Issue date:
May 8-10, 1998

Virginia R. Hunt, Spruce Pine, N.C.

He's not ruling out movies -- he'd love to do another with friend and Tin Cup co-star Kevin Costner -- but cop show Nash, which airs a two-hour season finale next Friday, is his baby. In fact, Johnson's own life isn't far from that of his harmlessly roguish character. "Our sensibilities are the same," he tells us, as are issues they cope with: growing kids and ex-wives, for instance. Johnson, 49, who dates his young Nash co-star, shares custody of daughter Dakota, 8 (by Griffith), and son Jesse, 12 (by Patti D'Arbanville). Though they all live in different cities, "we make it work." Helping him cope is "a core of friends who are understanding," like Nash partner Cheech Marin ("my brother").

I'll read anything by author James Patterson and enjoyed the film version of Kiss the Girls. I hear another of his creepy thrillers will make it to the big screen. Which one?

Doneil Caffey Jr., Cincinnati

Paramount is making Along Came a Spider, another Alex Cross mystery, with Girls' Morgan Freeman back as the detective. It's due in late 1999.

Kathy Bates already has one Academy Award, for 1990's Misery, but her Primary Colors performance merits another. Is she as colorful offscreen as on?

Kate Brown, Winnetka, Ill.

In person, Bates, 49, is quiet and reserved. "There are moments when I'm extroverted, but there are moments when I'm tremendously shy," says the Memphis-born actress. Certainly her work in the smart but not big-box-office Primary Colors, as personal investigator for John Travolta's morally ambiguous presidential candidate, is Oscar-worthy. And Bates says it's "probably my favorite of all my roles." But Oscar voting is a long way off, and memories can be short. She just finished a nerve-racking job, playing Adam Sandler's mother in a comedy. "I'm nervous about comedy," she says. "I don't do it very often."

What has become of Marla Maples, second wife of billionaire businessman Donald Trump?

Yolande Hohengaffer, Greenfield, Mass.

Maples, who says she stopped the clock at 27 but was 34 when we checked, has moved from New York to L.A. with the couple's daughter, Tiffany, 4. She's trying to make a go of it in show biz. While mum about her love life, she tells us: "I'm doing very happily. Life has been full." As for the divorce, they're still working on it, though they split a year ago. Neither would talk about terms, but money reportedly is the hang-up.

Michelle Kwan is such an elegant skater, and, as her behavior at the Olympics showed, she has a beautiful attitude, too. What are her plans? I hope she keeps skating.

Sarah English, Dudley, N.C.

The 17-year-old silver medalist and reigning U.S. and World Ladies' Figure Skating champion will graduate from high school next month; last semester, she brought home a 4.0 average. In April she signed a deal with Disney for four prime-time TV skating specials, and she has announced that she wants to compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City -- unlike her Nagano rival, 15-year-old gold medalist Tara Lipinski, who is bowing out to turn pro. Currently on tour with "Champions on Ice," Kwan hopes to start taking college courses this fall.

Ex-presidential adviser Dick Morris, fired after his involvement in a Washington sex scandal, has made distasteful public comments on Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky crisis. What finally happened with Morris' own marriage?

Polly Gallia, Sidney, Maine

Morris, who last month signed on as a political contributor for Fox news programs, apparently reconciled last fall with wife Eileen McGann. His agent wouldn't talk about the Morris marriage, but a friend of the pair told People McGann has an "enormous capacity to care, [and] therefore to forgive." She stood by Morris when his relationship with a call girl first became public, then left him for a short time.

May 10 Bono, 38
May 11 Louis Farrakhan, 65
May 12 Mackenzie Astin, 25; Kim Fields, 29; Emilio Estevez, 35; Bruce Boxleitner, 48; Tom Snyder, 62
May 13 Stevie Wonder, 48; Peter Gabriel, 48; Bea Arthur, 72
May 14 Natasha Ryan, 28; David Byrne, 46; George Lucas, 54
May 15 George Brett, 45
May 16 Tori Spelling, 25; Gabriela Sabatini, 28; Tracey Gold, 29; Janet Jackson, 32; Debra Winger, 43; Pierce Brosnan, 46