BITS AND PIECES...02/23
PUSSSYKATT
--Fur flew when Mary Tyler Moore indignantly refused to take a picture with
soap diva Susan Lucci. Photogs at a Mad-hattan charity event begged them to
pose for a pic together but animal-lover Mary freaked because Susan was wearing
an outfit with fur cuffs! Mary snapped: "I don't pose with people who wear
fur!" -- and stormed off!
E! ONLINE....by Joal Ryan
--TOUCHE! Marilyn Manson filing a $40 million lawsuit against the ex-Spin
editor who sued him, SonicNet says. The shock rocker says his rep was "greatly
damaged" by the journalist's charges.
--MOVIE FANS MOURN: Dennis Rodman says he's signing with basketball's Los
Angeles Lakers, putting his show-biz career on hold for at least a few minutes.
--IT'S OFFICIAL, TOO! Jim Carrey to star in a live-action version of How the
Grinch Stole Christmas for a Thanksgiving 2000 release, Universal Pictures
announced today.
--AIN'T NO WAY TO TREAT A BRADY: Actress Florence Henderson suing two Southern
California businesses for hawking T-shirts featuring her likeness...and the
words "Porn Queen."
--BAD RAP? In California, Coolio pleads innocent to gun and dope charges,
stemming from an arrest last September.
--SPLAT! Batman and Robin, the 1997 Caped Crusader flick with George Clooney,
named worst comic-book movie ever by readers of Britain's leading sci-fi
magazines.
--TREE HUGGER: Leonardo DiCaprio says environmentalists need not worry about
his new movie, The Beach. The crew, he tells Time, takes "meticulous care with
every little branch."
--HE'S ENCOURAGED: Terrence Malick, the reclusive director of The Thin Red
Line, signing a three-picture deal with Sony's art-house unit. It's not known
whether he'll helm any of the projects.
--SPACE CADET: Brian De Palma inked to direct the sci-fi drama, Mission to
Mars, Daily Variety says.
--OOPS (AGAIN): Mogul Ted Turner issuing a new round of apologies--this time to
the people of Poland for an ethnic joke.
--TRIBUTE: Michael Zaslow, the daytime TV star who waged a public battle
against Lou Gehrig's disease, to posthumously receive the Editor's Award at
Friday's Soap Opera Digest Awards.
NY POST...PAGE SIX...
--"SHE would spread all these M&Ms on a piece of aluminum foil, and put them in
the oven until they melted. Then she'd just take a spoon and eat them. It was
absolutely disgusting! And she was enjoying it. That was a big problem" -
French-born advertising exec Michel Stern in W on the eating habits of his wife
Lisa Kudrow ...
--"IF the woman's got great breasts, who the hell is looking at me? I'm busting
my butt here for nothing" - Michael Caine in Redbook explaining why he avoids
nude scenes ...
-- "I WOULD love to go back and be the bride I was with the head I have now,
but that's no can do" - Sarah Ferguson, the divorced Duchess of York, on "Bill
Boggs; Corner Table."
--THE hottest work up for auction at Sotheby's this week comes from a rather
unknown artist - a five-year old, near-blind elephant. The painting pachyderm
is named Loukennkhng, and is the first animal to have an artwork sold at the
venerable auction house. Nearly 300 people are expected to bid on the piece,
created by Loukennkhng while she was recovering from an eye infection at an
animal hospital in Thailand. The decidedly abstract creation, roughly two feet
wide, is expected to fetch in the neighborhood of $1,200.
--IF "Gloria" had been a masterpiece, Sidney Lumet would be singing a different
tune. But, as the director himself puts it, "It's not as if you're kidding
anybody, it's out there and it's a stinker, and everybody can see it." Lumet
also told Madison magazine: "[Directors] are capable of total self-deception.
Especially since there can be 20 other motives for making the movie. Like, you
want the money. About a movie, it's not a vision, it's work."
NY POST...LIZ SMITH...
--CLAIRE DANES and Josh Brolin are said to share steamy love scenes in MGM's
upcoming ''The Mod Squad'' (based on the old TV series).
--ROVING reporter Roger Friedman tells us that Trudie Styler's annual
Rainforest Concert at Carnegie Hall, on April 17, will be an all-Sinatra event.
Trudie, wife of rock star Sting, says all the participants, including Elton
John, Tony Bennett and James Taylor, are busy picking out their favorite Frank
Sinatra numbers. Trudie has also produced the new film ''Lock, Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels'' for Gramercy, starring - but of course! - her hubby (who she
calls Pooky). And Roger asked Trudie about all that tantric sex that Sting is
always going on about: ''I know about frantic sex and tantrum sex, but what is
tantric sex?'' Trudie replied with a laugh: ''I'm not saying, but I am taking
that line from you. Hilarious - 'frantic sex ... tantrum sex.' I'm telling
Pooky!''
