Issue Date: May 19, 2002
I like Michelle Rodriguez. What is she up to now?
Steven Figueroa Bronx, N.Y.
The out-of-nowhere star of 2000's "Girlfight" is busy building her rep as Hollywood's tomboy. She has been a boxer and a drag racer ("The Fast and the Furious"); in this summer's "Blue Crush", she'll play a surfer. The 23-year-old high school dropout, who grew up in Texas, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, always has prided herself on being tough. And in March, she had a real-life girlfight: Rodriguez was arrested and released on $2,500 bail after allegedly assaulting her roommate in their New Jersey home (the charges were later dropped). Not exactly good publicity for her last film, "Resident Evil", a sci-fi thriller based on the video game; it could be the first of a trilogy.
Please tell me more about the gorgeous Toni Collette. What's next for her?
B.J. Wilson, Des Moines
Collette, 29, plays a "desperately unhappy and suicidal single parent" opposite Hugh Grant in this weekend's "About a Boy". Despite her downbeat role, she calls it a "[wet]-your-pants funny" film that also deals with serious subjects "in a poignant and graceful way." The Sydney native, whose boyfriend is an Aussie rocker, loves to act opposite kids -- as she did in "The Sixth Sense" with Haley Joel Osment. "They represent something all actors want to be -- completely in the moment," she says. "They haven't developed enough neuroses yet." Later this year, Collette plays an infertile woman in the movie version of Michael Cunningham's "The Hours".
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David Blaine equates his latest feat with driving 80 mph into a brick wall -- only his body is the car. For "David Blaine's Vertigo" (10 p.m. ET Wednesday on ABC), the "street magician" will jump from a 100-foot-tall pillar ("like a phone pole, but 10 stories high") with only cardboard boxes to break his fall. But first, Blaine, 28, a Houdini admirer who was buried alive and spent days inside an ice cube for previous specials, will test his endurance by standing atop the pillar for 35 hours. He'll have a good view of New York's Bryant Park, but no safety wires to hold; he took gymnastics and practiced jumping to prepare. The single New Yorker says that he hopes the stunt will help his younger brother (and only living family member) defeat his own fear of heights.
I am a fan of HBO's Oz, and it seems to me most of the actors have appeared in one of NBC's "Law & Order" shows at some point. Why the crossover?
Karen Robman, San Ramon, Calif.
Sources at the networks say it's just a matter of popular New York-based shows attracting the same talent. Actors living in the Big Apple have fewer TV vehicles to choose from than their L.A. brethren. Plus, with three shows in the "Law & Order" franchise, the chances are higher for crossover -- and not just from Oz: John Ventimiglia (Artie Bucco) and Nancy Marchand (Livia Soprano) from The Sopranos appeared in episodes of "Law & Order", while Chris Noth went from that show to a recurring role as Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest on HBO's "Sex and the City".
98 Degrees seems to be fading from the media spotlight. Will they have another album out soon?
Amy Matthews, Littleton, Del.
They already do. This month, Jeff Timmons, Justin Jeffre and brothers Nick and Drew Lachey released "98°: The Collection". Their publicist says the "compilation of career highlights" has hits from their four albums and a new radio favorite, "Why (Are We Still Friends)". The buff 20-somethings also put out a DVD of concert footage and videos, as well as behind-the-scenes goofing. Maybe that will extinguish rumors the 5-year-old band is splitting up, possibly fueled by Nick Lachey's February engagement to pop singer Jessica Simpson. Brother Drew had the last laugh in a statement on the group's Web site: "I didn't know we had broken up until I heard it on the radio."
I'd like to know more about Terrence Howard of "The Best Man". Are any movies on his agenda?
Kirsten O., Bellevue, Wash.
Since his role as a Tuskegee Airman in "Hart's War" with Bruce Willis earlier this year, Howard, 33, has no other projects lined up, his publicist says. That could be because he's choosy. An outspoken critic of movies that perpetuate negative images of black life, Howard told BET, "I have to struggle to pay my mortgage, but I have integrity, and I won't pretend to sell crack to pay my bills." The Chicago native once studied civil engineering, and although his publicist wouldn't reveal his marital status, we know he has a young daughter named Heavenly.
Contributing: Tameka Hicks, Evelyn Poitevent, Patty Rhule, Frappa Stout
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BIRTHDAYS
May 19: Kevin Garnett, 26; Pete Townshend, 57; Nora Ephron, 61
May 20: Busta Rhymes, 30; Cher, 56
May 21: Lisa Edelstein, 35; Mr. T, 50
May 22: A.J. Langer, 28; Naomi Campbell, 32; Bernard Shaw, 62
May 23: Jewel, 28; Maxwell, 29; Drew Carey, 44
May 24: Priscilla Presley, 57; Patti LaBelle, 58; Bob Dylan, 61
May 25: Lauryn Hill, 27; Anne Heche, 33; Mike Myers, 39; Ian McKellan, 63
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 Last week's Who's News
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Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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