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Post-Ellen DeGeneres — and the dazed and confused episode that followed their break-up — Anne Heche was hard at work on the film John Q (opening Feb. 15). The actress calls playing a tough hospital administrator opposite co-star Denzel Washington a relief from her woes. "Doing the movie was a real celebration for me in the transition of my life," she declares. "After you get the gift of trauma, you're able to open up to many things. I was closing a chapter of pain and crossing into joy." Now married to cameraman Coley Laffoon, Heche expects their baby next month. Though she reportedly knows the baby's sex — and even has a name in mind —

It wasn't much of a stretch for Will & Grace's Debra Messing to act smitten with Richard Gere in their new movie The Mothman Prophecies (opening Jan. 25). "It was very difficult," jokes Messing, who plays Gere's wife in the thriller. "You really have to believe that the two of these people are madly, madly in love." The 33-year-old actress may be laughing now, but on the first day of filming she was quaking in her boots. "Yes, I was nervous [about] meeting Richard," she recalls. "I mean, he was An Officer and a Gentleman to me. That was my first memory of seeing one of his films. C'mon, he was the sex symbol on the cover of Peopl

The good news? Lovely Julianne Moore plays Wavey, the single mom romanced by Kevin Spacey's Quoyle in the movie version of The Shipping News. The bad news? This entailed weeks of frosty filming up in Newfoundland. "It's a beautiful place, but very rough and wild," she says. "It got very, very cold and raw. The weather was constantly changing... In the middle of a scene, you could go from fog to sun or rain. It would be a tough place to live, [which] made me appreciate the resilience of the woman I played." Moore recalls she could always count on Spacey for comic relief on the rough days. For while Spacey was emotionally withdrawn as the troubled Quoyle, he was anything but when the camera stopped rolling. "Kevin is very light-hearted," she smiles. "I think it was [co-star]

The good news? Lovely Julianne Moore plays Wavey, the single mom romanced by Kevin Spacey's Quoyle in the movie version of The Shipping News. The bad news? This entailed weeks of frosty filming up in Newfoundland. "It's a beautiful place, but very rough and wild," she says. "It got very, very cold and raw. The weather was constantly changing... In the middle of a scene, you could go from fog to sun or rain. It would be a tough place to live, [which] made me appreciate the resilience of the woman I played." Moore recalls she could always count on Spacey for comic relief on the rough days. For while Spacey was emotionally withdrawn as the troubled Quoyle, he was anything but when the camera stopped rolling. "Kevin is very light-hearted," she smiles. "I think it was [co-star]

The good news? Lovely Julianne Moore plays Wavey, the single mom romanced by Kevin Spacey's Quoyle in the movie version of The Shipping News. The bad news? This entailed weeks of frosty filming up in Newfoundland. "It's a beautiful place, but very rough and wild," she says. "It got very, very cold and raw. The weather was constantly changing... In the middle of a scene, you could go from fog to sun or rain. It would be a tough place to live, [which] made me appreciate the resilience of the woman I played." Moore recalls she could always count on Spacey for comic relief on the rough days. For while Spacey was emotionally withdrawn as the troubled Quoyle, he was anything but when the camera stopped rolling. "Kevin is very light-hearted," she smiles. "I think it was [co-star]

The good news? Lovely Julianne Moore plays Wavey, the single mom romanced by Kevin Spacey's Quoyle in the movie version of The Shipping News. The bad news? This entailed weeks of frosty filming up in Newfoundland. "It's a beautiful place, but very rough and wild," she says. "It got very, very cold and raw. The weather was constantly changing... In the middle of a scene, you could go from fog to sun or rain. It would be a tough place to live, [which] made me appreciate the resilience of the woman I played." Moore recalls she could always count on Spacey for comic relief on the rough days. For while Spacey was emotionally withdrawn as the troubled Quoyle, he was anything but when the camera stopped rolling. "Kevin is very light-hearted," she smiles. "I think it was [co-star]

