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Issue date: April 22, 2001
"7th Heaven"
star Stephen Collins seems like the perfect husband and father
on TV. Is he married in real life? Does he have children?
Joanne Danielson, Visalia, Calif.
The head of the WB's Camden
clan is married to actress Faye Grant and has a daughter,
11. He tells us he feels blessed to play pastor Eric Camden.
The role "came at a moment when I'd been working on so many
of the things the show is about: How can you be in this crazy
business and be a good parent? How do you become a good person?"
A regular at St. Matthew's Episcopal in Pacific Palisades,
Calif., Collins, 53, gets insight from the church's rector
and his own brother Mike, "a great father" who keeps his sense
of humor with six kids. "The show gives me something to shoot
for. I might be in an airport, angry with a ticket person,
and I check myself, because part of me is seen as Eric Camden."
 Online Extra: Q&A with Stephen Collins
Along with the rest of
the nation, I was surprised by the many pardons Bill Clinton
granted in his final hours in the White House. Is this a common
practice of exiting presidents?
Mark J. Franzen, Alexandria, Ky.
The 258 pardons and commutations
granted by Clinton in his last month -- 177 on the final day
-- was unusual, but the total granted in his eight years,
456, was moderate. Richard Nixon granted 923. Of course, the
public furor was not over the number of pardons or even the
last-minute nature of some of them. Clinton's pardon of financier
Marc Rich (plus the involvement of assorted Rodham-Clinton
relatives in other cases), was shocking in that it, like many
others, did not go through the Office of the Pardons Attorney,
which would have set it up for screening by the FBI, U.S.
attorney, sentencing judge and deputy attorney general.
Is NBC's Katie Couric,
whose husband died of colon cancer in 1998, dating anyone
seriously?
Donna Jennings, Hixton, Wis.
Couric, 44, who just celebrated
10 years as "Today" co-anchor, has been dating super-producer
Tom Werner (with her at left) for about a year. The hitch:
Werner, 51, co-producer of such hits as "The Cosby Show",
"Roseanne" and "3rd Rock From the Sun",
is based in L.A.; Couric lives in Manhattan with daughters
Elinor, 9, and Caroline, 5. One sign the relationship could
progress: Werner filed for divorce last fall from his wife
of 28 years; he was separated when he and Couric started dating.
(Her manager introduced them.) That romance, plus the fact
that her $7 million-a-year contract is up next year and her
old boss, Jeff Zucker, now is NBC's prime-time chief, has
added fuel to talk that Couric would go west. But those in
the know call it speculation.
I so enjoyed Joaquin Phoenix
in his latest movies -- "Gladiator", which got him
an Oscar nomination, and "Quills". Is he related
to former child star Leaf Phoenix?
Deborah Doyon, Charlotte,Vt.
He is that child star. His
brother was teen idol River Phoenix, and his sisters are Rain,
Liberty and Summer, so Joaquin adopted "Leaf" as a kid. Once
missionaries, the family moved to L.A. in 1978; Leaf landed
roles in "SpaceCamp" and "Parenthood"
in the late 1980s before dropping out to deal with River's
overdose death in 1993. He resurfaced as Joaquin and made
the edgy "To Die For" in 1995. It was while making
1996's "Inventing the Abbotts" that co-star Liv
Tyler decided Phoenix was to die for; they dated for two years.
There's no girlfriend now, but the Oscar nomination boosted
his career. This year Phoenix, 26, has already wrapped the
crime drama "Buffalo Soldiers" and begun to film
a sci-fi romance.
The use of "Dubya" as a
reference to President Bush is increasingly common. What is
its origin?
Aziz M. Ahsan, Hopewell Junction, N.Y.
Columnist Molly Ivins coined
it in 1995; it's the spelled-out Texas-drawl version of Bush's
middle initial (for "Walker"). Her editor at the "Fort
Worth Star-Telegram" tells us Ivins "owned 'Dubya' from
the mid-'90s to 1999, then it caught on with everyone else."
Well, not really everyone. Close friends call Bush "George
W." His dad sometimes calls him "Quincy," a reference to John
Quincy Adams, the only son of a president to become president.
And almost everybody else calls him "Mr. President." The formality
of the Oval Office has not dashed Bush's affinity for nicknames:
Condoleezza Rice is "Guru," Karen (Parfitt) Hughes is "High
Prophet" and Laura Bush is often "First," as in "first lady."
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THIS WEEK'S BIRTHDAYS
April 22: Jack Nicholson,
64
April 23: Melina Kanakaredes, 34; Valerie Bertinelli,
41
April 24: Barbra Streisand, 59; Shirley MacLaine, 67
April 25: Tim Duncan, 25; Renee Zellweger, 32; Al Pacino,
61
April 26: "T-Boz" Watkins, 31; Carol Burnett, 68
April 27: Casey Kasem, 69; Coretta Scott King, 74
April 28: Jessica Alba, 20; Jay Leno, 51
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