Issue Date: February 16, 2003
Suddenly, handsome Dennis Haysbert, 48, is everywhere: in the film "Far From Heaven", on Fox's "24" and as a nominee at last month's Golden Globe awards. Haysbert's also a new advocate for heart health, particularly targeting African Americans and Hispanics, as a spokesman for a Centrum vitamin and "Mind Your Heart" program. Besides diet, we talked politics:
Q: "Far From Heaven" takes place in the '50s, when our country had a long way to go in terms of race relations. Fast-forward, and on TV you're the president. Where do you think we are now as a country when it comes to race?
We still have a long way to go. But we have made progress. Perhaps not as much as I think we should, but progress.
Q: Do you think you'll see a black president in your lifetime?
I certainly hope so. But with what's going on in the world right now, the least of our concerns should be the color of our president's skin. It should be about what he can do for this country.
Q: Have you learned anything about what it takes to lead the free world?
I understand now how a president who goes into office with black hair comes out four years later completely gray. I have great empathy for what a president has to go through, all the decisions he has to make. I don't envy them at all, any of the presidents. But I do celebrate those who have been able to excel.
I was an avid fan of Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect". Will his cynical insights keep him off the air forever?
Michael Dukes, Toronto, Ohio
Starting next Friday, Maher, 47, will host a weekly one-hour, late-night news and comedy show on HBO, which surely will give him a lot more rope than ABC did. Last June that network canceled Maher's once-hip "P.I." after some advertisers balked at his comment that the U.S. military acted "cowardly" compared with the 9/11 terrorists. Fans will want his recently published book. The title is so Maher -- funny, sarcastic and long-winded: "When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism" .
ABC's "This Week" isn't the same without the charming Cokie Roberts. I read she was diagnosed with breast cancer. How is she doing?
Jim Stanley, High Point, N.C.
I'm happy to report that by the end of this month, Roberts, 59, a USA WEEKEND contributing editor, expects to be through with cancer treatment. She left the Sunday morning show three months after her diagnosis, but otherwise she has barely slowed down. She's still seen on ABC and heard on National Public Radio, and she's writing a book, due next year.
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James Patterson, the super-selling author whose thrillers are filled with heinous crime, is a romantic. Readers of his "Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas" know that. But if you've read only his frightening fare -- say, "Four Blind Mice" , on best-seller lists now, or "1st to Die", a TV movie next weekend -- you may be surprised to hear him talk about love. At 55, Patterson is happy, married and the father of a son, 5. But he endured the death of a previous longtime love, then realized he wanted romance again: "I went out, literally, to find somebody." In wife Sue, he tells me, he found a soul mate. "I think it's weird the way people go about the romance and sex thing. They pick people they wouldn't want as a best friend and wonder why it didn't work."
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Supermodel Estella Warren exclaims "Oh, God. No!" when asked whether she can tell us what wardrobe "must" to buy for the coming season. She'd just as soon live in a T-shirt and jeans. Still, the Canadian cover-girl-turned-actress, now in "Kangaroo Jack", enjoyed researching centuries of style for her newest role, host of "Fashion Spectacular", airing this month on WE: Women's Entertainment. For "Jack", Warren, 24, who lives in L.A. and dates director Peter Berg, had to learn to ride a camel. For her next film, a drama about Las Vegas losers called "The Cooler, she wears a prosthetic belly to play "a nine-months-pregnant drug-addict con girl." She could remake an Esther Williams movie: From age 7 to 17, Warren was a synchronized swimmer, winning medals at international meets. Girls should play sports, she says, so "you can see what your body can do rather than just what it looks like."
With: Frappa Stout. Contributing: Bridget Byrne, Tameka Hicks, Evelyn Poitevent.
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BIRTHDAYS
February 16: Ice-T, 45
February 17: Michael Jordan, 40
February 18: John Travolta, 49; Cybill Shepherd, 53
February 19: Benicio del Toro, 36
February 20: Cindy Crawford, 37; Charles Barkley, 40; Sidney Poitier, 76
February 21: Charlotte Church, 17; Jennifer Love Hewitt, 24; Kelsey Grammer, 48; William Petersen, 50
February 22: Drew Barrymore, 28
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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