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The Trouble With Therapy

She might play a therapist on the new ABC sitcom The Trouble With Normal (Fridays, 8:30 pm/ET), but Paget Brewster is one of the last people you're ever likely to catch in a shrink's chair. "Where I come from, therapy is for weirdos," the Massachusetts native says. "You also don't get in there and tinker and screw around because, you know, all kinds of garbage can come out of you and then you're really messed up." Still, the star says getting the Trouble gig ? along with co-stars Larry Joe Campbell, Jon Cryer, David Krumholtz and Brad Raider ? might be a sign that it's time to give psychiatry a shot. "I do feel compelled, but I just can't bring myself to do it," she admits. "I'm scared they're going to find out something is really wrong with me, and I feel like I'm a pretty well-functioning adult." The actress also fears that if she starts undergoing real-life counseling, she might find herself arguing with the show's wri

Thu, Aug 31, 2000

Bleeth Burns Bridges

Unlike the two-year deal she negotiated with the producers of CBS's Nash Bridges, Yasmine Bleeth says she's looking forward to a longer-term gig on Aaron Spelling's Titans. "I see limitless potential for this kind of character," she says of her role as conniving vixen Heather Lane on the new NBC soap, airing Wednesdays (8-9 pm/ET) this fall. "I don't think there's any obstacles in [terms of] where the character can go at all." Contrarily, Bleeth says she knew going into Nash Bridges back in fall 1998 that the role of policewoman Caitlin Cross would eventually prove limiting. "When you've been [in] television for kind of a long time, you get a feeling about the lifetime of a character," says Bleeth, a soap vet (One Life to Live) who also spent three seasons on Baywatch. "I sort of had that feeling. I think that it's really a Don Johnson show, and no woman has really ever lasted for more than one season." As a result

Wed, Aug 30, 2000

Will the Real Richard Hatch Stand Up?

After years of building a TV career on shows like Battlestar Galactica and All My Children, actor Richard Hatch is none too happy about suddenly sharing his moniker with the winner of CBS's wildly popular Survivor series. "I have to tell you, it feels very violating," the actor tells TV Guide Online. "We forget there are other people with our name and somehow we feel an ownership with our name. Honestly, this is one of the strangest experiences that's ever happened in my life and I'm having to deal with it." Recently, the actor's own voice-over agent called and asked him to sign an autograph for a secretary who mistook him for the Survivor star. "I said, 'Are you kidding? He's from Rhode Island ? he's not an actor! He's 39 years old; we're 15 years difference in age! I have a son who's 33 years old!'&nbsp;" The thesp is particularly concerned with what effect the confusion will have on his lecture business (www.richardhatch.

Tue, Aug 29, 2000

Holy Depression, Batman!

Adam West faced some tough villains as TV's Batman, but the actor's biggest foe over the years has been mental illness. "He's always struggled with depression," daughter Nina says of the '60s pop icon on an upcoming A&E Biography (Sept. 4, 8 pm/ET). "He's struggled very hard with it, but he's definitely overcome it... because he wants to." Nina says that the West clan has a long history of alcoholism and manic depression. The star's mother, Audrey, is portrayed in the documentary as a would-be singer and farmer's wife who was driven to drink. Still, those close to West describe the former Caped Crusader as a beloved family man who's always quick with a joke. "My father has always been very intellectual and hard-working, and at the same time a total goofball," says Nina of her dad, who has lived outside the Hollywood spotlight in remote Ketchum, ID, since 1988. While West has enjoyed his share of career highs (Batman) and lows

Mon, Aug 28, 2000

Sagal's Single... With Children

Judging by her latest gig on the NBC sitcom Tucker, former Married... With Children star Katey Sagal just can't seem to get away from precocious teens. "He's way smarter than me," Sagal says of her 14-year-old Tucker nephew, Eli Marienthal. "[He] has an amazing energy, he's a poet, he speaks languages. As an actor, he shows up, he knows what he's doing, he remains disciplined." "It's just like the kids on Married... With Children," she adds of her onetime TV litter, Christina Applegate and David Faustino. "Those kids were amazingly mature for their ages." Tucker ? airing Mondays at 8:30 pm/ET this fall ? is about a kid who's forced to live with his mom (Alison Lohman) at the home of his self-righteous single aunt (Sagal). And although Sagal says the comedy is more akin to The Wonder Years than Married..., she notes some similarities between her Tucker alter-ego and Marri

