Issue Date: June 28, 2009
Actor Tim Daly is trying to change the way we think about the arts, and when he starts getting fired up, I'm happy to know he pulls his car to the side of the road to talk from his cellphone. Daly, 53, who plays a sexy doctor on ABC's "Private Practice," tells me he'd been wary about taking on unfamiliar issues, as he'd seen "some people get in trouble for speaking their minds." Now, as co-president of The Creative Coalition, a non-profit, non-partisan arts advocacy group, Daly talks about "something I'm an expert at, something I've made my living at and devoted my life to ... I thought this is some place I can stand up and have credibility." Daly co-produced the recent documentary "PoliWood," about last summer's political conventions, and he has been to Washington, D.C., several times since spring, once to testify before Congress on arts funding and a second time to attend a big press-politico dinner.
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Do members of the motion picture academy dislike Leonardo DiCaprio for some reason? He is an excellent actor who has not been Oscar-nominated for some of his best work. I don't get it.
Emy Saito, Clearwater, Fla.
A whole lot of people would have to dislike Leo to have it affect his Oscar fate, and that's just not the case. He's well-liked in Hollywood. In fact, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has nominated him three times, and I have no doubt he'll see more nominations, and, eventually, a win. This fall he has another possibility coming in "Shutter Island," his fourth movie with director Martin Scorsese.
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We love the HBO series "The Tudors" and watch it on DVD. When is the third season due?
Barbara Vincent, New Castle, Ind.
In January. And look for Annabelle Wallis as Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife. So what's it like to play a character knowing she will soon meet an untimely death? "It's quite hard," Wallis tells us of playing the queen who dies of complications from childbirth. "I suppose I was more fortunate than Anne Boleyn in that I go naturally, and it wasn't at the hands of my husband." The legendary, now-deceased, Richard Harris was her uncle, so perhaps acting "is in the genes," says Wallis, 25. "I wasn't told I should go to acting school," she says, but "I do think the path was predestined."
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Since ABC canceled "Boston Legal," I've been hoping James Spader would get a new series with "Legal" co-star William Shatner. Their connection seems genuine. Would they want that?
Squeaky Perez, Leominster, Mass.
Yes. Shatner, who is working on new episodes of his A&E Bio Channel talk show, "Shatner's Raw Nerve," tells us he'd consider it. Although Spader wasn't reachable, I can't imagine he'd turn down anything as worthy as "Legal," which brought him three Emmys.
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Who designed the wedding dress that Jennifer Aniston's character, Jenny, wore in the film "Marley & Me?"
Amy Schulke, Los Altos, Calif.
Carolina Boulton, a designer in Coral Gables, Fla., created the satin dress, which was beautiful on Aniston in that wedding scene with co-star Owen Wilson, shot in the snow.
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Gloria Reuben, 45, has more to be excited about than getting additional courtroom time in the TNT drama "Raising the Bar", which returned for its second season this month. She's also a newly minted U.S. citizen. "Considering the amount of taxes that I've paid, they should have given me the stupid thing!" says Reuben, a Canada native who had a green card for nearly 20 years. "It's kind of cool. I do a lot of activism, and there's going to be something a little different when I can actually say I'm a citizen of this country." However, her love for American football was fostered at an early age in her hometown of Toronto, where she used to follow the Pittsburgh Steelers in their 1970s heyday. "I still have a No. 75 'Mean' Joe Greene jersey. My friends call me Glo, so I am known as, in my Pittsburgh Steelers world, Mean Glo Greene."
Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter, Brian Truitt
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BIRTHDAYS
June 28: John Cusack, 43; John Elway, 49
June 29: Richard Lewis, 62
June 30: Mike Tyson, 43
July 1: Liv Tyler, 32; Pamela Anderson, 42; Dan Aykroyd, 57
July 2: Lindsay Lohan, 23; Michelle Branch, 26; Jose Canseco, 45
July 3: Thomas Gibson, 47; Tom Cruise, 47
July 4: Geraldo Rivera, 66
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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