Lobster for dinner tomorrow night
The freshest seafood shipped nationwide...
Lobster for dinner tomorrow night
The freshest seafood shipped nationwide...
| Index | ||
Sylvester Stallone, fearing his superstar movie career had become muscle-bound, packed on 40 pounds of flab to work alongside acting heavyweights Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.
In "Cop Land" the beefcake hero of the "Rocky" and "Rambo" films plays an overweight, somewhat ineffective suburban sheriff dealing with tough New York City police detectives.
Moving beyond his indestructible action-film persona was a conscious choice. To accomplish it, he had to change agents three times in three years.
"At Creative Arts Agency I was the action specialist; maybe I was also a bit lax and just became a gun for hire," Stallone says in the latest issue of Time magazine, which hit newsstands Monday.
"Meanwhile Michael Douglas was getting these incredible parts: 'Basic Instinct,' 'Falling Down.' When I saw Al Pacino do 'Scent of a Woman' -- I would have killed for a role like that," Stallone said. "'The Usual Suspects?' I would have been there in a second. People don't think of me in those terms. Maybe after this, they will."
The newly married 51-year-old grants that he'll probably do another "Rambo" film, but that doesn't mean taking a shot at more serious acting jobs like "Cop Land" was a one-time thing.
"I have an inability to feel validated," Stallone said. "There's a persistent hunger, which is disconcerting and sometimes debilitating. You ask yourself when you can sit back and not have anything to prove? But I do have something to prove."
Bill Brochtrup, who played a gay police receptionist in "NYPD Blue," is an actor who doesn't mind being typecast.
The openly gay actor also played a homosexual in the short-lived 1996 comedy series "Public Morals" and returns next season as a complex gay man in the new crime drama "Total Security."
Thanks in part to Ellen DeGeneres' public acknowledgement of her homosexuality -- on and off screen -- American TV viewers no longer consider gay characters mere novelties, Brochtrup said.
"This marks the second generation of gay characters on TV," Brochtrup said of his new role.
Like "NYPD Blue" and "Public Morals," "Total Security" is a Stephen Bochco production. Brochtrup plays office manager George LaSalle, a neat freak with "a passion for detective novels" who happens to be homosexual.
Brochtrup is "very comfortable" with his homosexuality and believes the American public is more willing to judge homosexuals as individuals.
"Funny, smart, mean -- these are characteristics," Brochtrup said. "Fat, gay, African American -- these are facts of life."
George Stephanopoulos,
says jumping from the White House to ABC News was no easy feat for.
"It's a much bigger hurdle than I imagined," the ex-presidential adviser says in the Aug. 9 TV Guide. "There is a big difference between being a spokesperson and speaking for yourself. I'm getting used to it, but it has been difficult."
Stephanopoulos helped engineer President Clinton's 1992 victory and was a senior adviser during the president's first term. He made his debut as a political analyst on ABC in January.
Changing jobs put Stephanopoulos in a tricky professional position since he still has many friends in the Clinton administration.
"I am not working for the White House in any way, shape or form," he says. "Obviously, I speak with them, and any conversation can be a two-way street. I certainly do keep up my contacts with the White House."
Trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, the first jazz composer to win a Pulitzer Prize for music, is taking a seat on the New York state Council on the Arts.
Besides his jazz work, Marsalis is considered one of the world's best classical trumpet players. He has recorded more than 30 jazz and classical albums.
"It's an honor to serve the arts community," said Marsalis, artistic director of the jazz department at Lincoln Center in New York City. He won the Pulitzer Prize this year.
"Wynton Marsalis is an exceptional musician, performer and composer who has enriched the lives of millions across the world with his brilliant works of art," Gov. George Pataki said over the weekend.
The 20-member council that advises state officials on arts policy and helps promote the arts statewide. Members serve five-year terms and receive no salary.
Even though news anchorwoman Gayle King is getting her own daytime talk show, she and best friend Oprah Winfrey won't be ratings rivals.
"It's in my contract," King says in the Aug. 9 TV Guide. "We can't be on at the same time."
King, an anchorwoman at WFSB-TV in Connecticut, starts her new show Sept. 8. The format will be familiar to fans of the "The Oprah Winfrey Show."
"No sluts and nuts," King said.
She and Oprah have more than similar shows in common. They both wear size 10 shoes and worry about their weight.
"I want to lose seven more pounds," says King, whose dress size is 12.
| -Top- | -Home- | -Digest- | -Index- | -Staff- |  |