Issue Date: October 14, 2001
What did Twentieth Century Fox agree to pay Gillian Anderson to extend her "X-Files" contract through a ninth season?
Wendy Thu, San Jose, Calif.
Fox won't say, and Anderson, 33, finds such talk indiscreet. All they'll say is previously reported figures are wrong. What's right, Anderson tells us, is her relationship with co-stars Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish. But she does miss David Duchovny, her partner for eight seasons. "We shared such an important chunk of our lives, and now this person I once knew intimately is no longer around. I miss his humor and his presence, and especially what our characters shared," she says. Her current contract is only for this season. What's next? "I hope to continue to do film projects that challenge me, do theater, and spend more time doing absolutely nothing."
Drew Barrymore, one of my favorite actresses, sure has proven her screen versatility. What is next for her?
Victoria Wilson, Chicago
Drew's newest movie, "Riding in Cars With Boys", is expected in theaters this week, and it may surprise fans who expect light comedy from her. It's the true story of Beverly Donofrio, a teenage mother in the 1960s who escapes welfare and a drug-addict husband to go to college. "[She] admits she hates being a mother, is neglectful, self-involved and just wants to become a writer," says Donofrio, 51, whose best-selling 1990 memoir was followed by a sequel last year. How does Drew, 26, compare? "I'm an Italian American from the East Coast," Donofrio says. "Sarcasm is part of my repertoire. I don't think Drew has a sarcastic bone in her body. But this is not the normal Drew." Donofrio even has a small role in the movie, as a guest at her own wedding.
My friends and I have noticed that pro soccer star Mia Hamm hasn't been wearing her wedding band. Is there a reason?
Stephanie Marlene, Laredo, Texas
You're as observant as you are enthusiastic about soccer, Stephanie. Hamm and her husband of six years, Marine helicopter pilot Christiaan Corry, separated a year ago and began divorce proceedings this summer. They met at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and shared a home in Pensacola, Fla., for a while, but, driven by their careers, they soon were going weeks, sometimes months, without seeing each other -- which Hamm, 29, openly regrets. She now plays for the Washington Freedom. Corry is stationed in San Diego. As if distance weren't enough to create problems, tabloid stories about Hamm's increasingly "cozy relationship" with Boston Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra cannot have helped. (The two have been friends for years and attend each other's games when they can.) I say: Give the girl a break. Besides divorce, Hamm has dealt in the past 18 months with a grueling pre-Olympic training schedule, a haunting overtime loss in the Freedom's final game against Norway, shoulder surgery and promotional duties for the women's soccer league, WUSA.
How does actress Julia Stiles feel about interracial relationships? She has starred in two movies where she dates African-American men. Does she have a boyfriend?
Robert Morris, Detroit
Not now. After a year-long relationship with her "10 Things I Hate About You" co-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stiles, 20, briefly dated her brother's soccer coach. Now, however, the Columbia University sophomore says there's no time for guys. Her attitude about interracial dating is just as clear. When small-minded folks told her it would be career suicide to play a white girl dating a black man, she called them "insane" and proceeded to take on two such roles -- in "Save the Last Dance", and recently in "O". She has three movies coming: "The Business of Strangers", a thriller; "The Bourne Identity", her first potential blockbuster; and a dramatic comedy, "Carolina", with Shirley MacLaine.
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Scott Patterson is a "Gilmore Girls" guy -- and what a guy he is. Unmarried and handsome, with a hint of macho, Patterson, who is in his 30s, plays coffee shop owner Luke Danes on the WB drama, and he's having "the best professional experience of my life." That includes his previous life as a pro baseball player. He thought he might be a star on the diamond, but that prospect didn't work out; his boyhood idol, Sandy Koufax, was the one who sat him down and basically told him: This isn't the career for you. "It broke my heart a bit," Patterson says, "because I didn't think I got a legitimate chance to prove myself." A year of overseas travel "helped me get it out of my system. I'd never been to Europe; I started in the north and ended up in the south by the Mediterranean, and I was contemplating staying there." Until fate intervened. He met a New York couple who encouraged him to stay with them in the Big Apple while he tried acting "just to work out some stuff." He was instantly hooked, and now, of course, so are Gilmore Girls fans.
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BIRTHDAYS
October 14: Usher, 23; Ralph Lauren, 62
October 15: Sarah Ferguson, 42; Emeril Lagasse, 42; Penny Marshall, 59
October 16: Kellie Martin, 26; Tim Robbins, 43; Suzanne Somers, 55; Angela Lansbury, 76
October 17: Eminem, 28; Chris Kirkpatrick, 30; Wyclef Jean, 32; Mike Judge, 39
October 18: Wynton Marsalis, 40; Chuck Berry, 75
October 19: Jon Favreau, 35; John Lithgow, 56
October 20: Snoop Dogg, 30; Tom Petty, 49; Jerry Orbach, 66
Contributing: Tameka Hicks, Evelyn Poitevent, Frappa Stout
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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