THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 12, 1995 TAG: 9508090128
SECTION: TELEVISION WEEK PAGE: 1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines
IF IT'S CELEBRITY gossip you want, you've come to the right place.
The A&E cable channel on Sunday at 8 p.m. gives you an insider's look at growing up rich and privileged in show business when actress and novelist Carrie Fisher hosts ``The Hollywood Family.''
It's a hoot listening to Penny Marshall wheel and deal while having a pedicure. The Marshalls are Hollywood elite, as are the Fishers. Carrie's parents are Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, her former stepmother is Liz Taylor.
With a glitzy pedigree like that, who kept Fisher in touch with the common folk?
It was her maternal grandmother, who appears in ``The Hollywood Family'' as do Fisher and Reynolds. You know something? I think Debbie is still hurting about Eddie Fisher dumping her for Liz. This two-hour combination visit to Oz and Fisher's autobiography all in one is a bit long, but I can't think of a better way to kill two hours on an August evening.
Haven't you been dying to visit a celebrity sperm bank? Here's your chance.
And you even get to see Fisher do a Princess Leia turn or two.
By one of those strange show business coincidences, Lifetime on Sunday at 10 p.m. has another special about Carrie Fisher, ``Intimate Portrait: Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher.''
A&E on Wednesday at 8 p.m. continues down the same show biz, behind-the- glamour-of-it-all path with a ``Biography'' special on the man who practically invented the gossip column.
In ``Walter Winchell: The Voice of America,'' you'll learn about a journalist who in his time was bigger than the National Enquirer and all the TV magazines on the air today put together. Through his column in the New York Daily Mirror and his network radio show (``Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. North America and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press!''), Winchell reached 60 million people.
A younger generation knew Winchell as the narrator on the TV series, ``The Untouchables.'' His voice could cut through steel.
Liz Smith, who has succeeded Winchell as the No. 1 Broadway columnist, told a tale about Winchell during the recent gathering of the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles which put a lump in your humble columnist's throat.
Said Smith, ``After the Mirror had folded, and Winchell couldn't get another New York paper to print his column, he would appear in Manhattan nightclubs with a column that he had mimeographed. Winchell would go from table to table handing these things out. It was a pathetic sight. He became ill soon after that, and just faded away.''
Just a line or two in Winchell's column or an item in his radio script could make or break a show biz career. ``The man had unprecedented power,'' said Michael Cascio, vice president of A&E's ``Biography'' series.
Fame fades fast, however. Bet you kids never heard of Walter Winchell.
Here are a couple of names from the recent past that you will remember: Woody Allen and Elia Kazan. Both are wonderful filmmakers, and both will be saluted on the tube in the next few days.
American Movie Classics presents ``Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey'' and ``A Kazan Film Festival'' starting on Monday. Kazan, who had a great influence on both film and theater because he dealt in issues such as racism, gave us such memorable motion pictures as ``On the Waterfront,'' ``Viva Zapata,'' ``Gentleman's Agreement'' and ``A Streetcar Named Desire,'' which CBS is bringing to TV later this year with a cast headed by Jessica Lange.
AMC has scheduled Kazan double features Monday through Friday beginning at 8 p.m. with ``A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.'' The Kazan documentary starts Monday at 10:15 p.m.
Starting Saturday at 4:30 p.m., Bravo reels off four Woody Allen films in its weekend salute to Allen as part of the cable channel's ``Bravo Creator'' series. ``The Woody Allen Film Weekend'' includes Los Angeles Times film critic emeritus Charles Champlin interviewing Diane Keaton about her collaborations with the Woodman.
The ``Champlin on Film: Diane Keaton'' special comes on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. followed by four films in which Allen stars or directed.
Bravo repeats the Allen weekend package Sunday starting at 10:30 a.m.
The Allen films on display will be ``Broadway Danny Rose,'' ``Purple Rose of Cairo,'' ``Crimes and Misdemeanors'' and ``Alice,'' in which Julie Kavner had a role. Kavner will also be aboard for a Bravo behind-the-scenes, question and answer event between films.
Now, let's move on to something new in film.
Christine Lahti stars in ``Four Diamonds'' on the Disney Channel Saturday at 8 p.m. It's a picture about a boy cursed with a fatal disease who writes a sword and sorcery fable about the struggles and triumphs of knights. Chris Millard's real-life struggle is with cancer.
This is a nice blend of fact and fantasy with Lahti playing both the boy's doctor in real life and his evil tormentor, Raptenahad, in Chris's fantasy world. The film is based on Millard's short story. He died in his teens. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Carrie Fisher, shown with Martin Sheen, hosts "The Hollywood Family"
at 8 Sunday night on A&E.
by CNB