Issue Date: February 9, 2003
The Screen Actors Guild awards are still four weeks away (they'll air on TNT March 9), but movie fans like us are studying the nominations, trying to figure out if SAG's chosen ones will be significant predictors of Academy Award winners. The beautiful Halle Berry, for example, who won an Oscar last spring for "Monster's Ball", had taken home a SAG award just a few weeks earlier; it was her second SAG win. In fact, Berry's peers were earlier arbiters of her talent: She won in 2000 for HBO's "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge" (and went on to win an Emmy for that role, too). This year Berry, 36, will enjoy Hollywood's awards season in the less nerve-racking role of presenter; she was the first to sign on for SAG. Thanks to "Die Another Day", she's an even bigger star now. She has multiple movies in the works, and there's talk of creating a franchise for her "Day" character, Jinx.
What ever happened to "Dirty Dancing"'s delightful Jennifer Grey?
Debra James, Palmersville, Tenn.
Grey, who played Frances "Baby" Houseman in that 1987 hit, has a baby of her own now, 1-year-old Stella. She wed actor-screenwriter Clark Gregg (with her at right), the least famous of her many romantic attachments, on Martha's Vineyard in 2001. Grey, 42, daughter of actor Joel Grey, has been engaged to Matthew Broderick and Johnny Depp; she also dated George Stephanopoulos, Liam Neeson and Billy Baldwin. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for "Dirty Dancing" but never was able to capitalize on it for more mature roles.
Does "Hardball" host Chris Matthews have any political aspirations, or does he plan to remain in his present profession?
R.W. Emmens, Pittsford, N.Y.
Matthews had a political career: He was a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter and a senior aide to former House speaker Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill. Besides, he gets to argue politics with the best and brightest in the political world every day. Although Matthews, 57 and a father of three, gave up his regular column in the "San Francisco Chronicle" last fall, he's happy with his TV jobs. In addition to Hardball on MSNBC weeknights at 9 p.m. ET, he has the syndicated "Chris Matthews Show", and he'll anchor MSNBC's presidential election coverage through 2006.
Did Jane Clayson get fired from CBS' "Early Show"? What is she doing now?
Kathleen McGann, Palm Coast, Fla.
Clayson is a news correspondent for several CBS shows and a sub for Dan Rather. Certainly she got better hours out of the deal. Her departure last fall was just another inexplicable rotation of the revolving door CBS installed at "The Early Show" long ago. They've reinvented it so many times it's difficult to keep track of who's in the anchor seat on any given day. Not that it matters -- NBC's "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America" continue to beat it handily.
Go to top
John C. McGinley, the acerbic Dr. Perry Cox on NBC's "Scrubs", has a son with Down syndrome at the center of his life. While talking on the phone with me, McGinley is watching Max, 5, who's jumping on a trampoline under the watchful eye of next-door neighbor and dear friend John Cusack. Max clearly brings out a soft side of McGinley, who's funny and straightforward. I ask about his mentors, and McGinley, 43, tells me his father comes first, because of "his intense sense of love and family," then director Oliver Stone, with whom McGinley has made six movies. "I mean the best parts of Oliver: his loyalty, his creative focus, his singlemindedness on a set." And now there's "Maxie ... he's my new mentor. He's teaching me a lot." "Scrubs", now in its second season, looks ready to roll for more, and McGinley has a new movie with Cusack, "Identity", due in March. He recently saw the finished film and assures me it's "the scariest movie I've ever seen."
What does Mariah Carey, who is said to have suffered a breakdown, do in her down time?
Michell Strozier Magnolia, Ark.
She has learned to sleep. Lack of it, she says, was partly responsible for her collapse in 2001. She also is eating more healthfully and working out, including swimming. The 32-year-old diva likes to hang out with Jack, her Jack Russell terrier; he even accompanies her to interviews. And lately she's been canoodling with action star Vin Diesel. The two were spotted on the slopes in Aspen, Colo., just before Christmas.
With: Frappa Stout. Contributing: Tameka Hicks, Bob Makela.
Go to top
BIRTHDAYS
February 9: Travis Tritt, 40; Alice Walker, 59; Joe Pesci, 60
February 10: Laura Dern, 36; Greg Norman, 48
February 11: Brandy, 24; D'Angelo, 29; Jennifer Aniston, 34; Sheryl Crow, 41; Burt Reynolds, 67
February 12: Christina Ricci, 23; Josh Brolin, 35; Arsenio Hall, 48
February 13: Mena Suvari, 24; Peter Gabriel, 53; Jerry Springer, 59
February 14: Gregory Hines, 57; Florence Henderson, 69
February 15: Matt Groening, 49; Jane Seymour, 52
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
|
