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Eight Exposé

Life just hasn't been the same for the stars of TV's Eight Is Enough since the popular family drama went off the air nearly two decades ago. At least five of the kids from TV's Bradford clan have dropped out of showbiz completely, and big offers aren't exactly rolling in for those who still are in the game, according to Sunday's E! True Hollywood Story (9 pm/ET). TV sisters Connie Newton Needham (Elizabeth), Dianne Kay (Nancy), Laurie Walters (Joanie), Lani O'Grady (Mary) and Susan Richardson (Susan) parted ways with Hollywood since starring on the top-rated series. Richardson, who today works at a retirement home in Pennsylvania, speaks candidly of the nervous breakdown that last year landed her in a mental institution. "They put me on a suicide watch," says Richardson. "I would just be talking and interpreting all these things and everybody got really scared about what I was saying and thought maybe I had lost my mind." Am

Tue, Aug 1, 2000

Family Feud

It's taken a while, but All in the Family star Carroll O'Connor is finally ready to admit he went a little overboard in his off-camera fights with series creator Norman Lear. "I had the power to really drive everybody crazy, including Norman, who had to [back down] a lot," recalls O'Connor on this Sunday's E! True Hollywood Story (9 pm/ET). "I got very nasty with him. I fault myself, I didn't have to get that nasty." O'Connor's efforts to rewrite scripts and his demands for increased pay created plenty of tension behind the scenes of the hit '70s sitcom, which today continues to air in reruns on Nick at Nite. "I made him dislike me and then, of course, I turned around and disliked him," says O'Connor, who eventually went on to star in TV's popular In the Heat of the Night. Lear, who tried to get the difficult O'Connor bumped from the series, tells E! he found the actor to be "fearful and misguided" during much of the production of the

Mon, Jul 31, 2000

Knight's High-Stakes Habit

Grammy Award-winning singer Gladys Knight says her gambling compulsion has gotten so bad at times that she's spent more than $20,000 on a single hand. "You're numb at that time to what money is," the recovering high roller confesses to interviewer Harry Smith on Monday's A&E Biography Close-Up: You Want to Bet? (8 pm/ET). "Especially playing with those little chips. When you're clicking those chips, you're not thinking dollars." Knight, who rose to fame with backup singers The Pips on their hit collaboration "Midnight Train to Georgia," says she first realized she had a serious problem when gambling in the casino began to take precedent over picking up her son from school. Eventually, she found herself in the casino plunking down chips around the clock. "I used to get up at 1 o'clock in the morning, 2 o'clock in the morning after everybody's sleeping and go to the casino," says the longtime Las Vegas resident. "And when my mom realized th

Fri, Jul 28, 2000

Wonder Woman Loses Superpowers

Lynda Carter says she's no Wonder Woman when it comes to trying to balance a busy acting career with raising a family. "I do a movie every year and that's plenty right now because I don't want to miss these moments with my children," says Carter, 49, who today spends much of her time raising son James, 12, and daughter Jessica, 9, with lawyer hubby Robert Altman. Carter, who rose to fame in the 1970s as the titular character of TV's Wonder Woman, says on this coming Monday's Intimate Portrait (Lifetime, 7 pm/ET) that she realized the importance of staying close to her family while away in Vancouver shooting the short-lived 1994 Stephen J. Cannell drama series Hawkeye. "It was the most miserable time of my life," recalls Carter. "I have come to the conclusion that I cannot be separated from my family. All life really is [is] just one giant moment, an eternal moment." Still, Carter seems to be enjoying work in TV

Thu, Jul 27, 2000

Young American Boys Don't Cry

Katherine Moennig, who plays a girl pretending to be a boy on the WB prep school drama Young Americans, knows firsthand how tough life can be for an androgyne. "I've gone out as myself, as Kate, and people have thought I've been a guy," the actress confesses to the TV Guide Channel. "And it throws me off a bit. But that's kinda good because it does throw me off. I'm not used to it so I just play along with it and it gives me something to work with." Moennig, like Oscar-winning Boys Don't Cry star Hilary Swank, spent time preparing for her role by sneaking out into public places in full male makeup. She was fascinated to find that strangers on the street had no idea how to respond to her. "People treat women much more gentle, more careful," says the native New Yorker. "Men in general are much more harsh and brazen [with each other]." Is there a chance we'll get to see Moennig's Young Americans (Wednesdays, 9 pm/ET) character, Jak

