A spoonful of sugar sure does make the medicine go down.Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) has been signed to star in the new Tim Robbins project Possible Side Effects. The Showtime drama, which will be shot in New York, revolves around three brothers with a family-run pharmaceutical company. Robbins, who will serve as writer, director and executive producer of the show, "will not be appearing in the pilot," according to a Showtime press release. Which begs the question: Will Susan Sarandon's main squeeze be adding "actor" to his list of Side Effects credits? — Nina Hämmerling Smith
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Whoopi Goldberg will play a foster mother gone bad — a potentially recurring role — in a May episode of NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent. "Whoopi never gets to be the bad guy. In the world of [our show], she'll be the baddest," promises executive producer Fred Berner.... Bernadette Peters will play Karen's sister and Josh Lucas will give Jack a shoulder to cry on in the May 11, penultimate episode of Will & Grace.
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Question: A friend of mine says there are two remakes of The Poseidon Adventure (1972) in the works, one for theaters and one for TV. How can that be? It's not like Titanic, where the source is a historical event anybody could draw on. If my friend is right, what gives?
Answer: Your friend is right: A four-hour miniseries version of The Poseidon Adventure is scheduled to air on NBC in November 2005, and Warner Bros. has a theatrical remake called Poseidon due out in 2006. Because neither project is finished, I don't have access to contractual credits, but my guess as to how it happened is that the theatrical version is a remake of the first film and the TV version is an adaptation of the original novel by Paul Gallico. The why is another matter; I can't even begin to say. In any event, the $150 million thea
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