Wed, Aug 23, 2000

Cutie Pa-Tootie

Believe it or not, there are some Hollywood execs who still haven't gotten over their childhood crushes on The Facts of Life's Tootie. "I had one executive that was so excited to meet me because when he was 15 he wanted to do Tootie," recalls 31-year-old former sitcom star Kim Fields on Child Stars: Their Story, an upcoming two-hour A&E documentary (Sept. 4, 9 pm/ET). "He [couldn't] get past the fact that I was that ? that I've evolved as a person, as an actor, as an artist." Fields, who runs a production company and occasionally acts (she was a regular on Fox's Living Single and is slated to make a cameo in ABC's forthcoming Facts of Life reunion movie), grows teary-eyed recalling the moment when she realized that her days as a child star were over: "They got what they needed from me," she says. "Those are very tough pills to swallow when you are a young person." Among others featured in the special: - Former child

Wed, Aug 23, 2000

Spelling Won't Face Reality

Despite the phenomenal success of Survivor, veteran producer Aaron Spelling says he wants no part of the reality-TV game. "I would never do a reality show," insists Spelling, whose latest prime-time soap, Titans, airs Wednesdays (8-9 pm/ET) on NBC beginning this fall. "The day will come when I'll probably be asked to do a reality show in a house of prostitution, but I am not going to do it." Spelling ? the man behind Dynasty, The Love Boat and Beverly Hills, 90210 ? says he fears TV's current fascination with reality shows could land half of Hollywood on the unemployment line. "I just hope we suddenly don't find ourselves dealing with three comedies, four dramas and the rest are reality shows," he sighs. "I think that would be total disaster." Viewers, Spelling adds, would be the big losers in a TV landscape dominated by the likes of Big Brother and NBC's upcoming Dating Game update, Chains of Love. "I don't

Tue, Aug 22, 2000

Horton's Comedy of Errors

The first script reading for the new ABC sitcom The Geena Davis Show was anything but a barrel of laughs, according to co-star Peter Horton. The actor ? best known for his dramatic roles on thirtysomething and Brimstone ? says he simply wasn't prepared to try his hand at comedy when executive producer Nina Wass called him with the job. "I never really just thought about doing a sitcom before," he confesses of Geena, which will air Tuesdays at 9:30 pm/ET. "I was rather nervous about it at the beginning." But Wass was so convinced that Horton was the right man to play opposite Davis that she simply put the two of them in a room together and told them to start reading. Horton, hired to play the love interest of Davis's single mom character, says the first run-through was terrible. "I said, 'Let me do it again,'&nbsp;" he recalls. "So we just started to work on it. Pretty soon it got to be really kind of cool, and we started to

Tue, Aug 22, 2000

Roseanne Rebuffs Playboy

Playboy's loss is Gear's gain. At least that's the opinion of a newly-slimmed down Roseanne, who reveals to TV Guide Online the real reason she's turning down Hugh Hefner and instead dropping trou for readers of the popular Gen-X mag. "Actually, I joked about being in Playboy, but then they did call to talk about it," the comedienne said during a live chat on her website, roseanneworld.com. "But they just kept acting like it was too weird to have some beefy babe in there, just like boys who can't have sex with anything other than a teenager." "Hugh Hefner wanted me to pose," she added, "but I thought Playboy was too adolescent a publication to show a real live sexual woman." A Playboy rep declined to comment. The always unpredictable former sitcom star ? who describes herself as "the sexiest woman in the world, but only sexy people know it" ? is now anxious to share her wares in Gear's October issue. But isn't

Mon, Aug 21, 2000

Lover Host No Loser

Prior to landing her gig as the host of the new TV game show Lover or Loser, Meredyth Hunt was busy building a reputation as one of the worst bartenders in Hollywood. The relative newcomer to showbiz recalls one particular catering job in which she nearly torched a posh Malibu home. It all started when she was operating an outside bar and decided to place a votive candle on top of a pile of napkins to keep them from blowing all over the yard. "I went away for a few minutes and came back and my bar was on fire," she recalls. "I didn't douse it with the vodka, thank God, but I got it put out and I figured after that I just wasn't a bartender at heart." Lover or Loser, which debuts Aug. 21 on both USA Network (5:30 pm/ET) and in national syndication, will feature two single male contestants who are evaluated by a studio audience of 100 single women. The chosen "Lover" gets to go out on a date with one of the women. The daily show will also occasionally

Fri, Aug 18, 2000

Al Roker's Wife Has Car Trouble

Lifetime Live's Deborah Roberts may be having second thoughts about allowing her Today show hubby, Al Roker, bare so much of their personal lives in his best-selling book, Don't Make Me Stop This Car. "I was very, very, very exposed and I felt sort of strange telling the world about my efforts to have a baby and about my miscarriage," Roberts tells the TV Guide Channel. "I actually wanted to take the marker and take a lot more out... because I am not accustomed to that." Roberts confesses that it was "painful" including such private details in the book, and that she only agreed to do so after some coaxing by her hubby. "He was able to convince me that it was important to him because it's part of his story as well, and that he thought it would inspire other people... maybe help other people who might be going through similar things," she says. "So he was able to convince me that it was important to take a gamble and share a little bit more

