matt.webb.mitovich

Wheeere's Johnny? Ed McMahon's on a Search

When Ed McMahon's Next Big Star premieres Sunday (6 pm/ET on PAX), its titular host promises a competitive showcase for up-and-coming talent  much akin to Star Search, his popular 1980s series  as well as appearances by established entertainment superstars. (Steven Tyler, 'N Sync and Jessica Simpson, to name just a few, have already taped segments.) Yet one friend of McMahon's that you won't see is Johnny Carson, the Tonight Show host for whom McMahon served as announcer and sidekick for three decades. "It's very unlikely," McMahon tells TV Guide Online of the possibility for a cameo by Carson, who largely has been MIA since turning over the late-night talker to Jay Leno in 1992. "He just won't do anything on television. "Johnny has turned down hosting the Oscars five times," he adds, illustrating his point. "And that would be the show to host, with three billion people watc

Thu, Sep 6, 2001

Apes Director's Secret Fear

An opening weekend gross of $69 million can buy a lot of bananas. Yet anyone familiar with Planet of the Apes director Tim Burton knows that the preferred fruit of his labor is the satisfaction in presenting an unmistakably unique vision to moviegoers. "That whole thing about 'successful movies,' 'personal versus studio movies'... It's all the same to me," he attests. "I feel close to every film I make, though there may be a few that feel slightly more personal." In terms of critical and audience acceptance, "every movie that ever came out from me could have gone either way, as far as my mind was concerned," the auteur behind Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and two Batman films adds. "But

Fri, Aug 3, 2001

Apes Star Makes Peace with Heston

In Planet of the Apes's most self-referential moment, ape army leader General Thade visits his father's bedside, where the withering patriarch, with his last breaths, unveils a symbol of humankind's inventiveness: a firearm. Yet, since the ailing elder is played by original Apes star Charlton Heston  the president of the National Rifle Association, natch  it's a scene that Thade's portrayer, Tim Roth, almost was not a part of. "It was difficult for me, because of the whole NRA thing," admits the actor. "I'm aware of [Heston's] reputation, but I've got two kids. In fact, it has taken away from his reputation as an actor, to be honest. "Everyone is welcome to their politics, I completely agree with that," Roth adds. "But [th

Thu, Aug 2, 2001

Wahlberg Tackles Apes Rumors

Now that Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes has hit theaters, star Mark Wahlberg can offer up a spoiler-free look at the rumors surrounding the film  and the final scene that has tongues wagging. Did a skimpy loin cloth  like the one Charlton Heston sported in the 1968 original  ever find its way into Wahlberg's wardrobe, only to be rejected? "When I first met with Tim [about the film], I said, 'I'll do anything you want,'" the actor recalls. However, he neglected to say that he would be "really uncomfortable in a loin cloth." As a result, Wahlberg had to wait six long weeks before eyeing his Apes wardrobe. "Thank God there was just a space suit,"

Tue, Jul 31, 2001

Bully Star Has No Pie Cravings

You're looking to populate the next big teen romp/gross-out comedy, and think that Nick Stahl would be a fine addition to the cast; after all, he does have the high-school fright flick Disturbing Behavior on his r&#233sum&#233. Good fit, right? Well, don't add his name to the movie poster just yet. After all, "disturbing behavior" aptly describes the types of roles to which this young actor is drawn. "I get sent [American Pie-type] scripts all the time," Stahl reports. "But they're just not as interesting to me. I guess you've got to see the bad stuff, though, to see the good." Such a stance hasn't stymied his career path; rather, after a promising feature debut in Mel Gibson's The Man Without a Face, Stahl went on to face gritty

Wed, Jul 25, 2001

Director Can't Bully Ratings Board

There's very little difference between director Larry Clark's world of six years ago and today. Both then (with Kids) and now (with the just-released Bully), he brought to the public a film depicting  in harrowing reality  the sordid life of an isolated group of teens. And both times, the Motion Picture Association of America compelled him to release his work unrated. "There's always a battle with my films," Clark admits with a slightly exasperated yet accepting laugh. "If we were a big studio with a lot of money and big stars, Bully would get an R-rating. But since this is a small independent film, and since we're trying to reflect reality  whatever "reality" is  the board said 'No.'" In fact, the MPAA issued back an unusually colorful denial. "When we asked them what we could o