Wed, Jul 26, 2000

Ford Slams Media

Harrison Ford, currently appearing with Michelle Pfeiffer in the nation's top flick, What Lies Beneath, remains perturbed by press reports that surfaced after a plane he was piloting veered off a runway last month in Lincoln, NE. The actor tells TV Guide Online in no uncertain terms that the news accounts were speculative and blown "completely" out of proportion. "I would not as a pilot ? a licensed pilot ? have been required to report it, it was so minor," he says, adding that, "[A] really inaccurate version of it appeared in the press and it was picked up. It was bad reporting, really." Still, the 57-year-old actor says that he's doing his best not to get too worked up over it. "I am just patient in those situations where you think people have got it wrong," he says. "Just let it go." One thing Ford can't seem to let go of is his love for Indiana Jones, the character he played in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark and its two supersuccessful s

Wed, Jul 26, 2000

McKellen's Gay Pride

Sir Ian McKellen, currently starring as evil mutant leader Magneto in X-Men, says the theory that audiences won't accept an openly gay actor in a wide variety of roles is "bulls--t." And he should know. "I think anyone who argues that is just battling the homophobia within themselves," the actor tells The Advocate. "If anything, my career has taken off since I came out [in 1988]. And of over 20 film parts that I've played since then, only three have been gay." McKellen has never been particularly private about his sexuality ? he brought his boyfriend to the Tony Awards in 1981 ? but it took a chance interview in 1998 to lure him completely out of the closet. "I'd never discussed it in the press until I found myself facing a homophobic interviewer," he recalls, "and almost without thinking about it, I just came out. "I know the sort of pressures young actors are under," adds McKellen of gay performers in Hollywood. "[But] no career is worth lying abo

Mon, Jul 24, 2000

Shepherd Wanted Willis

Despite their well-publicized battles, Cybill Shepherd reveals that she and Moonlighting co-star Bruce Willis were "very attracted" to each other and came real close to hitting the sheets off-screen. "[But] he would put the brakes on," she tells the TV Guide Channel. "I would have gone for it, no question about it." Shepherd, who will soon be hosting a new daytime relationship show based on the best-selling book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, says she recently watched a Moonlighting marathon on Bravo and was "amazed" by how well the show held up. In fact, she's even jazzed enough to consider a reunion, but doubts Willis would ever return to the quirky TV series that made him a star. "I think he's too rich," she says. Besides, she adds, age-obsessed Hollywood probably would want a younger actress to take over her role as detective Maddie Hayes. "They'd have to recast my part with Gwyneth Paltrow." Looking back, the

Thu, Jul 20, 2000

Diahann's Spelling Test

How does an actress land a gig with big-shot TV producer Aaron Spelling? Simply by letting him know that she's one tough bitch! Veteran actress/singer Diahann Carroll landed her role as Dominique Deveraux on Spelling's classic '80s prime-time soap Dynasty by doing just that, according to Thursday night's A&E Biography on the star (8 pm/ET). The episode tells how the actress made her pitch to Spelling after crashing one of the &uuml;ber-producer's legendary Hollywood bashes. "She went up to Aaron and said, 'I want to be on Dynasty! I want to be the first black bitch on television!'&nbsp;" recalls Dynasty's preeminent vixen, Joan Collins, who recently poked fun at her own diva image on NBC's Will & Grace. Carroll's boldness paid off: She got the job, and it was just a matter of time before she and Collins began performing their campy knockdown, drag-out brawls for the camera. "She and I had some good