Thu, Aug 17, 2000

Burnett's Rummage Sale

How much would you pay for a quilt given to Carol Burnett at the 1998 Tournament of Roses Parade? How about a pair of high-heeled autographed tap shoes previously worn by the veteran funny lady? Well, now's your chance to find out! The former star of the long-running Carol Burnett Show has quietly begun auctioning off some of her showbiz memorabilia on eBay. And, if all goes well, the 67-year-old entertainer plans to use the popular web site to unload lots more goodies from her treasure chest. "We're just kind of taking it in stages," says Paul DeDomenico, a family friend who is overseeing the star's online garage sale. (DeDomenico's mom, Anita, has been Burnett's interior designer and a close friend for the past 20 years). "She has a lot of stuff that she would like to let go to her fans." DeDomenico, who has boxloads of Burnett memorabilia ready to go, says each winning bid will be accompanied by a thank-you letter from the star. He also te

Thu, Aug 17, 2000

Pasdar's Mysterious Wedding

How busy are newlyweds and parents-to-be Adrian Pasdar (Mysterious Ways) and Dixie Chicks warbler Natalie Maines? Well, they're now planning a December honeymoon to celebrate their recent union at a Las Vegas wedding chapel. Pasdar, who's busy shooting NBC's supernatural drama in Vancouver, tells the TV Guide Channel that his production schedule and his wife's concert dates have been so full lately that it has been impossible to schedule a honeymoon any time soon. "Until that point, it's just seeing each other whenever we can, weekends and sometimes during the week when she's off," he says. "People seem to be very accommodating, in terms of schedules and making it as easy as they can, for us. It's just a matter of flying on planes a lot." The happy couple yesterday announced on Live with Regis that they are expecting their first child and that they eventually plan to have 10 kids! Sounds like an atypically long-term plan for

Wed, Aug 16, 2000

Lisa Ling's New View

Lisa Ling says she's not the same person she was a year ago when The View selected her to be the voice of Gen X. "My views have changed on a lot of things," Ling tells the TV Guide Channel. "For me to make a judgment based on things that I have only read is, I think, sometimes unfair. And that is just something that you sort of learn with time." Case in point is Ling's new opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton. The 26-year-old said she was initially very critical of the first lady for standing by the president during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But over time, as she considered the experiences of her own girlfriends and their cheating boyfriends, she made an effort to be more understanding of her predicament. Ling also has learned the pitfalls of trashing people on-air after she went on a rant about real estate agents. "Sometimes you are so passionate about what you are saying, you are so entrenched in the conversation, that you just put it out

Mon, Aug 14, 2000

Clint Trashes Trailers

Clint Eastwood has a message to moviegoers who are becoming increasingly frustrated with trailers that spoil the best parts of the film: He feels your pain. "I hate trailers that give everything away," the Space Cowboys director/star tells TV Guide Online. "Half the time you go and watch a film, you see eight or 10 different trailers and you've seen the whole plot line. There's really no reason to go see the film." Most recently, audiences wanted to drown the creators of the What Lies Beneath trailer, which they felt revealed the film's surprise twist. For his part, Eastwood made certain the previews for Space Cowboys just teased the film's plot. "A lot of people who make the trailers are being condescending by figuring that the audiences are stupid and have to be told exactly what everything is before they're going to go see it," he says. "Half the time you sit behind some kids [in the theater] and they're sitting there going, 'Oh yeah, th

Mon, Aug 14, 2000

Tommy Lee Jones's Big Scam

Harvard-educated actor Tommy Lee Jones has a confession to make ? he's a cheater! The actor tells TV Guide Online that he used crib sheets during filming of Space Cowboys to help him remember all the astronaut jargon. "The camera is usually looking over the top of the [spacecraft's] instrument panel, so it's very seldom that the camera will both see you and the instrument panel," he says. "You can then rip out a page from the script, tape it on the instrument panel, pretend to be looking at a dial or twisting a knob, and you just read it." "You cheat, basically," he adds. "You also write on the back of your hand, because a lot of time your hand is not in the lens." Jones's Space Cowboys co-star Clint Eastwood had a slightly easier time picking up the language, much of which was supplied by NASA officials right on the set. "That's part of the process ? you're an actor, you memorize things," says Eastwood, who also directed the hit film. "Some

Fri, Aug 11, 2000

Love at Second Sight for Holly Hunter

It wasn't exactly love at first sight for Hollywood couple Holly Hunter and Januz Kaminski when the actress began dating the cinematographer more than six years ago. Director/matchmaker Steven Spielberg recalls on Monday's Lifetime Intimate Portrait: Holly Hunter (Aug. 14, 7 pm/ET) that sparks simply did not fly when he set up the two Oscar winners on their first date. "Janus called me [after the date] and said it was the worst date of his life," says Spielberg, who had collaborated with Kaminski on Schindler's List. It turned out the Polish-born Kaminski was simply so self-conscious and smitten on that first date with Hunter that he had forgotten how to speak English and just kept babbling. "It was disastrous," recalls Hunter, who next will appear as tennis great Billie Jean King in an upcoming ABC movie. "Janus talked nonstop on that first date. I could not shut him up. I thought this could be one of those narcissistic things wher