The good news? Lovely Julianne Moore plays Wavey, the single mom romanced by Kevin Spacey's Quoyle in the movie version of The Shipping News. The bad news? This entailed weeks of frosty filming up in Newfoundland. "It's a beautiful place, but very rough and wild," she says. "It got very, very cold and raw. The weather was constantly changing... In the middle of a scene, you could go from fog to sun or rain. It would be a tough place to live, [which] made me appreciate the resilience of the woman I played." Moore recalls she could always count on Spacey for comic relief on the rough days. For while Spacey was emotionally withdrawn as the troubled Quoyle, he was anything but when the camera stopped rolling. "Kevin is very light-hearte

Elijah Wood may be basking in the critical and inevitable box-office success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, but he's not about to forget the sacrifices he had to make playing Frodo the Hobbit. For starters, the young actor spent a huge chunk of his life holed up in New Zealand shooting all three big-screen versions of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic novels. Marvels Wood: "I was an 18-year-old kid when I arrived and a 20-year-old grown-up when I left!" Of course, Wood made good use of his 16-month tour of duty overseas. "I loved New Zealand," he says. "The people brought us into their culture. I spent a lot of time buying CDs for my collection when we weren't filming. I think I bought 300 or 400. One of the local papers did a story saying I had spent so much money at record stores that I was contributing to the New Zealand economy." Tru

After donning a plus-size granny suit in the $118 million-grossing smash Big Momma's House, Martin Lawrence realized there was only one thing left for him to do: Go back in time. And in his latest pic, Black Knight (opening Wednesday), he does just that. "I love fish-out-of-water themes," he tells TV Guide Online, "and what's a bigger fish-out-of-water than a brother from modern day going back into medieval England?" The 36-year-old comic-actor admits he too was a bit out of his element on the set of the comedy — particularly during the swordplay sequences. "I didn't know how to work a sword or how you fight with a sword," he confesses. "I'm good with a baseball bat. "But it was fun to play and showboat a little bit, especially since you know you're not really getting hit out the

Storm clouds are gathering over Laura Innes's ER alter ego Dr. Kerry Weaver — and we're not referring to the secret surrounding her sexual orientation. Next week's action-packed episode — "Partly Cloudy, Chance of Rain" — finds the stern doc caught in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. "I'm stuck in an ambulance with a pregnant woman who's been stabbed," the Emmy-nominated actress-director explains to TV Guide Online. "We're trapped by live electrical wires that have fallen down. It was very intense and I got to be an action lady for a while." As thrilling as the elaborate sequence was to shoot, Innes concedes that the special effects were toll-taking. "I did hate the rain part," she sighs. "You're standing out in the cold and you hear them say for the 75th time, 'Start the rain machines!' You think, 'No, please!' A crew member cam

Still smarting from NBC's cancellation last fall of his Dynasty update, Titans, mega-producer Aaron Spelling reveals that he's turning his back on the suds genre. "Soaps are something you're going to find only in my bathroom," he deadpans. Instead, Spelling is turning his attention to another seemingly done-to-death fad: horror. But he points out that All Souls — his new UPN supernatural drama set at a haunted hospital — is not your standard cookie-cutter frightfest. "It's sort of the dark side of Charmed," he says, referring to his hit WB spooker. "[It] will tap into the fascination viewers seem to have with horror and the occult. "Instead of calling it ER, we're calling it 'ES' for 'Everything Scary,'" Spelling adds of All Souls, which debuts April 17 at 9 pm/ET. "It's being shot in an old gothic hospital in Montr

David Caruso, whose career crashed and burned after he deserted NYPD Blue in 1994 for the big screen, has one word to describe how he felt about getting a plum supporting part in Proof of Life — "grateful." "This is the first major movie I've done in five years," marvels the actor, who in 1997 attempted a small-screen comeback with the short-lived CBS drama, Michael Hayes. "Taylor Hackford, who last directed me in An Officer and a Gentleman, really went to bat for me. I don't know whether this is going to get me some offers again, but I hope so." Shrugging off the memories of the media assault he faced when he left the hit ABC cop drama after little more than a year to pursue a film career, Caruso insists he sees himself as a trailblazer for other TV stars, like ER alum George Clooney. "When I jumped ship, there was no p

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