Thu, Jul 20, 2000

Theron's Sexual Preference

When it comes to making love on the big screen, Charlize Theron doesn't like to be ordered around. In fact, the star of Reindeer Games, The Cider House Rules and the upcoming flick The Yards explains that directors should be bound and gagged during sex scenes. "You don't want to choreograph them too much," the 24-year-old bombshell tells Shine magazine. "Certain aspects are choreographed for the benefit of the cinematographer so he can light it, but you don't want to overdo it because then it just becomes five, six, seven, eight, turn over." The actress says spontaneity played a big role in her raucous tryst with Ben Affleck in Reindeer Games. "The funny thing about that scene was that it was never rehearsed, so what happened really happened," she says. "There were no camera setups, we just had two steady-cam operators in the room with us, and they had no idea where we were going to go. [Director John Frankenheimer

Wed, Jul 19, 2000

The Return of Lily Munster?

Is Yvonne DeCarlo, the reclusive actress who played Lily on the 1960s sitcom The Munsters, preparing for a comeback? At least her son seems to think so. It's been a tough couple of years for the 77-year-old star, who lost a son, Michael, in 1997, and then suffered a stroke a year later. Today, she lives outside of the limelight beside a golf course near remote Solvang, CA. "She keeps up her correspondence and I think plans her reentry into the business," says son Bruce Morgan on tonight's A&E Biography (8 pm/ET). "I want to see her do that because she's an old trouper. She's not gonna be happy sitting up on a golf course for a long time. "My mother can be very emotional and other times she can be a brassy warrior," says Morgan of his mom, who rose to fame playing opposite Charlton Heston in 1956's The Ten Commandments. The Biography episode also covers DeCarlo's initial reluctance to take on the role of TV'

Tue, Jul 18, 2000

Chyna's Naked Ambition

WWF wrestler Chyna is about to show a lot more than her famous muscles in a spread for Playboy magazine. The 6-foot-tall, 200-pound bodybuilder took it all off last weekend for a photo shoot that will appear in the November issue of the men's magazine. The Amazonian Chyna ? who's also appeared as a guest star on 3rd Rock From the Sun and several other TV shows ? tells the WWF's web site that she's "very excited" and "very proud" to bare all for the Playboy camera. "I think it's really ironic that a woman like me, who has promoted power and muscularity and sexuality all together, would then end up on the cover of the premiere men's magazine," she says. "I think it's a wonderful message. I've been working on my body for years and years and years, and to me it's sculpture and I want to show it." It probably also won't hurt sales for Chyna's upcoming fitness video and autobiography, due out in stores this fall. The last WWF personality to strip f

Tue, Jul 18, 2000

Shirley Jones's Dark Side

It's hard to believe, but bubbly Partridge Family mom Shirley Jones has a dark side. "She loves reading about serial killers and crime-and-punishment stories," reveals son Ryan Cassidy on this Sunday's A&E Biography on his Oscar-winning mom (8 pm/ET). "I believe everybody has a dark side and that's her dark side. She finds it fascinating." "My mother, as grounded as she is and as stable as she is and seemingly normal as she is, has a very dark streak that begs for this sort of darker stimulation in people," adds TV producer Shaun Cassidy, another of her three sons with troubled late actor Jack Cassidy. "She found it in my father and she certainly looks to it in what she reads." Son Patrick concurs with his brothers that there's more to the actress than meets the eye. "Underneath my mother's wonderful smile there's something going on," he says. "My mother has a real rebel inside her. If you tell her to do something she

Fri, Jul 14, 2000

Pet-Loving Peters Praises Pit Bulls

If you think pit bulls are tough, Bernadette Peters says you probably haven't met her Stella. "She just wants to kiss everybody," the actress says of the pit bull she named after a character in A Streetcar Named Desire. "She always wants to lie down next to you and cuddle with you. She's an amazing animal." Peters, who rose to fame in movies (The Jerk, Annie) and is currently wrapping Annie Get Your Gun on Broadway, plans to put her love of animals to good use this Saturday at the second annual Broadway Barks! benefit in New York City's Times Square. Peters and pal Mary Tyler Moore will co-host the daylong pet adoption event featuring the talents of Patrick Stewart, Tom Wopat, Joel Grey, Bebe Neuwirth and several other Broadway stars. Peters tells us she's still hurting from the loss of her cat, Murphy, who suffered from kidney failure and was recently put to sleep at age 13. "They stop eating and th