Tue, Jul 24, 2001

Ming-Na's Final Fantasy: Hot ER Romance

As a recent TV Guide cover story pointed out, NBC's ER survived its first full season sans both fan faves George Clooney and Julianna Margulies partly on the strength of its formidable roster of female talent. With that said, Ming-Na (who plays the medical drama's Dr. Jing-Mei Chen) looks forward to the added firepower of returning original castmember Sherry Stringfield (as Dr. Susan Lewis). "I worked with Sherry during the first season, so it's really exciting," Ming-Na tells TV Guide Online. "Her character was so loved... It will be really good for the show." Ah, but will it be good for Jing-Mei's love life? After all, as some root for romance between the headstrong beauty and Noah Wyle's Dr. Carter, the fact remains that, with leading man Anthony Edwards entering the last year of his contract, Carter seems a logical target for Stringfield's on-screen affections. "A

Wed, Jul 11, 2001

De Niro vs. Palminteri in Analyze Deuce?

In one of his previous mobster roles, Chazz Palminteri went toe-to-toe with Robert De Niro (and Billy Crystal, for that matter) in the 1999 comedy Analyze This. And although justice was served to his hot-headed honcho at that movie's end, the actor says that won't keep him from resurrecting boss Primo Sidone for the in-the-works follow-up. "[My Analyze This character] could be dead, but there are no definites about it," Palminteri tells TV Guide Online. "I've spoken to Bob and Billy about [the sequel], and told them that, as soon as the script comes together, I'd do it. It would be great." Until then, Palminteri again can be seen leading the mob life  but this time, minus the laughs. In the TNT original film Boss of Bosses (premiering Sunday at 8 pm/ET), Palminteri portrays real-life mobster Paul Castellano, the Gambino crime family head whose ambitious plans were snuffed by his 1985 ass

Fri, Jun 1, 2001

Rivers on the Red Carpet: Sorry!

"If you've tuned in for intelligent conversation and life-altering interviews, you're in the wrong place." So confessed Joan Rivers at the outset of E! Entertainment Television's Academy Awards pre-show, which she co-hosted, as usual, with the poster child for nepotism at any level, daughter Melissa. Just prior to that, ahem, "revelation," Joan  infamous for the numbingly inane banter and flubbed facts omnipresent in her red carpet reviews  offered an "apology" for the less-than-Pulitzer-caliber reporting which has long elicited barbs from critics. That was followed up with Melissa's own act of contrition: She said she was sorry "in advance" for her mom's offensive behavior. And, to be sure, both Riverses worked hard to fill that celebrity-free first half hour with blue humor. After Joan mangled what surely would have been a world-class joke about irritable bowel syndrome, Melissa (forever milking motherhood) groaned about having to change both he

Mon, Mar 26, 2001

New FX Tricks in Matrix Sequels

In April 1999, a sci-fi hit sneaked under moviegoers' radar, taunting them with the cryptic tagline, "What Is the Matrix?" Now, nearly two years  and a significant box office/home video haul  later, fans of that vanguard film anxiously await an answer to the question, "What Is the Status of The Matrix Sequels?" "Filming begins in late March," Keanu Reeves, the centerpiece of the original Matrix, tells TV Guide Online. "It's very exciting. I've read both of the scripts, and they're fantastic. Fantastic." The Matrix 2 and The Matrix 3  to be shot back-to-back, allowing post-production work to get underway during the imminent strikes  will commence shooting next month in California, before moving overseas to Australia. But before the first frame of celluloid is exposed, there's the none-too-small matter of getting the principals primed for the type of physics-bending combat that was the hallmark of the first film.

Tue, Mar 6, 2001

Sweet November Trailer Worries Theron

It's a problem  an unfortunate trend, if you will  that affects more and more theatrical releases these days: trailers/commercials that reveal far too much of the film's plot. And while the story you're reading now, on this screen, will address how such an affliction has touched the recently released Sweet November, rest assured that no story points will be given away. Charlize Theron, who co-stars with Keanu Reeves in the romance (a remake of the 1968 film by the same name), is slightly taken aback when advised by TV Guide Online that the film's TV promos spell out just a little too much of what transpires on-screen. "Really?" she asks back, her actor's heart apparently a bit broken. "I didn't know. I haven't seen that [particular commercial]. But I've got a memo... I thought that it had been agreed upon that [too much] not be revealed. "Then again," she says, with a shoulder shrug, "I'm just an actor." Actually, according to those who

