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Issue date: February 4, 2001
What is actress
Renée Zellweger's background?
Jim Stagias, Salem, Ore.
She's from a tight-knit family in Katy, Texas, where she
acted in high school plays and learned to love animals; her
mixed-breed dog, Dylan, goes with her to most movie jobs.
Quarantine laws kept him out of England when Zellweger went
there to star in Bridget Jones' Diary, a comedy due
this spring. Zellweger, 31, has been as single as Bridget
since December, when she and her boyfriend, Jim Carrey, split
up.
I'm a big fan
of English actress Emma Thompson. What's going on in her life?
Is she working? It's been too long since she was onscreen.
Mike Lenihan, Boca Raton, Fla.
She took time off to have a baby, but Thompson -- at left
sporting a look from last year's English film Maybe Baby
-- stars next month in HBO's adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning
drama Wit. She plays a college professor dying of cancer,
and in that film she's bald. Wit is a good sign that Thompson,
41, is ready to be a working mom, and we're told the Oscar-winning
screenwriter (for Sense and Sensibility) already is
writing. The baby, by the way, is Gaia Romilly Wise, 14 months.
Dad is Thompson's Sensibility co-star, English actor
Greg Wise.
What can you
tell me about Dick Wolf, creator of Law & Order?
We don't hear much about behind-the-scenes folks.
Edith Marsh, Daly City, Calif.
Sherlock Holmes captured his imagination as a child. Today,
this prep school classmate of President Bush is "obsessive"
about crime stories, ripping them from newspapers to hand
the writers of his shows: NBC's Law & Order and
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the syndicated
Arrest & Trial and, next fall on NBC, Law &
Order: Criminal Intent. A former ad man, he decided at
30 "I didn't want to sell toothpaste anymore." So he turned
to screenwriting, then writing and producing his own stuff.
It doesn't all work, though. Why did last fall's Deadline
fail? "As you probably know, journalists are not perceived
as sympathetic."
Are Benjamin
Bratt and Julia Roberts still dating?
Mary Wilson, Windsor, Ontario
They're dating bicoastally, dividing their time between New York and his hometown,
San Francisco. "My family is my Rock of Gibraltar, my touchstone,"
says Bratt, 37, now onscreen in Traffic. And it's clear
mom Eldy is the light of his life. "She wouldn't tolerate
any behavior that was anything less than kind," he says of
the way he was brought up. "She led by example." The retired
registered nurse and political activist is "a great humanitarian,"
Bratt says. "She raised her children to be thoughtful, caring
people. I aspire to be that, although I don't always succeed."
As for becoming a parent himself someday: "I think I'll be
a good father. I'm actually looking forward to it." But he's
not talking when, where or with whom. I hear Alan
Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, is married to
NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell. True?
Bernice Raila, Chicago
Yes. They wed four years ago this April after dating for more than a decade and living together for years. Yet it's not Greenspan's relationship with Mitchell that all of Washington is following. More important is his relationship with President Bush. "The shape of the economy has a big effect on how presidents and Fed chairmen get along," says author Justin Martin, whose bio of Greenspan was published last fall. "When the economy is shaky, it is guaranteed they will be at each other's throats." What's more, Greenspan, a Republican who became Fed chair in 1987, didn't get along with Bush's father. Presidents notwithstanding, Greenspan, 74, remains passionate about his job. Mitchell, 54, says her husband still rises daily at 6 a.m. to pore over economic data.
It seems Tony
Danza, lately of the CBS drama Family Law, has been on TV
forever. How old is he?
Larry Bush, South Holland, Ill.
Danza is 49 but may seem older because he's been part of
pop culture for 25 years, starting with Taxi, moving
on to Who's the Boss? and struggling through two '90s
comedies. "I'm proud of my longevity," he tells us. "I marvel
at it myself." His two "dream" jobs, a detective show and
a Broadway musical, remain elusive, but he's working toward
them. "It isn't just how much you practice," he says. "It's
how long you stick with it."
Extra: Tony Danza
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THIS WEEK'S BIRTHDAYS
February 4: Clint Black, 39; Alice Cooper, 53; Rosa Parks, 88
February 5: Bobby Brown, 32; Laura Linney, 37; Hank
Aaron, 67
February 6: Natalie Cole, 51; Tom Brokaw, 61; Mike
Farrell, 62; Ronald Reagan, 90
February 7: Chris Rock, 36 ; Garth Brooks, 39
February 8: John Grisham, 46; Ted Koppel, 61
February 9: Travis Tritt, 38; Alice Walker, 57; Carole
King, 60
February 10: George Stephanopoulos, 40; Greg Norman,
46
Contributing: Nancy Mills, Evelyn Poitevent, Frappa Stout
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