Wed, Jul 12, 2000

Chabert's Sexy Spread

Former Party of Five kid Lacey Chabert doesn't want you to get the wrong idea about her just because she's strutting around in skimpy outfits in next month's Stuff. "I don't think there's anything wrong with being sexy," the 17-year-old actress tells the men's magazine. "I mean, here I am doing Stuff. There's a difference in doing that and in just being trashy and exploitive with your body. Guys have always told me that it's sexier to leave a little to the imagination." Chabert insists she's a straight arrow who stays away from Hollywood's wild side. And it sounds like she was really put to the test during the shooting of Tart, an upcoming flick about bad girls at a boarding school co-starring Dominique Swain, Brad Renfro and Bijou Phillips. "The whole cast was young, and most of them were drunk every night, running around the hotel high on something," she says. "I really hadn't been exposed to that on Party of

Tue, Jul 11, 2000

Mena's Concert Scare

It's a good bet that you'll probably never again see American Beauty actress Mena Suvari standing near the mosh pit at a Limp Bizkit concert. The actress says she feared for her life while standing among the band's raucous fans at a recent concert in Toronto. Suvari, who at the time was up in the Great White North shooting Loser, says she wasn't sure she'd make it back alive to the set of the upcoming film. "The whole time I was thinking, 'I don't want to die,'&nbsp;" she tells TV Guide Online. "It's really hard-core. It's crazy, like girls with their tops off, like in the mosh pit. "I was just so naive, I was like, 'Oh, my God, what are they doing? Ahhh!'&nbsp;" she recalls. "We went around like the back way and there was all these security guys on their walkies and they were like, 'Yeah, some girl just got a pen in the neck.'&nbsp;" Suvari describes herself as a "dork" who had only been to one concert prior to her Limp Bizki

Tue, Jul 11, 2000

Reilly Aids Clooney Prank

Notorious prankster George Clooney recently enlisted the help of John C. Reilly to pull a fast one on Perfect Storm co-star William Fichtner. Clooney came up with the idea for pranking Fichtner after weeks of listening to the actor brag about his beautifully restored classic muscle car. Even Reilly, who owns a 1968 Chevelle Malibu, was getting tired of listening to Fichtner carry on about his four-wheeled baby. At Clooney's prompting, Reilly made up a story on the Perfect Storm set about how his own Chevelle was leaking transmission fluid all over his garage at home. Then Clooney arranged for one of the stagehands to get some transmission fluid, bring it back to the studio parking lot, and pour a huge puddle underneath Fichtner's classic car. "Bill came out and he turned ashen," recalls Reilly. "You know, when you see transmission fluid, that means something really bad has happened. "Mercifully, [Clooney] didn't allow Bill to take

Tue, Jul 11, 2000

Lane's Laughable Love Scene

The Perfect Storm's Diane Lane says she had a good laugh preparing for her steamy love scene with co-star Mark Wahlberg. "We got together the night before and had a cup of coffee, Mark and I, and just really got a sense of each other's sense of humor in a way, because that's really the best way to get to know someone," the actress tells TV Guide Online. "That's the most vital aspect that you need in a love scene. So that you don't wind up offending the other person because of your insecurities and your need for humor and vice versa." Lane admits it was awkward performing the love scene in front of the crew but says that she and her hunky co-star managed to keep their focus. "It's like jumping out of an airplane and holding hands," she says. "You just do it together." Lane, who plays The Perfect Storm's no-nonsense Christina Cotter, says she prepared for the blue-collar role by tossing back a few with her male castmates after work hours at the