Tue, Feb 20, 2001

Keanu's Quest for Sweet Romance

He has cheated death as a most excellent teen named Ted, saved Sandra Bullock's bacon from a jerry-rigged bus, kicked slow-motion butt in a mind-bending future world, and, most recently, terrorized women as an abusive redneck. Therefore, it makes sense that what Keanu Reeves really was craving to do was a big-screen love affair. Specifically, a sweet one  as in Sweet November (opening today). "I was looking for a romance," Reeves says of the road that led to Sweet November, a remake of the 1968 tearjerker starring Sandy Dennis and Anthony Newley. "I hadn't done one in a while, not since A Walk in the Clouds. So I had a feeling that was what I wanted to do." Besides, Reeves' latest film offering would reteam him with Charlize Theron, the blonde beauty who played his wife in 1997's The Devil's Advocate. "She's fantastic in this film," the actor raves, explaining that his and Theron's on-screen chemist

Mon, Feb 19, 2001

Keanu's Quest for Sweet Romance

Fri, Feb 16, 2001

Another Patriot Actor Wears Pantyhose?

What is the deal with manly man stars from last summer's nitty-gritty The Patriot now trying on ladies' stockings? First, this past holiday season, Mel Gibson pulled on thigh-highs for the comedy What Women Want. Now, in Sweet November (opening Friday), Jason Isaacs  who portrayed Patriot baddie Colonel Tavington  kicks it up a notch by appearing in full drag. "Everything Mel's doing, I'm doing a pale shadow of," Isaacs tells TV Guide Online, adding that his Sweet November castmate, Charlize Theron, offered up no beauty advice for his distaff depiction. "I think that if I had gotten makeup tips from her, I wouldn't have looked like such a hag. 'Stay a man,' I think is what she might have said!" Whereas Isaacs's Sweet November personality is bound to have audiences grinning in shocked disbelief (the very reaction he elicited on-screen from Theron's co-star, Keanu Reeves), the actor says

Thu, Feb 15, 2001

E! Pre-Show: Two Rivers Run Through It

Prior to the onset of E! Entertainment Television's Golden Globes Pre-Show, my wife was curious as to how much of our evening was going to be gobbled up by Joan and Melissa Rivers's live red carpet review. "Two hours?!" she remarked with incredulity. "Can they make that much small talk?" Valid question. And the answer is a pained "No." Oh, but they try. And what their interviews lack in quality, Team Rivers tries to make up for in quantity. In fact, if the mother-daughter co-hosts are determined to approach 71 celebrities over the course of 80 on-screen minutes  as they did this past Sunday night  then Melissa's six-week-old son, Cooper, had better grow up quick and grab a microphone! Kicking off the event, Joan spent the first three minutes shoehorning in jokes about yeast infection (always welcome at the dinner hour), freezing her eggs, wearing E!'s new "NippleCam" (she was kidding, thank God), and the overuse of vibrators causing

Tue, Jan 23, 2001

Clooney Checks into ER

Last May, ER offered its viewers their last look at Dr. Doug Ross, when fan favorite George Clooney made a top-secret, single-episode return to the program he called home for five years. ("It was good and sneaky!" the actor boasts with a sly smile.) That was not, however, Clooney's last look at the ratings hit that paved his way to film stardom. "It looks classy," the star of this past summer's The Perfect Storm tells TV Guide Online, referring to ER's shift to a film-like widescreen format and high-definition broadcast signal. Clooney then notes that the CBS TV-movie, Fail Safe, which he produced, also was shown in letterbox. Discussing his past and present association with NBC's six-year-old hospital drama, Clooney shares this: "I'm sort of sentimental about ER, although this season I have watched a couple of episodes." Most impressing him about the show's current incarnation is it

Thu, Jan 18, 2001

Will Coens Return to Fargo?

In the 1996 crime caper Fargo, the writing/directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen took filmgoers on a shocking trip to North Dakota. That excursion  peppered with vivid dialects, colorful characters and bloody doings-in  netted seven Academy Award nominations, including wins for original screenplay and lead actress Frances McDormand (Joel's better half), thus making it the Coens's most acclaimed work to date. As such, it would seem that, by now, the Hollywood machine would have solicited a follow-up to the profitable original. Yet, admirably, its creators insist they have no plans to revisit any already trodden roads. "You know, we've never been tempted  or interested  in going back to doing a sequel to anything that we've done," Joel tells TV Guide Online, before adding with a sheepish laugh, "It's kind of hard, because usually all the characters are dead!" Instead, the brothers forge ahead with new stories  or, in a

Wed, Jan 3, 2001

George Clooney, Singing Sensation?

