THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 26, 1995 TAG: 9505250051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
LOCAL TELEVISION news and views to consider while trying to forget the letdown of the ``Melrose Place'' finale:
The kid's only 9 and already he's a star - Hollywood is the place where if you are young, they ask you to play even younger. Take 9-year-old Evan Bonifant of the Pungo borough of Virginia Beach.
He's been cast as a regular on the new Fox sitcom ``My Wildest Dreams,'' which slides onto the schedule Sunday night at 9:30 with hardly any fuss or fanfare. The producers asked Bonifant to play younger. His character (Danny McGinnis) is 7.
Bonfiant was up to the challenge. The sitcom is about a wife and mother who is too hip and restless for her own good. She's played by comedienne Lisa Ann Walter.
This mom won't give up her dream of being a rock star. Fox is selling ``My Wildest Dream'' as an irreverent companion piece to ``Married . . . With Children.''
Bonifant, who's been working in front of a camera since he was 4, doesn't concern himself with plot lines or concepts. All he asks is, ``Will it be fun?''
And was it fun making five episodes with such a bundle of energy as Walter? It was, said Bonifant, who lives with his mother in Studio City, Calif., because that is where an actor's work is to be found.
Evan's visiting in Virginia Beach this month. Love his buzz cut. Evan says he hasn't lived in Southern California long enough to qualify as a surfing dude. Soon, Evan. Soon.
Hey, Evan. You can get work in Virginia, too - While Evan and his mom, Pettie, chase roles in Hollywood, Hollywood has come to Virginia. So far in 1995, four films have been shot in the state, with a fifth, ``First Kid,'' starring comedian Sinbad, to roll soon.
Last year, filmmakers spent $21.3 million in Virginia, according to the Virginia Film Office. Evan, come home.
If this guy continues to give that nice Donna a hard time, I'm going to slug him - With filming wrapped on the fifth season of ``Beverly Hills 90210,'' the cast members have scattered. You never know where you will find one.
How about Virginia Beach? Virginia Beach it is. Jamie Walters, who plays Ray Pruitt, pumpkin farmer turned headliner at the Peach Pit After Dark on ``90210,'' appears at the Ocean Breeze Festival Park today at 5:15 p.m.
He's cute but abusive to his girlfriend, Donna, played by Tori Spelling. Ask him why he's like that at an autograph session scheduled for 4 p.m. today.
I called his agent in Hollywood to get a quote or two for this column, but I couldn't get Walters to leave the set where he is shooting a music video for his new release, ``Why.'' Walters has a hot single in ``Hold On,'' which was No. 19 on the Billboard charts and climbing.
Doesn't he sing an awful lot on ``90210''? Too much, maybe? Walters is from Marblehead, Mass.
Personally, I think two years of Dan and Connie is long enough - Many readers of this column feel that the CBS brass acted in haste earlier this week when they demoted Connie Chung from co-anchor of the network's evening newscast. Three of every five readers who took part in my little Infoline poll (640-5555, press 2486) said they liked Chung and wanted her to stay elbow-to-elbow with Dan Rather, her newscast partner since 1993.
In Virginia Beach, Courtney Soscia, 12, said: ``CBS should have given them a couple more months. Then if the ratings didn't get better, they should have fired both of them.'' A caller from Suffolk said the CBS bosses got it wrong, adding, ``Rather should have been the one asked to leave.''
From Chesapeake, Hale Anderson asked if Chung will leave CBS and join her husband, Maury Povich, as co-host of his syndicated talk show. Why not? It works for Regis and Kathie Lee. MEMO: You can reach me on the Internet at rsue30a(AT)prodigy.com by CNB