in ``The Burning Season,'' an original HBO film, on today's filmgoers: ``I think all they want to do is go to the theater, eat popcorn and watch explosions on the screen. They come out with a bellyfull of popcorn and an empty head.''
Ed O'Neil, who has been playing Al Bundy for nine seasons on the Fox sitcom, ``Married. . . With Children'': ``When we started, we thought the show would be gone after six episodes. Now we're the longest-running sitcom on network television. The characters must be funny to some people. I plan to do the series this year and maybe next year, too.''
Former All-Pro quarterback Terry Bradshaw, host of the new Sunday afternoon pre-game show on Fox, commenting on his TV partner, former Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson: ``I believe that Jimmy would walk on broken glass to get the job as head football coach in Miami. If not Miami, Tampa is a place he'd like to go, too.''
Laurence A. Tisch, president and chief operating officer of CBS on advertisers concerned with reaching only viewers who are ages 18 to 49: ``I've never been able to understand the theory in advertising that everybody over 49 is almost dead. Look at the numbers. The highest income level in America today is among people 49 to 54. That's where the real purchasing power is. Why don't advertisers understand that?''
Suzanne Pleshette, who will co-star with Hal Linden in ``The Boys are Back,'' a new CBS sitcom: ``When I watch myself in reruns of the Bob Newhart show on Nick at Nite, I marvel at how good everybody in the cast was on that show. I don't remember doing some of the shows that I see now. It's like I'm taking a wonderful journey into the past. But once in a while, I see a show that reminds me of when I forgot a line or something like that.''
Robin Leach, host of ``Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,'' and a series on the TV Food Network: ``In the last 11 years, I've flown 300,000 miles. People think I've been searching for stories about the rich and famous, when in fact, my secret agenda was to search out great wine and food. That was my real mission.''
Steve Allen, the man who invented late-night talk shows, on today's hosts: ``All of them do a good job with what is, frankly, an easy assignment. Very easy. If there has ever been a job in history that is easier than hosting a talk show, I honestly don't know what it is.'' A&E will soon salute his career in broadcasting with a special, ``Steve Allen: Hi-Ho Steverino.''
Michael Fuchs, president of Home Box Office, on the biting commentary of HBO talk-show host Dennis Miller: ``I think he's on Bill Clinton's case too much. But we would never go to Dennis and say you shouldn't do this or that. We are non-partisan in terms of our jaundiced view.''
JoJo Smollett on life with the five brothers and sisters with whom he will appear in a new ABC sitcom, ``On Our Own'': ``Eating together is no problem, because we have a long, long table at our house. We were all under it during the last earthquake.''
Steve Harvey, stand-up comic chosen to play the lead in a new ABC sitcom, ``Me and the Boys,'' admitted he lied on his resume: ``I don't have a degree in marketing and advertising. I've had 80, maybe 85 jobs in my life, including one where I installed 1,500 water pumps a day on an automobile assembly line. I can't do anything. I have no skills whatsoever. That's why I'm a stand-up comic.''
John Dean, former White House counsel and a principal in the Watergate scandal which brought down the Nixon presidency: ``As these 20 years have passed, the country is full of people who haven't the foggiest idea what Watergate was about, and who I am.'' (The Discovery Channel recently produced a special about that era, ``Watergate,'' narrated by Daniel Schorr).
Alyssa Milano, appearing in the Showtime ``Rebel Highway'' series of films, on why she took the steamy role of Amy Fisher in a TV movie: ``After eight years of playing the same sweet character on `Who's the Boss,' I was ready to play anybody who was different, even if it meant playing somebody evil.''
Timothy Dalton, on the difference between playing James Bond in the movies and Rhett Butler in the upcoming CBS miniseries, ``Scarlett'': ``When we made a Bond movie, we had months. In television, you have five weeks. It's grueling, tough work, but you must try to do your best.''
And finally, more on the insecurities of the acting profession from Eileen Heckart, soon to be seen in the CBS sitcom, ``The Five Mrs. Buchanans'': ``It's either feast or famine. You either have a dozen scripts offered to you or you sit around for six months doing nothing. The next day after receiving my Oscar (for ``Butterflies are Free''), I was standing in line for my unemployment check.''
That's show business. MEMO: Television columnist Larry Bonko has been attending the twice-yearly
press tour in Los Angeles.
ILLUSTRATION: AP PHOTO
Woody Allen: ``I really can't act. . . . I almost always play the
same kind of character.''
AP PHOTO
Raul Julia: ``All they want to do is go to the theater, eat popcorn
and watch explosions.''
by CNB