Issue Date: July 27, 2008
What's in store for Tony Shalhoub and Monk this season?
Sarah Valenzuela, El Paso
Shalhoub and company are celebrating 100 episodes of the USA Network show, so you might expect Shalhoub to feel comfortable. But no. He says he grapples with "getting insecure and less confident that you can hold the viewers' interest and help the character and show evolve." So how does Shalhoub, 54, make his character's many idiosyncrasies so believable? "Even though we know he's a germaphobe and a clean freak and phobic and all these other things, there are times when one problem trumps another," he says. "You protect yourself in one area but make yourself vulnerable in another."
Go to top
I think Tom Selleck would make a terrific "Dancing With the Stars" contestant. Any chance?
Carol Guest, Grosse Ile, Mich.
If there is, no one at "DWTS" is going to spill the beans. Just who will appear in the seventh season is top secret until next month (the show is back in the fall). But you can bet that if Selleck is asked to join the cast, his "Three Men and a Baby" pal Steve Guttenberg will be among those who will sell it to him big-time. Guttenberg was part of last season's cast and was so exuberant about his experience that he once suggested that "DWTS" could solve the world's problems.
Go to top
Showtime's popular series "Weeds" has been freshened this season with a change in location -- and Albert Brooks. "I think it's really important to throw it all up in the air and say, 'Now it's going to be this,' " says Justin Kirk, 39, who plays Brooks' son. "He just drops perfectly into this part." A theater and TV veteran, Kirk is enjoying one perk of having "about as regular a job as you can in this business": home ownership. So where does he see himself in 10 years? Now in the midst of a lengthy bathroom renovation, Kirk deadpans, "I hope to be doing the kitchen."
Go to top
Where is former CNN anchor Aaron Brown?
Duchess Emerson, Hayden Lake, Idaho
He's on PBS' "Wide Angle" until Aug. 19, a public affairs series that he says is a better fit than the "Anna Nicole stories" covered on CNN. He also is teaching at Arizona State. Brown, 59, tells us, "I have an interesting view of the last 30 years of TV because I was in it."
Go to top
We love "House & Home" by first-time novelist Kathleen McCleary. She is a former senior editor for USA WEEKEND, so we're admittedly a bit biased.
When does a busy mom of two find time to write?
"In the morning after the kids went to school for an hour or two, and then at night when the kids were in bed for an hour or two. It was fits and starts."
Did you always want to write a book?
"My whole life. I was a bookworm as a kid. I vividly remember being at the library and thinking that if I could write a book, it would sit on one of these shelves forever, like living forever."
Is "House & Home" autobiographical?
"A lot of the emotion is autobiographical. But the character is nuttier and has a stronger need to have things one way. That, and I never tried to burn down my house; I've never been separated or divorced."
Who should be cast as the lead if your book gets optioned for the movies?
"Now that Julia Roberts is over 40 and a mother, she would be wonderful."
Go to top
Virginia Madsen says her new movie, "Diminished Capacity," is a tale that appeals to all ages. "It's about people afraid of life and relationships, like a lot of people in the world." She's equally excited about Amelia, the biopic she is making with Hilary Swank about Amelia Earhart. "Period pieces are fun. It's like playing make-believe, going into your mom's closet and getting all dressed up." Speaking of Mom, Madsen, 46, is producing a documentary that she and her mother created called "I Know a Woman Like That," about women between the ages of 65 and 94. "These women are vibrantly engaged in life at a time when the world tells you to go away and be old. It's inspiring."
Go to top
Did Silda Wall Spitzer, wife of ex-New York governor Eliot Spitzer, ever leave him?
Carol Rogers, Endicott, N.Y.
As of press time, the couple were together, despite his disgrace and resignation in the aftermath of his meeting with a prostitute. Ironically, when her husband campaigned for governor, Silda Spitzer sought advice from another female lawyer whose husband had run for governor: Hillary Clinton. Both couples met in law school -- Harvard for the Spitzers, Yale for the Clintons.
Go to top
BIRTHDAYS
July 27: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, 31; Peggy Fleming, 60
July 28: Lori Loughlin, 44 ; Sally Struthers, 60
July 29: Stephen Dorff, 35; Martina McBride, 42
July 30: Hilary Swank, 34; Vivica A. Fox, 44; Arnold Schwarzenegger, 61
July 31: J.K. Rowling, 43; Wesley Snipes, 46
August 1: Coolio, 45; Dom DeLuise, 75
August 2: Mary-Louise Parker, 44; Peter O'Toole, 76
Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Kathy Rowings
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
|