--SANDRA BERNHARD on Barbra Streisand in Allure magazine: ''Once she knew how
to accentuate her beauty, as opposed to now, where she seems to work against
it. I don't know how people can lose their sense of fashion, but she certainly
has.'' Oh, Sandra, who needs fashion sense when you have Jim Brolin?
RUSH AND MOLLOY....
--Jade Jagger paid bigtime to get her new collection of jewelry to New York
last week. One set of her baubles got held up in customs, so she had another
set expressed over from London aboard the Concorde. . . .
--Talk about doubletalk. Natalie Portman, 17, had to redub much of her
performance as Queen Amidala in George Lucas' coming "Star Wars" prequel
because her voice changed midway through the production. That and the fact that
there was a lot of background noise . . .
--Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa has apprehended a new fiance. The chief
cherub of the crime-fighting group wants to marry Mary Galda, the executive
director of the Angels. Sliwa, who divorced Angels' co-founder Lisa Sliwa five
years ago, yesterday asked Rudy Giuliani to perform the ceremony this spring.
The happy couple was at City Hall to get a proclamation hailing the Angels from
the mayor, who said he'd be glad to help them tie the knot . . .
--NASA honcho Dan Goldin misted up during a screening of "October Sky,"
Universal's story of Homer Hickham Jr., a poor West Virginia boy who became a
rocket scientist. "When I was a kid," remembered Goldin, "I used to set off
rockets in the swamp behind my house in the South Bronx" . . .
--Zsa Zsa Gabor walked out the last time Debbie Reynolds, spokeswoman for
Marriott Senior Living Services, mimicked her in her show. That won't stop
Reynolds from doing it again when she plays Resorts Casino in Atlantic City
this week.
MITCHELL FINK....
--Meredith Monroe, who plays Andi McPhee on TV's "Dawson's Creek," is engaged.
But don't look for details about the impending nuptials. Monroe's publicist
says only that the man's name is "Steve, and he's not in [show] business." . .
.
--Claire Danes got off the elevator on the 13th floor at 730 Fifth Ave., and
found herself at the Lawrence Rubin-Greenberg Van Doren gallery, where a party
was under way celebrating Richard Diebenkorn's paintings. Despite a showbiz
crowd that included actors Rob Morrow, Fisher Stevens and director Peter
Bogdanovich, Danes beat a hasty retreat, saying, "I guess I'm on the wrong
floor."
USA TODAY...
--For sale: Cook's Castle, also called Excalibur, on Lookout Mountain, which
stretches from Tennessee to Alabama. It's featured in the April issue of duPont
Registry's A Buyer's Gallery of Fine Homes. Ordered up by Jeff Cook, a founding
member and guitarist of country group Alabama, the castle — with massive
fireplace, Japanese-style kitchen with eat-around hibachi grill, banquet room,
four master suites, four additional bedrooms, pool with rock waterfall and more
— has just been put on the market. Asking price: $4,820,000.
--So who'll get the Grammy for best album? Comedian Bill Maher hopes it's
Sheryl Crow, because "at the end of the day, she's the class of the field," he
tells USA TODAY. Madonna, he says, "has never been nice to me so she can go . .
. and lose the award. Lauryn Hill, I didn't like the album. I liked her when
she was with the Fugees. But now she's on the cover of every magazine in
America, so she doesn't need my vote."
--LEXINGTON, Ky. — Ashley Judd is heating things up for the University of
Kentucky ice hockey team. A free team poster, featuring the actress clad in
only a Kentucky hockey jersey, helped double attendance to Cool Cats games this
season. Hockey coach Ian Wood described the reaction as "absolutely
unbelievable. I could not even begin to think it would be as big a success as
it was," Wood told Sunday's edition of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Judd's
allegiance to Kentucky's men's basketball team is well documented with her
frequent appearances at games. In all, 5,000 posters were given away — and not
just to hockey fans. "I didn't know we had so many deans of so many
departments," Wood said. The team relies mostly on dues and gate concessions
for funding. This season, Wood said, the team will have a surplus for the first
time.
-- Saving Private Ryan went over the $200 million mark this weekend, becoming
the biggest money-maker yet for 4-year-old DreamWorks. Steven Spielberg and
star Tom Hanks will have nice paydays with their deals, and of course Paramount
gets about half the bounty. . . .
--Jennifer Aniston's character, Rachel, on Friends gets a job designing for
Polo Ralph Lauren, reports Women's Wear Daily.