Apparently, spending a month on a far-flung island with rats, snakes and Richard Hatch can prepare you for anything — even a movie career. To wit, original Survivor castaway Colleen Haskell, 24, makes her big screen debut on Friday in The Animal, which co-stars a motley menagerie including Saturday Night Live alum Rob Schneider.
Though she initially wasn't too confident about her acting ability, the novice says sharing screen time with a cast of critters helped take the pressure off. "I liked having the animals on the set because they attracted attention away from me," Haskell chuckles. "No matter how bad I was messing up, the goat was really messing up!"
Unfortunately, when it came time to film one unsavory scene — in which Schneider chews up a live worm and lets a baby turkey vulture eat it from his mouth — her gag re
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Question: On Boston Public, the teacher played by Jessalyn Gilsig was driving and listening to a song when her car broke down, prompting her to take a baseball bat to it. What was the name of the song? My wife really like the few lyrics she heard and would like to get it. Thank You — Jimmy L., husband of a fan
Televisionary: But of course, Jimmy. However, may I first say you're a breath of fresh marital air for writing in to help the little lady, unlike all the other cranky spouses who merely want to prove their partners wrong in a spat?
Anyway, the tune teacher Lauren Davis (Gilsig) listened to just before meeting her stalker ex-student was the 1973 Intruders hit "I'll Always Love My Mama," which the wee Televisionary sang along with during his AM-radio childhood in Philadelphia. The band recorded with visionary producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, who created the acclaimed "Philly sound," but a
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Question: Did Heather Locklear ever appear on TV's CHiPs?
Televisionary: Nope, but I can certainly understand why you might think so.
Affectionately known by fans as "chippies" (I assume they don't mean the slang term for a female prostitute), a few different lady officers rotated through the California Highway Patrol during CHiPs's 1977-83 run on NBC. Brianne Leary played Officer Sindy Cahill from 1978-79, Randi Oakes patrolled as Officer Bonnie Clark from 1979-82 and Tina Gayle enforced the law as Officer Kathy Linahan from 1982 until the series left the air.
I bet you're thinking of current Spin City star Locklear's work in the read more
If Traci Elizabeth Lords wasn't such a hottie, she probably would've recorded a half-dozen albums by now. But dang it, her ready-for-its-close-up pout — not to mention her underrated acting ability — keep getting her cast on TV series (like First Wave, the Sci Fi Channel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers-meets-The Fugitive hybrid) and
in movies (among them, the upcoming Blade sequel). As a result, fans of her scorching 1995 techno platter, 1,000 Fires, just keep waiting for her to get back into the groove.
"I was six tracks into a new record when I signed to do First Wave," the sometime songwriter tells TV Guide Online, "and now that I'm [done taping for the season], I'm like, 'I don't feel like that anymore.' So basically, it's all screwed up. I have to start all over."
While the prospect of scrapping a half-finished disc would start many a vocalist shrieking in panic, this admirer of acts as diverse as Ricky Ma
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Question: Can you please tell me the name of the song (and the artist) that played at the end of The West Wing's season finale? Thanks. — Shirley
Televisionary: That was the title song from Dire Straits's 1985 disc Brothers in Arms, Shirley. And let me congratulate you for your speedy keyboard work — you were the first in a wave of viewers who logged on and asked about it. (I had a hunch there'd be at least a few of you guys when I watched it — thanks for demonstrating that I'm right every now and then).
If you're looking to sample the band, that's not a bad place to start, certainly, though several of the tracks on it ("Walk of Life," "Money for Nothing") were played to death for years after the album's release. However, in my opinion Dire Straits's best remains 1980's Making Movies.
And I must admit that while I'm usually not a big fan of using pop music to create mood and impact on TV &#
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon wants to set the record straight — so to speak — about the show's upcoming all-musical episode. Contrary to his recent Buffy.com posting, in which he told fans, in jest, that the installment "could be the worst hour of TV ever made," the acclaimed auteur is now singing a different tune.
"I actually think it's going to be good," he says of the episode, which is slated to air next season during November sweeps (it's episode six). "But it is something I've never done before, so it's a little nerve-racking."
Whedon — who will write and direct the hour-long singing and dancing extravaganza (with a choreographer on deck to coordinate the fancy footwork) — reveals that beneath all the spectacle will rest something far more profound than, say, a Busby Berkeley opus. "It's about what it's like to live in a musical world," he previews, "because all our guys are gonn
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Question: Who were the stars on the TV show The Streets of San Francisco?
Televisionary: Karl Malden was the "name" star in the police drama, which ran on ABC from September 1972 to June 1977, and Michael Douglas was the unknown kid with the famous dad (Kirk, for you newcomers to TV and film). And a fitting match they were to play street-educated Det. Mike Stone (Malden) and college-boy Inspector Steve Keller (Douglas). (For the record, Douglas left the show and was replaced by a pre-Battlestar Galactica Richard Hatch's Inspector Dan Robbins in 1976, but I find the Malden-Douglas comparison to be far more interesting, so I'll just ignore poor Apollo.)
At the time the show debuted, Malden, born Mladen Sekulovich, was a film veteran who'd worked his way up from
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If Traci Elizabeth Lords wasn't such a hottie, she probably would've recorded a half-dozen albums by now. But dang it, her ready-for-its-close-up pout — not to mention her underrated acting ability — keep getting her cast on TV series (like First Wave, the Sci Fi Channel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers-meets-The Fugitive hybrid) and
in movies (among them, the upcoming Blade sequel). As a result, fans of her scorching 1995 techno platter, 1,000 Fires, just keep waiting for her to get back into the groove.
"I was six tracks into a new record when I signed to do First Wave," the sometime songwriter tells TV Guide Online, "and now that I'm [done taping for the season], I'm like, 'I don't feel like that anymore.' So basically, it's all screwed up. I have to start all over."
While the prospect of scrapping a half-finished disc would start many a vocalist shrieking in panic, this admirer of acts as diverse as Ricky Ma
read more
In one gut-wrenching battle scene in Pearl Harbor (opening today), Cuba Gooding Jr. is seen with tears streaming down his cheeks. "I wasn't acting, and now I can smile about it," the Oscar winner tells TV Guide Online. "I couldn't stop crying because I was hanging on to the world's biggest machine gun, firing away at the enemy, and the noise and concussion were horrible. I thought, 'I'm going to die up here in the middle of this fake battle.'
"But being there while that page of history was filmed was one of those defining moments that you never forget," he adds. "I'm glad I was up to the physical challenge. I'm still in shape, but one day when I'm in a wheelchair I can put on the tape of Pearl Harbor and watch myself in my glory."
Gooding Jr. — who starred as a naval hero opposite Robert De Niro in last year's Men of Honor — has a markedly smaller role in Pearl
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It's good to be a gay icon. Just ask Ellen DeGeneres, who was the belle of the ball at a recent garden party benefit for Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (which runs July 12-23). Held at an old Tudor mansion in L.A.'s posh Hancock Park, the sunny soiree was attended by a gaggle of gussied-up gay gals eager for a glimpse of their heroine.
"Oh, they're buzzin' around like bees to a honeycomb, aren't they?" DeGeneres joked to TV Guide Online. "I don't know what made me the special guest today. When other people aren't available, I'm here. I'm the designated lesbian."
But seriously, folks, DeGeneres is out to do some consciousness-raising. Enthused the actress: "I think it's important to have more gay films available — especially to our youth, so that they see there's other people out there like them. It's not all tragic and depressing. Unfortunately, we just focus on how hard it is and the suicide and hate crimes, but there are a lot of
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