Issue date: October 8, 2000
Steven Weber generated
major heat on ABC's Once and Again last season, playing a
sexy (but married) love interest for Sela Ward's sister. Is he included
in the show's fall plans?
Cindy Cobb, Sterling Heights, Mich.
That storyline is revisited early in the season but without Weber,
39. He's busy with his own show, a sitcom called Cursed,
joining NBC's "must-see" Thursday lineup. Weber, best known for
playing goofy Brian on Wings, is among the many well-known
faces returning to the tube this month. Television's creative gods
must believe familiarity breeds success, not contempt. Look for:
André Braugher
WAS: Intense detective Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life
on the Street.
IS: Wise doctor in new ABC medical drama Gideon's Crossing.
Christine Baranski
WAS: Rich and hilarious Cybill sidekick/best friend
Maryann.
IS: High-strung TV producer on CBS' Welcome to New York.
Delta Burke
WAS: The pampered beauty queen of Designing Women.
IS: A pampered first lady (with David Allen Grier on Secret
Service) in NBC's DAG.
Craig T. Nelson
WAS: Bumbling but lovable coach Hayden Fox on Coach.
IS: Tough police commissioner of the nation's capital in
CBS' The District.
John Goodman
WAS: The man who made us love Roseanne because he
loved her.
IS: A gay dad in Fox's Normal, Ohio.
What can you tell
us about George W. Bush's teen daughters? Why don't we see them
campaigning with their father?
Anthony Netalie, Hartwood, Va.
Early in Dad's quest for the White House, Barbara and Jenna Bush decided they
wanted the Chelsea treatment: no media attention. The twins, old
enough to vote since last fall, rejected an intimate education in
presidential politics for the varied curriculum of college. Barbara
is at Yale, alma mater of her dad and his dad. Her high school yearbook
declared her "most likely to appear on the cover of Vogue."
Jenna ("most likely to trip on prom night") is at the University
of Texas at Austin. Please tell me what
is happening to so-called country music. So many of today's Nashville
artists don't sound anything like the country I know and love.
Arlene Blake, Taunton, Mass.
"Country, like rock and roll, has a wide definition," says singer Alison Krauss, who'll be in Nashville next weekend with the likes of Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Vince Gill and Loretta Lynn to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Grand Ole Opry. With her band, Union Station, Krauss' sound is bluegrass, but she has recorded with Parton, one of country's queens. "She's classy and amazing," Krauss tells us. "I wish I could be around her once every two weeks just to keep getting the charge she gives."
Whoopi Goldberg dominates
the center box on the revived Hollywood Squares. How do they
get her to appear so much? She must be paid a bundle.
Jean Mitchell, Chicago
She admits she gets "a lot of money" to work two weekends a month taping a
month's worth of Squares. And she got involved with it in
the first place partly because that schedule gives her time to be
with family or work other jobs. More important: Goldberg, 50, has
a stake in the show. She's executive producer, and it's due largely
to her energy and contacts that the slots around her are filled
with A- and B-list stars who are hip, funny or both. I've long admired
legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas for her stamina. But
I often wonder about personal details. Does she have a husband?
Children?
Bettina J. Speyrer, Lafayette, La.
Thomas, who left United Press International last spring after 57 years, never had kids. But she was married, fittingly, to a fellow White House reporter, Doug Cornell of the Associated Press. Their union lasted 11 years, until his death in 1982. Thomas covered presidents from Kennedy to Clinton and was the first woman to head a wire service's White House bureau. TV audiences got to know her as a fixture in the front row at presidential news conferences and, as senior reporter, the one who would end them with "Thank you, Mr. President." She quit without comment after UPI was sold to an organization affiliated with controversial business and religious leader Sun Myung Moon, but at 80 she still writes a newspaper column and teaches college classes.
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THIS WEEK'S BIRTHDAYS
October 8: Matt Damon, 30; Sigourney Weaver, 51; Chevy Chase,
57; R.L. Stine, 57; Jesse Jackson, 59
October 9: Sean Lennon, 25; Scott Bakula, 45; Billy Preston,
54
October 10; Mike Malinin, 33; Tanya Tucker, 42; David Lee
Roth, 45
October 11: Luke Perry, 36; Joan Cusack, 38
October 12: Marion Jones, 25; Luciano Pavarotti, 65; Dick
Gregory, 68
October 13: Nancy Kerrigan, 31; Kelly Preston, 37; Jerry
Rice, 38; Marie Osmond, 41
October 14: Usher, 22; Ralph Lauren, 61
Contributing: Stanimira Stefanova
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