THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 1, 1994 TAG: 9407300087
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long : 130 lines
NEWS AND NOTES from ghoulish Southern California where the No. 1 stop on the Grave Line Tours - sightseers travel by hearse - is the townhouse in Brentwood, Calif., where Nicole Brown Simpson died:
Tell me it isn't so, Vanna - New mom Vanna White returned to work as America's letter-turner extraordinaire when ``Wheel of Fortune'' resumed taping after the summer hiatus. The bad news is that White and co-host Pat Sajak are not warming up for a trip to Norfolk.
``Wheel of Fortune'' producer Nancy Jones told me that the visit of White and Sajak to Norfolk, originally scheduled for the middle of August, has been postponed until early 1995.
There were several reasons for the change of plans, Jones said.
The Navy isn't sure it will have a carrier available as a floating stage for the ``Wheel of Fortune'' in August. The producers also are afraid that Vanna and Pat will wilt in the heat and humidity on a carrier's flight deck if the shows are taped outside in Norfolk in August, Jones said.
How did Vanna manage to look cool and comfortable when the ``Wheel of Fortune'' cameras sailed aboard a cruise ship not long ago?
To a Southern Californian, humid weather is, like, totally gross.
So, tell us, was Bob a nerd in high school? - Ran into Bob Saget at a fabulous Hollywood party put on on by ABC the other day. OK, it was just a cookout, but the beans and franks were gourmet beans and franks.
Saget, who is nursing a nasty case of bronchitis, stars in two prime-time shows on ABC and is working on a made-for-TV movie. He said he won't be attending the 20th reunion of his Lake Taylor High graduating class this summer. No time to visit Norfolk.
Saget lived in the city for 14 years, and loved every minute of it, he said. He likes humidity.
Virginia Military Institute a girls' school? Never! - You may be surprised to learn that Dabney Coleman is a graduate of VMI. When you see Coleman on TV or in a film, do you see a former VMI cadet?
Coleman, who has been a bust on TV in three previous sitcoms, gets another chance in the fall when he stars in ``Madman of the People'' on NBC. The plot: Coleman is a grouchy ol' columnist whose boss is a Generation Xer - his daughter.
Coleman said he sides with those who want to exclude women from attending VMI. He believes it is good and proper for a society to have schools open to only one sex. Is Coleman protesting women at VMI?
Yes. Trouble is, Coleman is protesting in California, which is long away from VMI. Who in Lexington, Va., can hear him?
The soap operas may be saved after all - I received a zillion calls from viewers who were upset when three networks canceled soap operas to cover O.J. Simpson's preliminary hearing wall-to-wall last month. (My Infoline number is 340-5555, Category 3333. Call me anytime. The answering machine never sleeps.)
With Simpson's trial fast approaching, soap fans wonder if they'll again be shut out of ``General Hospital,'' ``Days of Our Lives'' and the other daytime dramas when the gavel falls in a Los Angeles courtroom.
Maybe not. Network executives who met with members of the Television Critics Association said they are considering a plan to rotate the daylong coverage with ABC, NBC, CBS taking turns. And you know CNN will be there.
The networks lost about $5 million when they pre-empted regular programming. They also ticked off a lot of people.
Ted Koppel of ``Nightline'' wonders about the fuss over missing a few episodes of love in the afternoon. ``After all,'' he asked, ``Did America really miss anything so great?''
Let me tell you something, Mr. Big Shot Interviewer Man, whatever Luke and Laura do on ``General Hospital'' is great. Well, almost great.
And speaking of soap operas, meet Hillary B. Smith - Gene Wilder is leaving his film career behind to do a sitcom, ``Something Wilder,'' for NBC in which he co-stars with Hillary B. Smith, who appears on ABC's ``One Life to Live'' She will play lawyer Nora Gannon.
I think she still has the hots for widower Bo Buchanan.
That soap is taped in New York City; the Wilder sitcom will be filmed in Southern California. Smith intends to work on both shows at once.
``The people in L.A. commute on the freeways. I'll commute by airplane,'' sh said.
She'll do the first six episodes of the Wilder sitcom, return to New York for the soap and head back to California. The writers on the soap are helping her out. ``They have me going in and out of town,'' she said.
But suppose it turns out to be a bad hair day? - Just about everybody agrees that the swimsuit portion of the Miss America pageant is dumb and degrading and should be dropped. The women are competing for scholarship money, not to be a Playboy centerfold. So, why swimsuits on parade?
Everybody agrees they should go except the man who runs the pageant, Leonard Horn. Swimsuits are here to stay, Horn said when meeting with TV reporters to talk about the Miss America telecast in September.
The competition will change slightly, he said.
No more parading around in a swimsuit and high heels!
``This year, the competition will be done in bare feet,'' Horn said. ``It won't be a parade, but rather a fun production number, maybe on the beach.''
Horn also said the contestants are prohibited from having their hair done by professional hairdressers at the Atlantic City convention center. How come?
He says the convention center doesn't have enough electrical outlets for all those hair dryers. No law says the hairdressers can't visit the contestants' hotel rooms, however.
And then there were three - We TV reporters are a pretty blase bunch, but there was one announcement on the media tour that had us buzzing. CBS, which will air a movie about the Dionne quints, ``Million Dollar Babies,'' promised an appearance by Cecile Dionne.
Three of the quints, who were taken from their parents at an early age and exploited by individuals and governments, are alive and have reached their 60th birthdays.
Cecile flew to Los Angeles from Montreal with her son, but at the last minute canceled her media conference. She was overcome by shyness, said producer Bernard Zukerman. Cecile took ill when she realized she would be facing 200 reporters. Cecile had never been out of Canada before.
I would have loved to meet her.
That's it. I quit. Don't try to talk me out of it - In case you wondered how Michael Moriarty resigned from the cast of ``Law & Order'' on NBC, it was by fax, which he sent to producer Dick Wolf.
``He said he quit because he was being censored by the network. I was the most shocked person in the world,'' said Wolf. Well, did NBC tell Moriarty to stop thrashing politicians who say there is too much violence on TV?
``I can't think of an instance when he was censored,'' said Wolf, who hired Sam Waterston, lately of ``I'll Fly Away,'' to replace Moriarty.
It's the No. 1 topic of conversation - In interviews with TV stars and producers, the subject of scripts - good and bad - comes up a lot. They talk about how hard it is to find good scripts.
Wilder summed up the quest for the script this way: ``If the quality isn't on the page, it won't be on the screen. You can get by with mediocre actors and a mediocre director working from a great script, but you won't get by with great actors and a great director working from a lousy script.''
Hollywood is forever searching for that Great Script. Start writing. ILLUSTRATION: AP PHOTO
Vanna White won't be coming to Hampton Roads till early 1995.
by CNB