Also: Listen to "Celebrity Watch" from CNN Radio's Ken Pauli
|
Windows Media: |
28k
| |
Real Audio: |
28k
|
|
Showbuzz
Web posted on:
Wednesday, December 09, 1998 12:55:38 PM EST
Today's buzz stories:
| |
Michael Zaslow and co-star Brynn Thayer on the set of ABC's "One Life to Live"
|
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Soap opera actor Michael Zaslow died Sunday at the age of 54, a year after he became afflicted with Lou Gehrig's disease, a degenerative condition that eventually left him wheelchair-bound and unable to speak.
When he was diagnosed, Zaslow was a star on "Guiding Light" but the CBS show fired him and cast another actor in the role he had been playing off and on for 25 years. However, the Emmy-winning Zaslow refused to fade away, instead making TV appearances to increase awareness about his nervous-system disorder and landing another soap opera role in ABC's "One Life to Live."
Like the actor, his character on "One Life" had Lou Gehrig's disease, was in a wheelchair and could "speak" only by typing words into a voice synthesizer. "I am blessed with my celebrity like Chris Reeve. So I and my family and extended family have ways to raise this disease to eye-level," the actor once said.
Actor Robert Wortham, who plays the Rev. Andrew Carpenter on "One Life to Live," said of his colleague: "He didn't have a voice, but he had a heart and he had eyes that looked at your soul and told you the truth. He didn't need dialogue." Zaslow is survived by his wife, Susan Hufford, and his two daughters.
| |
Springsteen
|
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band will go on tour next summer in what will be Springsteen's first major shows with his longtime backup band in 10 years, the rock star's manager said Tuesday.
Although a statement released in New York by Jon Landau Management announced the tour's beginning next summer, performance dates and locations were not disclosed. Rumors of a reunion had been surfacing recently, since Springsteen released a new boxed set called "Tracks," which includes 56 previously unreleased songs.
The rollicking E Street Band played with Springsteen from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s as the singer gained fame with hits like "Born to Run," "Born in the U.S.A," "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River." The last major tour for Springsteen and The E Street Band was 1988-89's "Human Rights Now! Amnesty International Tour," although the band played on some tracks of Springsteen's 1995 greatest hits album.
| |
Electra and Rodman
|
Rodman: Liquor not a factor in marriage to Carmen Electra
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The future of the union between Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra remains murky. The flamboyant basketball player said Monday that he is still married to the former "Baywatch" actress and said that he hopes "it stays."
Rodman filed for annulment nine days after the Vegas wedding, and his agent claimed that he was falling-down drunk during the ceremony. Now Rodman says alcohol had nothing to do with it. "You don't have to be drunk or intoxicated to be attracted to Carmen Electra. She is a beautiful woman," he told the New York Daily News. However, a source close to Rodman told the newspaper that he still wants the marriage annulled.
| |
McCartney
|
LONDON (CNN) -- Former Beatle Paul McCartney plans a live chat session with fans next week on the Internet. McCartney particularly wants to talk about his wife, Linda, who died of breast cancer in April, but his spokesman Geoff Baker said no topic will be banned from discussion.
Not exactly an Internet buff, McCartney is "very excited, but a bit nervous," Baker said. He chose an Internet chat over several television interview offers because he wants to go "direct to his fans." His hour-long chat on December 17 will feature the premiere screening of music videos on some of Linda McCartney's songs and photographs. The session will be held at http://webevents.broadcast.com/mccartney.
| |
John Travolta in Malick's "The Thin Red Line"
|
HOLLYWOOD (CNN) -- Reclusive writer-director Terrence Malick doesn't want any showbiz types seeing "The Thin Red Line" before its official release on December 25, according to Variety. On Tuesday morning, the day of the highly anticipated press screening of the Fox World War II film, calls went out to hundreds of invitees telling them to bring "family, friends and other journalists," anyone except "agents, employees of other studios, publicists, writers, directors or anyone in the entertainment industry."
Representatives for Fox said the request was made because the studios and producers had to screen an unfinished print of the film to qualify for year-end critics' lists. One Fox insider said the film is 95 percent finished. It is said to be lacking some minor sound polishes and color corrections.
Reuters Limited contributed to this report.
| 