Tue, Aug 8, 2000

Bob Dylan, Man of Mystery

Bob Dylan's been making music since the '60s, but biographers still don't seem to be any closer to capturing the private side of the enigmatic pop icon. Next Sunday's two-hour A&E Biography (Aug. 13, 8 pm/ET) of Dylan ? the latest attempt at revealing what makes the singer tick ? adds little to the previous profiles on the singer-songwriter. But it might just be that fans are looking for complexity where it doesn't exist, offers fellow musician Cesar Diaz. "He's a very simple man," says Diaz, who's toured with Dylan in recent years. "He doesn't like to be called Mr. Dylan or [his real family name] Mr. Zimmerman. He just likes to be called Bob. He likes to melt into the background and be left alone, and I think that he hates the day that he made it." So what compels the 59-year-old Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree to continue touring? "He likes to be out there because he likes to feel young," Diaz continues, "and [know] that

Mon, Aug 7, 2000

Roswell Star's New Love

Katherine Heigl says she's developed a newfound love of sci-fi TV ever since landing a starring role on the WB space-alien drama Roswell. The actress, who plays high school student Isabel Evans on the show, confesses to the TV Guide Channel that she had never before been the type to sit around watching shows with otherworldly themes. "I always thought that The X-Files was something that if you didn't watch from the beginning you could never watch," she admits, "because you would never get it." "I never really was a big fan until I started doing Roswell and realized the fascinating mythology and the stories that they have to come up with," she explains. "They create these other planets and lives and all this stuff that I really find fascinating." Heigl, 21, says that her Roswell experience has impacted her life in other ways. For instance, she's had a tough time reminding herself that she's not the high school student she plays on th

Fri, Aug 4, 2000

Voyager Crew Ready to Head Home

After seven years of floating around in space, the babes of Star Trek: Voyager say they're ready to come back down to Earth. Stars Jeri Ryan and Roxann Dawson ? both named among the "Sexiest Stars in the Universe" by TV Guide ? say they expect the starship Voyager to return home by the time the series ends its run this coming season. "I'm putting my vote in now ? I think we will," Ryan, who plays Seven of Nine on the series, tells the TV Guide Channel. "But I don't know if it'll be midway through the season, [giving our characters] time to develop what happens once we're there, or if that'll sort of close the show as a finale. I'm not entirely convinced that [the writers] know yet!" Dawson, who plays B'Elanna Torres and also directs an occasional Voyager episode, admits the actors are as anxious to find out what happens as the show's fans. "We'll probably make it home, although I'm not a writer and I don't really know what they're p

Thu, Aug 3, 2000

Bad Times

Times weren't always so good on the set of Good Times, according to those who worked both on camera and behind-the-scenes of the hit '70s sitcom. "I left that show very ashamed of the fact that I had worked on that show," says writer Judi Ann Mason on an upcoming E! True Hollywood Story (Aug. 20, 9 pm/ET). "And I think everybody was feeling the same thing. There was so much pain, not only in saying good-bye, but just in realizing that maybe we had done something wrong. The attempt to present realistic black life had failed." The show's evolution from socially relevant topics to silly plots centering around lanky Jimmy Walker (J.J.) and his trademark line "Dyn-o-mite!" also didn't sit well with series stars John Amos and the late Esther Rolle, whose previous work on Maude inspired the series. "Esther was very disturbed about that because this was her show," recalls Mason. "It was a spin-off based on her character, and then

Wed, Aug 2, 2000

Young American Star's Hellish Schedule

While most girls her age were worrying about what to wear to the prom, Young Americans star Kate Bosworth was busy memorizing her lines for the WB drama. "I missed my prom because I was working," the actress tells the TV Guide Channel. "[But] I got to dress up for an episode and someone made it so that it was like my prom. So it's cool. They really do work with me like that." Bosworth, an accomplished equestrian whose big break came in 1998's The Horse Whisperer, says she's been so busy shooting the Baltimore-based prep school drama that lately she hasn't even had much time for riding her beloved horses. "I barely have time to breathe," says Bosworth, who spends up to five hours each day on her schoolwork in addition to her busy production schedule. "Everyone's like, 'How's Baltimore?' And I'm like, 'I don't know! My set's great, my bed's great. The Harbor? I have no idea!'&nbsp;" On the bright side, Bosworth says off-set socializing with he

Wed, Aug 2, 2000