This and that 5/28/02 Part 1
Jaime Jeske
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Another 'Undercover Brother' being planned
PLANS ARE ALREADY in the works at Universal for a sequel to Eddie
Griffin's "Undercover Brother," which doesn't hit theaters until Friday.
Usually, says Griffin, "a studio will say, 'If the picture does such and
such, and performs in such and such a way, we'll make a follow-up.' But
producer Brian Grazer has already talked to me about a sequel, and I've
said, 'Hell, yes!' " He says his role, spun off from the satirical
series about a top operative working at a secret organization, "is one
of the funniest characters I've ever played."
The comic, who has "Eddie Griffin -- Live in Concert" (a feature
combining his stand-up act with a cinema verite look at his personal
life) opening this fall, may be back before the cameras in August. Or
not.
August is the planned start date for Miramax's "My Baby's Mama," which
Eddie wrote, and in which he has been expected to star with John
Leguizamo, LL Cool J and Lil' Kim. But, he says, "the casting isn't
completed, and a director still has to be selected, and he might decide
not to be part of the cast. If I don't do it, someone else will. I'm
producer of the movie, and it will still be made."
He expects to make the sequel to "Undercover Brother" next year, and
says that if he gets his way, "We'll get John Ridley back to write the
script. His sensibility is a monster on the first 'Undercover' movie."
FACT OF THE MATTER IS: No truth to reports that Pam Anderson and Kid
Rock are expecting a baby, insists her camp. We're also told that rumors
that have them tying the knot this fall are untrue.
"They're taking it easy; they haven't set a date and have no idea when
they will," reports Pam's priority person. "His home base is still in
Detroit, his son is there, and he and Pam go back and forth together a
lot." She's still involved in a child custody suit with ex Tommy Lee,
and until that's resolved, she isn't expected to speak out about her
plans with her Rock.
WEIGHTY SUBJECT: Actress Jamie Bergman -- aka Mrs. David Boreanaz --
reveals "the pressure is definitely on to lose the weight" now that
she's given birth to son Jaden Rayne Boreanaz. Bergman and the WB's
"Angel" lead became parents on May 1, and since then, the 27-year-old
actress has "lost 25 pounds. I have about 15 more to go before I get
back to where I was before getting pregnant."
Exactly what is the leading lady of the F/X "Baywatch" spoof series "Son
of the Beach" doing to lose so much weight so soon? "I'm working with a
trainer, and I'm having my meals delivered by Zone Perfect (a service
that home delivers three Zone Diet meals and two snacks daily for about
$40). I'm also breast-feeding, and that burns 500 calories per feeding."
Bergman says she's grateful that the producers of the show decided to
write her unplanned pregnancy into the season's plot. "I was really
worried that I wouldn't be able to do the show when I learned I was
pregnant, because my character on the show is a virgin. By the time we
shot the first episode, I was already five months. But luckily, the
producers wrote in that my character goes to Washington to be an intern
and she comes back pregnant, with amnesia," Bergman says, laughing.
HOME IS WHERE THE WORK IS: Kevin Sorbo and his wife and baby have
settled down in Vancouver for shooting of another season of his
"Andromeda" series. He says it makes the ninth year he's worked out of
America. "I shot 'Hercules' in New Zealand for six years, and this marks
the third year for 'Andromeda.' " He notes, "I wouldn't mind getting
home again. But Vancouver is very clean, and the people are very nice."
That's nice, because it sounds like that's where the Sorbos are going to
be for quite a while longer. His series has been picked up for season
four, and he figures, "Unless I fall off the planet, I think I'll get my
five-year contract fulfilled." The sci-fi show, which shoots 44 episodes
a season, is a top syndicated offering and is marketed in over 100
countries.
With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Erick Johnson. The Celebrities
column appears Monday through Thursday. To find out more about Marilyn
Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the
Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
"The New York Times"
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
BOLDFACE NAMES
Big Man on Canvas
By JAMES BARRON
The painter NELSON SHANKS, who did the last commissioned portrait from
life of Diana, Princess of Wales, has a more recent commission that he
would like to finish: a painting of BILL CLINTON for the National
Portrait Gallery in Washington. But he says he needs more face time with
the former president.
"I started when he was in the White House," Mr. Shanks said.
He said the painting was "quite finishable" but "not as big as I would
like to have, finally, in the National Portrait Gallery."
He has decided that the Clinton portrait should be more monumental than
the three-quarters-length one he began at the White House. "I want to do
a seven-foot, standing portrait, something that will be noticed by
virtue of size and hopefully quality," he said.
CAROLYN K. CARR, the deputy director of the National Portrait Gallery,
said, "We're just waiting for the president to have the time to sit for
Nelson." A call to Mr. Clinton's office was not returned on Friday.
Bitten by a Spider
Now that "Spider-Man" has taken in $334.3 million at the box office and
helped push Hollywood toward record revenues for a Memorial Day weekend,
the director, SAM RAIMI, can afford to remember. He can afford to
remember how much he wanted to weave his web around "Spider-Man," and
how much he doubted that he would land the job.
"I said to my agent, `Is there any way I can get on the list to direct
this thing?' " Mr. Raimi told reporters in Los Angeles, The Associated
Press reported. "And he said: `Fat chance. There's 16 guys they want
before you, they've told me.' "
"I said, `O.K., put me down for No. 17.' "
Once he had been hired, Mr. Raimi said, he had pangs of "raw fear" as he
began figuring out how to shoot "Spider-Man."
"The most insecurity is at the beginning," he said. "It's like they hire
you to build the Brooklyn Bridge. Well, sure, I can cross this river.
And then you think, how am I going to do this?"
