Issue Date: May 30, 2004
What's going on with one of my favorite bands, Train? I know at least two members have left. Just curious about the plans.
Renee DiPatri, Cove Springs, Fla.
Train has not jumped the track yet, but it is down two people. Vocalist and guitar player Rob Hotchkiss, co-founder with lead singer Pat Monahan, quit in late 2002 to spend more time at home. Another original, bassist Charlie Colin, also left. Now on tour, Train has Johnny Colt of the Black Crowes standing in on bass.
Where did the amusing host of "Great Hotels," Samantha Brown, come from? Will she take the show abroad?
Thomas Cunningham, Bronx, N.Y.
Beginning next month, you'll see "Hotels" in foreign cities. Brown, 34, developed her funny bone in the New York sketch-comedy group Mouth. She was a stranger to expensive hotels when she auditioned for the show. "My experience was being in motor lodges," she says. "I've since changed my opinion greatly." Travel Channel's Brown likes quirky hotels but won't pick a favorite.
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Tom Papa intends to slay the reality dragon. With his new NBC comedy, "Come to Papa," which begins Thursday, he's ready to take on all idols, bachelors, swans and the awful like. He admits to having watched a few of them but tells me: "When I'm done I feel like I've gorged myself on fast food. I feel sick and guilty." Papa's sitcom will mirror his life. He plays a comedy writer in New Jersey, but without the 2-year-old daughter who provides plenty of his inspiration. He'll concentrate on his view that "life is hysterical, from the moment you wake up and spill toothpaste in the morning."
Where is the lovely Julie Christie? She was such a big star in the '60s and '70s, but I haven't heard of her for decades.
Marilyn Kruse, Wheat Ridge, Colo.
Christie, 63, is back in a big way. Go see "Troy," where she appears as Brad Pitt's mother, then look for her next week as a psychic in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." In October she has a major supporting role in "Neverland," a movie about the real-life author of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie (played by Johnny Depp). The three-time Oscar nominee (she won in 1965 for "Darling"), dedicated Buddhist and tireless political activist lives in London. Although she counts among her loves Warren Beatty, her current beau is a journalist for the British newspaper "The Guardian."
What happened to former CBS "Early Show" anchor Jane Clayson after the infamous "I want to focus on my salad" interview with Martha Stewart? She disappeared from TV.
Alice White, Chenango Forks, N.Y.
I'm happy to report that Clayson, 37, who was hired in 1999 to host "The Early Show" with Bryant Gumbel, is married, living in Boston and expecting her first baby. She's still interested in TV but is not working now.
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In her latest romantic comedy, with Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore gets married without much thought. Not so in real life. It took Moore seven years and two kids to decide to walk down the aisle with longtime love Bart Freundlich. Nine years her junior, Freundlich charmed Moore in 1996 when he directed her in "The Myth of Fingerprints." When filming ended, they began dating. "Marriage is an important alliance," Moore, 43, says about why they waited. "It's about two people sharing a life with certain values and learning how to do it together. I'd had a marriage when I was younger that didn't turn out the way I wanted."
What is former "Party of Five" actress Neve Campbell working on now?
Merideth King, Chicago
Two projects: One's a script she optioned about silent film star Louise Brooks; the other's a movie in which the main character has Tourette's syndrome, like Campbell's younger brother Damien. Her last work, "The Company," her baby, is out on DVD Tuesday. "It would be lovely if roles came around that were like that, but they don't often. So I need to create them," says Campbell, 30. She tells us she's been writing short stories, too, explaining, "I've got aspirations to do projects that mean something to me."
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Jason Ritter is a young man who's never been to war, but he knows a little something about the pain of sudden loss, and he believes all American soldiers are due respect. That's why he's in Washington, D.C., this weekend, with Tom Hanks, Joe Mantegna and other stars, for the annual Memorial Day celebration on the lawn of the Capitol (to air on PBS Sunday). With Mantegna, his dad on "Joan of Arcadia," Ritter -- who lost his real father, John Ritter, unexpectedly last September -- will read a story of two veterans, one young and one old, and what they learned from each other on and off the battlefield. Ritter, 24, sidesteps questions about the war in Iraq, saying that "it makes me cringe when actors think [their opinion] is the be-all and end-all. I'm [just] excited to show people what it means to go to war. It's not the way we see it in movies." Ritter worked his TV schedule around filming the upcoming movie "Happy Endings."
After the BBC America series "The Office" won two awards at the Golden Globes, I tried to find it on my local cable system and could not. Why would Globe voters give an award to a show that many people cannot see?
Barbara Florczak, Milltown, N.J.
Because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a small group of correspondents for overseas publications, doesn't care where a show is seen, and it likes to reward the offbeat. "The Office" can be seen on BBC America, available in 38 million homes on digital cable and satellite, or purchased on DVD. But you might want to just wait for the U.S. version. NBC has a pilot based on the original but set in America, and according to "TV Guide," which got a sneak peek, it's actually funny.
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BIRTHDAYS
May 30: Wynonna Judd, 40
May 31: Colin Farrell, 28; Brooke Shields, 39; Clint Eastwood, 74
June 1: Alanis Morissette, 30; Morgan Freeman, 67
June 2: Nikki Cox, 26; Wayne Brady, 32; Dana Carvey, 49
June 3: Tony Curtis, 79
June 4: Angelina Jolie, 29; Noah Wyle, 33
June 5: Mark Wahlberg, 33
Contributing: Katie Aberbach, Gayle Jo Carter, Kevin Maynard, Nancy Mills, Frappa Stout
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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