Since breaking away from his full-time primetime TV gig in 1999, former ER star George Clooney  whose career got a major boost with last summer's smash hit, The Perfect Storm  admits that the sheer volume of scripts being offered to him has jacked up considerably. "I'm in a position now where I'm getting offered a lot," the actor tells TV Guide Online, "The nice thing is that, as you work with [directors like] Steven [Soderbergh] and Joel and Ethan Coen, and then something like Three Kings comes out, the quality of the projects is better and/or you get an earlier crack at them." One part Clooney was surprised to find himself filling was that of impromptu bluegrass singer Everett McGill in the Coen brothers' latest offering, O Brother, Where Art Thou?. "The first bad sign," he says, recalling the conclusion of his first recording session for the film, "was when I looked up, and I couldn't get any eye

Tue, Jan 2, 2001

Is Miramax's O Too Hot To Handle?

Tim Blake Nelson isn't looking to make the easy films. As a writer/director, he has two yet-to-be-released movies  O, a tragic teen take on Othello, and the Holocaust-set Grey Zone  which promise to be anything but typical sells to the American public. Describing the former, which co-stars Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles and Josh Hartnett, Nelson admits, "It's a rough and controversial movie. Everything that happens in Othello happens in O  except it is high-school students and the killings happen with guns." Indeed, while O was adapted with the Pearl, Miss., and Jonesboro, Ark. school shootings in mind, Nelson had just begun editing when the Columbine, Col. travesty took place. "[After] I showed it to Miramax, you could tell that they were thinking, 'What are we going to do now? Can America see this?' "I'm a serious person, I'm a New York filmmaker. This is not an exploitative Hollywood teen

Thu, Dec 21, 2000

Turturro Tackles Howard Cosell

Reviewing John Turturro's canon of film characterizations  among which are a racially charged pizzeria employee in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, a wannabe pool hustler in Martin Scorsese's The Color of Money and a geeky contestant in Robert Redford's Quiz Show  it's easy to imagine him in most any role. Yet, picturing this curly-haired, affable actor as gravelly lawyer-turned-sportscaster Howard Cosell is, admittedly, difficult. Nonetheless, Turturro is preparing to bring the now-deceased broadcaster to life in Monday Night Mayhem, an upcoming TNT movie based on the Monday Night Football expos&eacute; co-authored by Bill Carter (The Late Shift). "I'm very excited, because I 'grew up' with Howard," Turturro tells TV Guide Online, referring to the man who for 14 years lent his unique brand of controversy-stirring reporting to ABC's hallmark football program. "I feel like a d

Wed, Dec 20, 2000

Garcia Joins All-Star Ocean's 11 Cast

Its release date may be a full year away, but Ocean's 11  a remake of the 1960 "Rat Pack" film starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford  continues to generate a steady stream of buzz with its casting. The latest star to sign up? "Andy Garcia is going to do it now," producer/star George Clooney tells TV Guide Online, reiterating that A-listers Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon are among those already on board for the Las Vegas bank heist flick. "Julia, Brad and Matt are worried about their careers," Clooney jokes, "so we want to help them get work." Adam Arkin (Halloween H20, TV's Chicago Hope) and Casey Affleck (To Die For) round out the cast, while Steven Soderbergh, who directed Clooney in Out Of Sight and Roberts in Erin Brockovich, will take the Ocean's 11 helm. Other names linked at one time

Tue, Dec 12, 2000

Animal House's D-Day Remembers Belushi

It was March 5, 1982, when actor/comic John Belushi died from a drug overdose at the young age of 33. A member of the original 1975 Saturday Night Live cast, Belushi was equally well-known for his performance as Tasmanian devil-cum-frat boy John "Bluto" Blutarsky in the 1978 comedy Animal House. Since the comedian's passing, much light has been shed on his real-life, id-driven existence, one full of through-the-night partying fueled by various vices. Actor Bruce McGill, who played Animal House's motorcycle-riding Daniel Simpson "D-Day" Day (and currently can be seen portraying golfing great Walter Hagen in The Legend of Bagger Vance), bittersweetly recalls Belushi's penchant for "living life to the fullest." "Hell, I was living it with him," McGill tells TV Guide Online, pointing out that, at that time, Belushi was burning the candle at both ends. "The thing that people don't realize is that John was still doing Sat

Tue, Nov 7, 2000