It's not likely to get heavy airplay on MTV, but veteran game show host Wink Martindale says his planned CD of narratives celebrating "Mom, God, country and apple pie" is a project whose time has come.
"There are certain things that need to be said right now," explains Martindale, who's planning a mid-April release for Winking at Life: My Favorite Narratives. His readings, backed by musical accompaniment, will include "The Pledge of Allegiance," Casey at the Bat, If Jesus Came to Your House, and a remake of his 1959 hit record, "Deck of Cards." "I'm one of those real sentimental fools," he tells TV Guide Online. "I cry at the drop of a hat and I'm very patriotic."
Martindale is also busy hosting the syndicated radio show Music of Your Life and promoting a just-published autobiography, also titled Winking at Life (both the book and the upcoming CD are available at his web site, www.winkmartindale.com). The book chronicles his 45-year
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On Valentine's Day in Los Angeles 3rd Rock From the Sun's Kristen Johnston thought the marquee on the Wiltern Theatre was a bit too tame. "We're performing The Vagina Monologues and they put the name of the cause but they wouldn't put vagina on the sign!"
The all-star reading of Eve Ensler's controversial play examining a key
part of the female anatomy from a variety of perspectives was a charity
performance to raise funds for groups devoted to ending violence against
women. Yes, some stars were embarrassed about saying the title out loud, but that didn't include the celebrities who participated, from Gina Gershon, Rita Wilson and Annie Potts to Lara Flynn Boyle, Kathy
Najimy and Kirstie Alley. And Gillian Anderson, who seldom steps out front at big public events, was an enthusiastic participant.
Gershon delightedly called her moment in the live performance, which was taped for broadca
read more
On Valentine's Day in Los Angeles 3rd Rock From the Sun's Kristen Johnston thought the marquee on the Wiltern Theatre was a bit too tame. "We're performing The Vagina Monologues and they put the name of the cause but they wouldn't put vagina on the sign!"
The all-star reading of Eve Ensler's controversial play examining a key
part of the female anatomy from a variety of perspectives was a charity
performance to raise funds for groups devoted to ending violence against
women. Yes, some stars were embarrassed about saying the title out loud, but that didn't include the celebrities who participated, from Gina Gershon, Rita Wilson and Annie Potts to Lara Flynn Boyle, Kathy
Najimy and Kirstie Alley. And Gillian Anderson, who seldom steps out front at big public events, was an enthusiastic participant.
Gershon delightedly called her moment in the live performance, which was taped for broadca
read more
As their thoughts turn to starting a family, Hollywood couple Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche can't seem to agree on whether they'd opt for adoption or artificial insemination.
Degeneres tells The Advocate that she and Heche haven't yet agreed to start a family but the couple has already begun debating their options. "Anne wants to have the baby because she wants to have that experience," she says. "I really want to adopt a baby because there are so many children in this world and we're overpopulated."
DeGeneres, who stars with Sharon Stone as lovers contemplating the very same issues in HBO's If These Walls Could Talk 2, says she and Walls writer Heche were themselves researching baby options during the making of the drama. "Right afterward we decided not to have a ba
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It's not likely to get heavy airplay on MTV, but veteran game show host Wink Martindale says his planned CD of narratives celebrating "Mom, God, country and apple pie" is a project whose time has come.
"There are certain things that need to be said right now," explains Martindale, who's planning a mid-April release for Winking at Life: My Favorite Narratives. His readings, backed by musical accompaniment, will include "The Pledge of Allegiance," Casey at the Bat, If Jesus Came to Your House, and a remake of his 1959 hit record, "Deck of Cards." "I'm one of those real sentimental fools," he tells TV Guide Online. "I cry at the drop of a hat and I'm very patriotic."
Martindale is also busy hosting the syndicated radio show Music of Your Life and promoting a just-published autobiography, also titled Winking at Life (both the book and the upcoming CD are available at his web site, www.winkmartindale.com). The book chronicles his 45-year
read more
Former Lost in Space and Babylon 5 star Bill Mumy is preparing to blast off on a cinematic sci-fi adventure of his own making, along with help from some of TV's other beloved former child stars.
Mumy tells TV Guide Online that he's a co-executive producer, co-writer and one of the stars of Overload, a "psychological drama in a sci-fi setting" that also stars pals Angela Cartwright (Lost in Space), Johnny Crawford (The Rifleman), Tony Dow (Leave it to Beaver), Don Grady (My Three Sons) and Billy Gray (Father Knows Best). Dow is serving as director and co-executive producer on the project, which is scheduled for completion later this year.
"I really believe
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Even though Frances McDormand won an Oscar for Best Actress, acting takes a backseat to more important roles. She tells TV Guide Online that she took her latest role in Wonder Boys because "I did a play in Dublin and a play in New York so I had to make some money! I had a mortgage to pay!"
McDormand's success definitely didn't happen overnight, but it was her hilarious turn as Marge Gunderson in Fargo that made people take notice. She's honest that taking home the coveted gold statuette didn't have any life-changing results: "The biggest thing that happens with that accolade is that it makes it easier for directors to hire you. I don't mean to fluff it off. It certainly is a great acknowledgment. The most rewarding one for me was the Screen Actors Guild Award because it's from my peers."
By far, McDormand's most rewarding role is as a mother. She and her husband, director
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Veteran director Mike Nichols (Primary Colors, The Graduate) says we shouldn't read too much into the reported tensions between him and star Garry Shandling on the set of What Planet Are You From?
Nichols admits there was flare-up on the set of the new comedy, but nothing of the magnitude implied in a recent New Yorker profile. "We had an angry moment between us which was fixed, I would say, within 10 minutes," he tells TV Guide Online. "I apologized and he understood why I'd been pissed and then it was really over. We had a good collaboration and I think it shows in the movie."
Not that we're surprised to hear of friction on the set. Shandling, if we're to believe the accusations made by ex-manager Brad Grey during their nasty 1998 split, is not the easiest guy in the world
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Raymond Burr solved many mysteries as TV lawyer Perry Mason and TV detective Ironside but it appears that one of the biggest unsolved mysteries involving the late actor ? his dubious claim that he had been married three times in real life ? can finally be put to rest.
"There was only one wife," Burr's sister, Geraldine Fuller, says on this Thursday's A&E Biography (8 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. PT). "I met her but I didn't care for her."
Burr, who led a secret gay life with long-time companion Robert Benevides right up until his death in 1993, had told reporters over the years that he had been to the altar three times: first, with a Scottish actress who was shot down in an airplane over the Atlantic by German attackers in 1943; second, to actress Isabella Ward, a 1947 marriage that was annulled after three months; and third, to Andrina Morgen, a 1954 marriage that ended tragically when she died of cancer. He also claimed he and Morgen had a s
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Sex, Lies and videotape director Steven Soderbergh was among the first to learn that Catherine Zeta-Jones is expecting. He tells TV Guide Online, "I called her up to offer her a part in my next movie, and she said, 'I can't. I'm going to have a baby.' "
Soderbergh was unfazed. "I told her that she'd be playing a mother with two kids and we'd just make her character pregnant. So she said yes. She'll be about five months pregnant when we start filming."
The accomplished auteur has just directed Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich and he's become an unabashed fan of the actress ? even if she did up the budget by collecting a $20 million paycheck! "She has an irrepressibility, energy and sparkle that are totally enticing. I can't imagine why she was cast in a movie like Mary Reilly that sort of turned off all her spirit. Her gift is this life force. I want her to do a cameo in my remake of Ocean's 11 next year, and I think s
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