THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, July 13, 1995 TAG: 9507130026
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LARRY BONKO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
THE SHOW BIZ capital of the western world has been buzzing with two questions this week:
Would actor Hugh Grant appear as scheduled on ``The Tonight Show'' after his recent arrest on charges of engaging in lewd conduct with a prostitute who calls herself Divine?
Who in the heck will Home Box Office get to play David Letterman and Jay Leno in a film about the late-night TV wars which begins shooting here next week?
The answers became known on the same day.
A humbled, apologetic Grant did, indeed, live up to his committment to appear with Leno on NBC Tuesday night.
A few minutes before that 5:30 p.m. taping in Burbank, the HBO brass was telling TV writers meeting in Pasadena that two actors known only to their families and agents had landed the starring roles in ``The Late Shift.''
John Michael Higgins will play Letterman and Daniel Roebuck will play Leno in the HBO movie based on Bill Carter's book. Director Betty Thomas made the announcement while reading from a slip of paper on which she wrote out their names.
``In case I forgot,'' she said.
Thomas still hasn't cast the part of Johnny Carson, who by retiring after 30 years as host of ``The Tonight Show'' set in motion the wheeling and dealing that eventually had three neworks and several syndicators bidding for Letterman's services.
First to be cast was Oscar winner Kathy Bates, who will play Leno's former agent, Helen Kushnick, with whom he split soon after taking over ``The Tonight Show.''
``The Late Shift'' will show up on HBO at year's end or early in 1996.
Leno, the good sport that he is, has already invited Thomas to be on his show when the movie is finished. Don't bet on Letterman being so gracious.
``You know that Dave will be uptight about this because he is uptight about almost everything. He is a nervous guy,'' said Carter, who covers the TV beat for The New York Times.
And because Carter does, his peers in the Television Critics Association roughed him up a little for (1) working with executive producer Ivan Reitman on the HBO script and (2) appearing at a press conference with Reitman and Thomas to promote the film.
Many of the writers, including your humble columnist, regard it as a conflict of interest. Carter is sleeping with the enemy - taking money from a company that produces films for television, a company that Carter has written about often in the past.
From this point on, how can he be relied on to report fairly on HBO and its parent company, Time Warner Entertainment, after he has been on their payroll as a script writer and shill for a TV movie?
When his fellow reporters turned the heat up on Carter, he said he would not report on stories involving HBO or Time Warner as long as he is working on the HBO movie. He will leave that to others.
``The Times has a deep staff,'' he said.
If I were Carter's boss at The New York Times, I'd pull him off the TV beat immediately, and maybe suspend him, too. Carter said he checked with his superiors at The New York Times before engaging in the partnership with HBO.
``I did clear it with the Times,'' he said.
But did the paper know in advance about Carter's participation in HBO's full-dress, on-a-stage, under-the-spotlights presentation during the Television Critics Association tour? That Carter, the reporter still assigned to the national TV beat, would be sitting elbow-to-elbow with the HBO folks, all cozy-like?
I think not. How a publication as prestigious as The New York Times could allow this to happen is beyond me. I'm shocked. Lee Winfrey of The Philadelphia Inquirer didn't pull any punches during the HBO press conference.
``Sitting up there with the HBO folks, and promoting their show is a conflict of interest,'' Winfrey said to Carter. Amen, Lee.
Remember that Carter is promoting ``The Late Shift'' film and doing the script. That's outrageous behavior for a member of the working press.
As for selecting relatively unknown actors to play Letterman and Leno, Reitman did that for a specific reason. It will make a better movie, he said.
``Letterman and Leno are among the most famous people in America. Just about everyone knows what they look like and sound like - who they are and what they do and how they do it. It would be confusing to mix in the personality of known actors with the personae of Dave and Jay.''
That is why Higgins and Roebuck were hired. Roebuck has worked on ``Matlock,'' Higgins mostly in regional and off-Broadway theater.
How many actors were considered? ``A lot,'' said Thomas.
And why were Higgins and Roebuck selected? ``In the auditions, they showed us they had the essence of Letterman and Leno. There's a saying in doing auditions that you often know what you want the minute an actor walks through the door.''
That happened in this seach for actors to play on TV two men who are essentially TV actors themselves. This is a crazy place. MEMO: Television columnist Larry Bonko is in Los Angeles for the twice-yearly
Television Critics Association. by CNB