`Law and Order,' Law of Gravity
It was midmorning, the beginning of another day at "Law and Order:
Criminal Intent." In a dressing room a few steps from the
police-precinct set at Chelsea Piers, Steve the Makeup Guy was finishing
KATHRYN ERBE'S sentences as she explained that this "Law and Order"
series was different from the two other "Law and Order" series.
"We wanted to have our own identity and not be stuck in the --"
Steve the Makeup Guy (STEVEN LAWRENCE in the credits) did not miss a
beat. "Machine," he said.
Ms. Erbe continued. "So we try to be respectful of the `Law and
Order' --"
This time, Mr. Lawrence did not know where the sentence was heading.
"We'll get back to you," he said.
Ms. Erbe found the word. "Tradition," she said.
Here Mr. Lawrence took over: "I think trying to create your own identity
is very tricky. You don't want to be the same. You want to be a
different show. It's like a family of brothers and sisters. Everyone's
different, even if they sort of have the same name."
Back to Ms. Erbe. She said she was working on her 11th episode without a
break, an episode that will not air until next season. Then VINCENT
D'ONOFRIO walked in, and the conversation turned to close calls during
the just-ended first season.
The consensus was that the closest happened on a day when they were on
location, on Broadway in the West 50's. Ms. Erbe said she had just left
shooting when a piece of metal fell from a building under construction
and landed a few feet from Mr. D'Onofrio. "Of course we kept shooting,"
he said.
"The Boston Globe"
NAMES
By Carol Beggy and Stephanie Stoughton, Globe Staff, 5/28/2002
BOOK ON THE BEACH A former Boston Globe writer, Michele McPhee, who
recently wrote the book ''Mob Over Miami,'' is talking to the BBC about
filming a documentary about Chris Paciello. The South Beach nightclub
king, who dated Niki Taylor, Jennifer Lopez, and Madonna while on the
lam from a Mafia murder case in Staten Island, is the subject of
McPhee's book, published by Onyx, a division of Penguin Putnam. Now a
crime reporter with the New York Daily News, McPhee is working with
Teale Productions on the project about the impresario who couldn't
outrun his past.
Names can be reached at names at globe.com or at 617-929-8253.
This story ran on page E2 of the Boston Globe on 5/28/2002.
"The Atlanta Journal-Constitution"
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
Tuesday Peach Buzz:
'Brother' recalls Midtown shows
By RICHARD L. ELDREDGE
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Longtime regulars at Agatha's -- A Taste of Mystery dinner theater will
have no problem ID'ing actor Gary Anthony Williams in the new
action-comedy spy spoof, "Undercover Brother" when it hits theaters
Friday. The actor worked at the Midtown haunt for more than four years
in the 1990s, starring in classics like "Cat on a Hot Tin Streetcar."
Williams told Buzz his old gig was "without a doubt, the best-paying
acting job in Atlanta."
The Fayetteville native plays Smart Brother in the popcorn flick
starring Eddie Griffin and Chris Kattan. "Smart Brother is kinda like Q
from all the James Bond movies but with a black twist," Williams said.
"I still invent all the gadgets, but they're things like a watch that
squirts hot sauce so brothers can eat Caucasian food."
"Undercover Brother" also serves as a spoof of 1970s blaxploitation
films, complete with Cadillacs burning rubber, Afros and mutton chop
sideburns. "This film adequately makes fun of everyone across the
cultures," says Williams. "We could never get through a scene on the
first take without losing it."
The boss in the film is played by "Boston Public" actor Chi McBride,
another former Atlantan. "I asked him where he acted in town, and he
told me he wasn't working as an actor in Atlanta," said Williams. "He
worked for the phone company!"
TV viewers can also catch Williams in his recurring role on "Malcolm in
the Middle" as Abe Kenarbin, the butter-snarfing father of Malcolm's
best friend. "His wife watches everything he eats so in one episode Abe
just starts eating pat after pat of butter." And yes, it was the real
cholesterol-choked stuff. "We only had to do four takes because I
couldn't have done any more."
And what does Williams and his wife, Leslie, miss most about Atlanta?
Said the Los Angeles transplant: "Just being able to pop into Manuel's
Tavern. Love that place. That and the Fellini's Pizza on Ponce. Oh,
man."
Heartfelt art
On Friday, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney unveiled a painting dedicated to gal
pal Heather Mills at Liverpool's Walker Gallery as part of Britain's
first comprehensive exhibition of the former Beatle's paintings, reports
BBC Online.
"Big Heart," one of only a few works he has completed since meeting his
fiancee, consists of a large red heart-shape containing the etched
figure of a female nude.
"The life work of Paul McCartney is all about heart," said a slightly
overwrought curator Michael Simpson. "Without heart, art is not art --
it is meaningless."
The exhibition includes 70 paintings alongside wood sculptures and
photographs.
McCartney's exhibit comes fresh off the triumphant conclusion of his
"Driving Rain" tour, which wrapped up this month. He and Mills plan to
marry this summer.
Celebrity docket
A Las Vegas family court judge has dismissed a temporary protection
order banning pop culture footnote John Wayne Bobbitt from seeing the
wife he married two months ago.
Bobbitt, who gained fame in 1993 when his first wife removed part of his
reproductive system with a knife, remains in the Clark County Detention
Center in Las Vegas without bail pending resolution of a misdemeanor
domestic battery charge.
The 35-year-old is due back in court on June 4. He could face three
years in prison for violating his probation, in addition to any sentence
from the domestic violence charge, says David Sonner, state Department
of Parole and Probation district administrator in Las Vegas.
Bobbitt was arrested May 13 after his wife, Joanna, summoned police to
the couple's home and said she had been assaulted. The couple married
March 23 in Las Vegas.
Domestic Violence Commissioner Frank Sullivan dismissed the protection
order last week after Joanna, 31, did not appear for a hearing,
according to court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer.
Jaime