Celebrated Hollywood documentarian Jack Haley Jr. — best known for creating 1974's landmark musical celebration That's Entertainment! — died Saturday at age 67. Haley was married to Liza Minnelli; the couple divorced in 1979.
read more
The name's Butler, Gerard Butler. The little-known Scottish actor — best known for last year's Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 — is reportedly the frontrunner to succeed Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. According to the Daily Record, producer Barbara Broccoli has set up a meeting with Butler to discuss the role. Brosnan's contract, the newspaper reports, expires after his fourth Bond pic — which goes into production in January.
read more
Singer Toni Braxton wed Mint Condition's Keri Lewis in a private outdoor ceremony Saturday in Atlanta... NBC's telecast of the first XFL championship game Saturday was watched by a paltry 1.7 million households, almost ensuring that the network will end its partnership with the league next season. — Michael Ausiello
read more
Survivor's Alicia and Kimmi and Colby and Keith weren't the first twosomes to do battle Down Under. Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles heroine Linda Kozlowski reveals that she and co-star-slash-husband Paul Hogan clashed when they initially met prior to filming 1986's Crocodile Dundee.
Kozlowski — who has played journalist Sue Charlton in all three Dundee movies — tells TV Guide Online that she found Hogan "very chilly and unfriendly" at the film's read-through in Australia. "Afterwards, he left and I went to the producer and I said 'Can I talk to you for a minute? The leading man, Paul Hogan... he's not really friendly.'"
Kozlowski would eventually see the error of her ways — "[Paul's] a little shy in real life" — but it was too late. "I think he was reprimanded," she recalls, adding that Hogan eventually reaped his revenge. "He said [to himself], 'I'll show you — I'll marry you!'"
read more
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck is out on bail after being arrested Saturday over an alleged air rage incident on a British Airways flight from Seattle to London. At a preliminary hearing today in London, Buck was charged with causing criminal damage to the plane, disobeying an aircraft commander, being drunk while on board and two counts of assaulting cabin crew. "I am very sorry for the incident and, of course, very embarrassed about the whole thing," the musician said in a statement. R.E.M. is scheduled to play at the South Africa Freedom Day Concert in London's Trafalgar Square on Sunday.
read more
In an unprecedented turnabout, Buffy the Vampire Slayer will move from the WB to rival network UPN this fall — and its sister series Angel may follow it there. After months of intense negotiations, the WB ultimately refused to cave in to the financial demands of Buffy's producer, 20th Century Fox, paving the way for UPN to snatch it up. According to Variety, the deal "represents the first time in modern TV history that a hit series has jumped networks solely over economic issues." The home of Moesha and WWF Smackdown! has ordered 44 installments of Buffy to air over two years at a per-episode price of $2.33 million. The UPN pact also includes a two-year pickup for the Buffy spinoff Angel if the WB decides to cancel it — a move that now appears likely.
read more
Even an 11th hour publicity stunt/pregnancy prank on The Tonight Show proved to be no help to Tom Green's gross-out comedy Freddy Got Fingered. The dismally reviewed pic debuted at No. 5 at the box office with an icky $7.3 million. The news was equally bad for Aussie actor Paul Hogan, whose critically savaged Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles opened at No. 4 with a tepid $8 million. Meanwhile, thanks to a boost in its theater count and repeat viewings by women, Bridget Jones's Diary jumped two places to No. 1 in its second weekend of release. The acclaimed British romantic comedy — starring Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth — grossed $10.5 million for the Friday-to-Sunday period. After three weekends at the top, Spy Kids slipped to No. 2 with $10.2 million. The film's 24-day total stands at $86 million. The Morgan Freeman thriller Along Came a Spider was the No. 3 film with
read more
Elisabeth Rohm — best known for her roles on TNT's Bull and the WB's Angel — will replace Angie Harmon as the Assistant District Attorney on NBC's Law & Order next season, a show rep now confirms. Rohm's character is described as "an extremely gifted, intelligent and aggressive young prosecutor with Harvard Law Review on her résumé and aspirations beyond the District Attorney's office." She'll debut in the show's 12th season premiere in the fall.
read more
Paul Hogan — who returns to the big screen today with Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles — doesn't mind being mistaken for his Aussie alter ego, Mick Dundee. However, you may want to think twice before confusing him with another Outback adventurer, Crocodile Hunter's Steve Irwin.
"That's another guy... that nut on television," Hogan insists with a laugh. "They roll around all day with crocodiles. Get a life, guys. Crocodile Dundee is about people; it's 10 seconds about crocodiles."
But Hogan, who also co-stars with a skunk, chimpanzee and pig in the third installment of the Dundee series, confesses that it's frequently easier to act opposite animals and kids than adults. "There are quite a few actors in the business who are much more difficult than kids or monkeys," he reveals. "Animals and kids don't run off to the trailer and slam the door and refuse to come out because they're an Aquarius or something."
Hogan a
read more
In two years of the WB's helter-skelter dramedy Popular, Harrison John — the earnest Everydweeb played by Christopher Gorham — has come closer to the grave than the boudoir. But his luck may be about to change: Next month, the odd man out will find himself torn between two loves — if not two lovers — tomboy Sam (Carly Pope) and dreamgirl Brooke (Leslie Bibb).
"At the end of the season," the actor tells TV Guide Online with a chuckle, "things get very complicated for little ol' Harrison."
As a matter of fact, constructing the torrid triangle made things a mite complicated for Gorham as well. His missus, Anel Lopez, is a fellow thespian — not to mention a Popular grad (throughout the first season, she recurred as Glamazon Popita Fresh) — yet, he points out, "It's still an unenviable position to be in for one who is married and about to have a kid."
Fort
read more