Issue Date: Feb. 24, 2002
What's Kirstie Alley doing now besides those Pier 1 commercials? Will she be in another sitcom or feature film soon?
Angel Moll, Bellingham, Mass.
Her work takes a dramatic turn when she stars in a yet-to-be-scheduled CBS miniseries, tentatively titled Salem Witches, with Shirley MacLaine; the two talked "old boyfriends, ex-lovers and politics." After her NBC sitcom, Veronica's Closet, and a much-publicized romance with James Wilder ended, Alley, 51, told her agent: "I'm going to be sad for a long time. I can't do a series or movie for a long time." But she was up for the Pier 1 spots, a perfect fit for the former interior decorator, who has "spent a bajillion dollars at Pier 1." After two years of a lighter workload, time with children William True, 9, and Lillie, 7, and travel in Italy, she's mulling proposals for sitcoms, talk shows and a movie. She tells us she loved Italy so much she almost bought a house in Positano; she's still looking. "It's like the canvas of Italians is their life. The way they eat -- everything is a jewel." She's now decorating a new house (an Italian villa) in L.A. She has a home in Oregon, but as for the others, such as the Maine home she had next to her friend John Travolta's place, "I don't have them anymore. Ask Parker" -- ex-husband Parker Stevenson, with whom she had a messy split.
Is ER star Maura Tierney any relation to '40s and '50s movie star Gene Tierney?
Barbara Ponte, Denville, N.J.
She's asked that often (frustrating, no doubt, when you'd prefer the public focus on your work), but the answer is no. Nor is she related to actor Lawrence Tierney. The Boston native is married to writer-actor Billy Morrissette (no relation to singer Alanis), known for a "Got milk?" commercial involving a cubic zirconia ring. Tierney, 37, stars in her hubby's directorial debut, Scotland, PA., out now; it's a black comedy he wrote based on Macbeth. The former NewsRadio gal also has a smaller role as Al Pacino's love interest in Insomnia, a thriller due in late May. Emmy-nominated last year for her role as nurse Abby Lockhart, Tierney is committed to ER through next season.
I like CNN anchor Aaron Brown's calm, thoughtful delivery of the news. What do you know about him?
N. DiCicco, North Cape May, N.J.
The Hopkins, Minn., native was wooed to the anchor seat while watching coverage of the 1963 John F. Kennedy assassination. During his first TV job, Brown struck on his signature style, he tells us: "I figured out I was never going to be slick in front of the camera. I needed something to fall back on, so I fell back on me." Married with a teen daughter, Brown landed the 10 p.m. anchor spot in July, during a flurry of hiring that later included his former ABC colleague Connie Chung. "She's really funny. Just to run into Connie all the time and goof with Connie ... it will be cool." Brown, 53, says he looks "goofy" on TV and rarely watches his shows. His daughter, Gabby, "thinks I'm the biggest geek on the planet. I'm sure I lose out to Gilmore Girls."
I enjoyed Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel,The Hours, which is being made into a movie. When will the film come out? Is Cunningham working on anything new?
David Savka, Indianapolis
He's just finishing a screenplay based on his 1990 novel, A Home at the End of the World, for Killer Films. The Hours is due this fall, with Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Ed Harris and Cunningham himself, who has two lines with Streep. "She was spectacular, every bit as smart and cool and funny as you'd expect," he says. He didn't predict the success of the novel, which "has no sex or car chases. It's about three women, one of whom is Virginia Woolf. I didn't think, 'Big prize, million copies in print, major movie.' I expected it to be my arty little book that would end up on the remainder pile." The Ohio native, who grew up in California, writes best just after waking. "It's important for me to segue straight from dreams into writing. I can maintain the thread of illusion." He's working on a series of short novels in various genres (gothic horror, romance, science fiction) and has a book about Provincetown, Mass. -- a favorite place -- due this summer.
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Lisa Edelstein has had a guest role in nearly every hot show on TV in the past 10 years -- Seinfeld, Mad About You, ER, The Larry Sanders Show and The West Wing, in which she played a call girl/law student involved with Rob Lowe's character. "That was fun, making out with Rob. I said to him, 'If I could've told my 15-year-old self I'd be making out with you on the set of this incredible show, I would've died.' " Her nomad days are over for now as she settles into a new sitcom, NBC's Leap of Faith, debuting Thursday between Friends and Will & Grace. Edelstein, 34, plays a single ad exec in New York, a "free spirit definitely having her share of men." Edelstein isn't living that life now -- she has a boyfriend and lives in L.A. -- but she started her career in New York and knows about being single in the big city. She used to return to her hometown in New Jersey several times a year but hasn't since Sept. 11, thanks to a heightened fear of flying. "I have held many a hand of people I don't know," she says. And that was before the attacks. A vegan who gives her time to the animal sanctuary Best Friends, Edelstein also frequents a yoga school. The six-day-a-week Ashtanga practitioner says yoga "changed my mental state."
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BIRTHDAYS
February 24: Billy Zane, 36;
Paula Zahn, 46;
Barry Bostwick, 57.
February 25: Sean Astin, 31;
Téa Leoni, 36.
February 26: Erykah Badu, 31;
Tony Randall, 82.
February 27: Chelsea Clinton, 22;
Ralph Nader, 68;
Elizabeth Taylor, 70.
February 28: John Turturro, 45;
Mario Andretti,62.
March 1: Mark-Paul Gosselaar, 28;
Chris Webber, 29;
Ron Howard, 48;
Harry Belafonte, 75.
March 2: Jon Bon Jovi, 40;
Lou Reed, 60.
Contributing: Evelyn Poitevent, Patty Rhule, Frappa Stout
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