Mon, Jul 10, 2000

Dustin Lets One Loose

When he's not busy giving it his all for the cameras, Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman apparently likes to relax at home by letting out a little gas. That's the word according to actor pal John Malkovich, who tells Playboy he witnessed the phenomenon first-hand. "At dinner, he'd occasionally fart while sitting at the table," he says. "When he farted, he'd waft it up to his face with his hands, then look over at me and say, 'It's my house.'&nbsp;" Not that quirky Malkovich was put off by the display; in fact, he says he's quite amused by his gassy buddy. "He can make me laugh so hard sometimes," he says. "He has a fantastic sense of humor." Malkovich, who worked with Hoffman on the 1985 TV-movie Death of a Salesman, also recalls the time he told the actor that he had landed the lead in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun. Hoffman, who was fighting the flu at the time, suddenly came alive and demanded to know why he hadn't been of

Mon, Jul 10, 2000

Willis Jerks Aroun

What does it take to keep Bruce Willis happy? Just let him play a jerk every now and then. "I like being able to play a jerk," the actor tells TV Guide Online. "A lot of actors won't do that. A lot of actors kind of just want to look good all the time. I kind of seek stuff out where I'm less than appealing." Willis gets the opportunity to show off his jerk skills in his latest pic, Disney's The Kid, about a workaholic who comes face-to-face with his younger self. The actor says his latest character's nothing like his real self, a father of three who spends a lot of time staying in touch with his "inner child" and keeping his work in check. "It's easy for me to goof around and not take it seriously," he says of moviemaking. "It's just work. It's something we do from the age of 20 to about 55." "I lost some friends to untimely deaths and accidents and I realize how brief our stay is here on Earth," says Willis. "I am very aware of how fast time is flying

Mon, Jul 10, 2000

Wayans Bros. Scare Mama

What does Mama Wayans think of the raunchy comedy displayed by sons Marlon and Shawn in Scary Movie? "She said 'It was funny, but sometimes you all went too far,'&nbsp;" Marlon confesses to TV Guide Online. "She wasn't mad. She was just like, 'You know, there were some really big laughs in there, but sometimes, you know, y'all just a little... crazy.'&nbsp;" Shawn says if you want to see the dangers in trying to aim a pic at his parents you need look no further than the 1994 box office dud Blankman starring brother Damon. "See what happened?," he says. "That's just not our tone. That's not our sense of humor. Maybe one day, when I'm 65, then hopefully they'll be around and I can do some Clint Eastwood movie for them." For now, the brothers prefer getting their laughs with over-the-top gags that are sure to be a hit with the South Park crowd. How over the top? Let's just say Scary Movie is probably th

Fri, Jul 7, 2000

Coen Bros. Plot Next Film

Offbeat moviemaking brothers Joel and Ethan Coen say they were just as surprised as anybody to see 1996's Fargo become one of their biggest hits. "We thought nobody would go see that movie and we made it pretty cheaply so that nobody would get too terribly hurt when no one showed up," Ethan (pictured, right) tells TV Guide Online. "In fact, it ended up earning more than any of our other movies, or about the same as Raising Arizona." The eclectic filmmakers have just begun production on their latest pic, a film noirish tale set in 1930s Northern California that stars Billy Bob Thornton as a barber who wants to get into the dry-cleaning business. Joel's real-life wife, Fargo's Oscar-winning Best Actress Frances McDormand, also stars. Ethan says the new movie will be somewhat reminiscent of their first movie, Blood Simple, which is currently enjoying a limited rerelease in theaters. The brothers say they couldn't pred

Fri, Jul 7, 2000

rbrown

Eight Expos&eacute;

Family Feud

Knight's High-Stakes Habit

Wonder Woman Loses Superpowers

Young American Boys Don't Cry

Ford Slams Media

McKellen's Gay Pride

Shepherd Wanted Willis

Diahann's Spelling Test

Theron's Sexual Preference

The Return of Lily Munster?

Chyna's Naked Ambition

Shirley Jones's Dark Side

Pet-Loving Peters Praises Pit Bulls

Chabert's Sexy Spread

Mena's Concert Scare

Reilly Aids Clooney Prank

Lane's Laughable Love Scene

Dustin Lets One Loose

Willis Jerks Aroun

Wayans Bros. Scare Mama

Coen Bros. Plot Next Film

Eight Exposé