At a recent World AIDS Day event — where Emmy-winning West Wing director Paris Barclay was honored as one of 20 black "Heroes in the Struggle" — this question arose: Might his issue-oriented series ever address the impact of AIDS on African-Americans?
"That would be a great storyline," said Barclay's pal, Dulé Hill, who plays presidential aide Charlie Young on the show. "I think it's something we should bring to [creator] Aaron Sorkin. I would like to see that."
Scoffed Barclay: "Aaron ignores everything that doesn't come from his own mind. I found the best strategy is to go to [writer/producer]
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Anyone who witnessed West Wing First Lady Abigail Bartlet's reaction to her husband-in-chief's decision to run for a second term earlier this season knows that Stockard Channing has that whole psycho thing down pat. But if you thought she was mad then, wait until you see her lose control in The Business of Strangers, her new indie, opening Friday in New York and Los Angeles.
In the film, the Emmy- and Oscar-nominated actress plays a high-powered female executive who goes into meltdown mode while cooped up in a hotel room with Julia Stiles. "I had to get down and dirty and ugly and strange," she tells TV Guide Online. "I knew I had to go someplace I'd never really [gone] before and
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What has Xena: Warrior Princess star Lucy Lawless been up to since our beloved heroine signed off sans her head? TV Guide Online caught up with the actress at the grand opening of Build-a-Bear Workshop's new Hollywood store — where celebs from Arnold Schwarzenegger to Mary J. Blige created and donated personalized stuffed animals for an auction to benefit First Book, a children's literacy charity.
We begin with the burning question: Will Lawless reprise her X-Files guest role as killer fembot Shannon McMahon? When last seen, the resilient robo-vixen had suddenly awoken in her watery grave — clearly leaving the door open for a return. Even so, Lawless has no plans to come back anytime soon. "I'm halfway thr
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One of Matt Damon's fave scenes in the casino caper Ocean's Eleven (opening tomorrow) didn't even feature him! He just loved watching cardsharp co-star Brad Pitt hustle TV's teen idols — like Joshua Jackson and Holly Marie Combs (Charmed), who play themselves — in a poker game. "It was great," he laughs. "Reminded me of my days in Rounders, some poor pro still trying take a sap's money."
Damon has his own sucker-swindling fun as Ocean's ace pickpocket, Linus Caldwell. The star even dreamed up a clever plan for
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Shorn of her skulking Scully character, X-Files star Gillian Anderson seems prone to giggles. At a Dec. 2 Hollywood benefit for troubled gay teens, Anderson — who was co-hosting the evening's live auction with Teri Garr — lost it when she announced that bids would be "increasingly mental," as opposed to "incremental."
But the big laughs came when bidding for a walk-on role on HBO's mortuary drama Six Feet Under commenced. "We have a lot of dead people on our show. If anybody ever asks you if you want to be a dead person, don't do it," Anderson cracked. "You have to stop breathing for long periods of time." Seeing the mock disapproval on Garr's face — after all, her job was to sell the auction items — she co
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At the Manhattan press junket for Vanilla Sky, Cameron Crowe's new romantic thriller (opening Dec. 14), Penélope Cruz was chatting up a room full of reporters when Tom Cruise appeared in the doorway calling, 'Hola, Hola!' Cruz then gasped, jumped from her seat and bolted from the room to follow her beau down the hall. She sheepishly returned moments later to apologize for exiting without a good-bye.
Apparently, such is the whimsical real life/reel life romance of the handsome Vanilla stars. But contrary to widely-circulated rumors, Cruise insists they didn't become intimately involved during the film's production. Says he: "I wasn't falling in
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Standing just 4'0" tall, Danny Woodburn can state with great certainty that there are, in fact, small roles. Since the actor broke into showbiz a decade ago, his career has been full of 'em, from Tony the Elf in 1996's Jingle All the Way to Kramer's diminutive rival, Mickey Abbott, on Seinfeld. However, when Special Unit 2 offered him a part that was a little supernatural — that of Carl the Gnome — he expressed a few big concerns.
"I had some trepidation originally," he confirms for TV Guide Online. "But I justified [coming onboard by reminding myself] that I was not going to be the only one in makeup. There are creatures-of-the-week from all different walks of life, in all shapes and sizes.
"Plus, I realized that this character is sort o
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What does single mom-turned-best-selling author J.K. Rowling think of the film adaptation of her Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? Though the movie's $220 million take thus far shows audiences approve, the writer's opinion worried producer David Heyman (The Daytrippers) most. After all, consider the embarrassing publicity that results when such heavyweight scribes as Anne Rice and Stephen King rail against the big-screen versions of their books!
"That [first] screening was very, very scary," admits Heyman. "[Rowling] watched it with 50 of her closest friends [so] there was not only her, but her friends to contend with." His fears were put to rest, he says, when "she came down t
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For sexy Simon Baker of CBS's The Guardian, playing male escort Retaux in The Affair of the Necklace wasn't much of a stretch. As he winks to TV Guide Online: "You don't really have to get into character to play a gigolo. Every guy sort of dreams of that at some stage of their life, don't they?"
Unfortunately, Baker's dream dimmed when he learned his castmates weren't all as cute as Hilary Swank. "As soon as they started lining up women as extras," he laughs, "[I realized] the reality is the young, attractive women that most men desire aren't wanting to pay for sex. The crustier version — who have lots of money and are not necessarily able to pick up guys — are the ones that pay for sex. So I think the nature of being a g
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How does Christopher Titus feel about Emmy's continued snub of his TV dad Stacy Keach? "I think it's a national disgrace," the candid star of Fox's Titus groans to TV Guide Online. "Not since Archie Bunker has there been a character you hated so much and loved so much at the same time."
For his part, the erstwhile Mike Hammer suspects that members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences may just plain hate his heartless alter ego — not to mention the show itself. "I think we're edgy to the point where we are somewhat challenging of the prurient interests of society," Keach offers, "and I think that Emmy doesn't want to endorse that necessarily."
Still, the 60-year-old acting vet — who acknowledges that Hollywood for years "typecast me as a serious dramatic ac
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