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Thursday, January 11, 2007
Need a Nora Roberts fix?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Author Nora Roberts makes Tom Clancy look like a lazy slacker with her astonishingly prolific writing: 170 romance/thriller novels over 25 years with more than 295 million books in print.
But she’s been reluctant to translate those stories into film until Lifetime and Peter Gruber’s Mandalay Television convinced her after a year of negotiations. The result were four films with decent talent involved: “Angels Fall” starring Heather Locklear, “Montana Sky” featuring John Corbett, “Blue Smoke” with Scott Bakula and “Carolina Moon” with Claire Forlani and Oliver Hudson. Gruber’s company filmed the movies back to back and Lifetime will air them every Monday starting January 29 for four weeks.
If Lifetime were to translate every Roberts novel into a movie and air them weekly, it would take them more than three years. And by then, they’d have another 20 films to shoot.
“She just wrote a novel while we’re talking here,” joked Susanne Daniels, president of Lifetime networks during a session at TCA. “And she sold a million of them as well.”
For the unitiated, her books typically feature strong female characters, typically career women seeking love. They frequently confront a murder mystery. In the end, the mystery is solved and she gets her man.
The network’s goal, Daniels said, is “give women what they want. It sounds simple and obvious.”
Then Locklear, who plays a chef in “Angels Fall,” piped in by repeating Daniels’ mantra. “Just give women what they want.” Pause. “We’ll all be happy!”
When asked about whether any of the male actors actually read Roberts voluntarily, Corbett turned it back to the journalists. “How many men here read her? Raise your hands.” None did.
Congenial Corbett, who has done many female-friendly roles in “Northern Exposure, “Sex & the City” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” said he has been touring the past year with his band but liked the idea of playing a rancher in “Montana Sky,” so he shot his role while on vacation. (That’s a vacation?)
Then Locklear, who was in a quippy mood, jumped in again. “I never knew you were a rock star.” The crowd laughed, knowing her past romances with the likes of Richie Sambora and Tommy Lee. “But right on!”
And the Oscar (Title) Goes to … Oprah? Barbara?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Looks like Barbara Walters might have more to worry about than defending herself and Rosie O’Donnell from attacks by Donald Trump (or NOT defending Rosie sufficiently at first, based on the rumors flying around). ABC just announced that Oprah Winfrey will present her first ever “Primetime Oscar Special” on its airwaves February 22.
Not clear yet whether La Winfrey will actually make an appearance on the special, or just hide behind a curtain like the great Oz. Her gimmick …. er, her refreshing approach, is to have Oscar winners interview other Oscar winners. Thus, Julia Roberts (“Erin Brockovich”) will take on George Clooney (“Syriana”), Nicole Kidman (“The Hours”) will tackle Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”) and Jamie Foxx (“Ray”) will probe the mind of Sidney Poitier (“Lillies of the Field” and a second, honorary Oscar in 2002).
Let’s leave aside the whole question of whether, considering how these duos comprise either close friends or mutual admirers, we’ll get anything more substantive than “What’s your favorite color?” asked. The REAL question here is, what does Winfrey muscling onto Walters’ Oscar special turf really and truly mean?
Walters again will host her traditional pre-Oscar sitdown this year (no word yet on who her big “gets” are). And considering it will air on the actual night of the Academy Awards, February 25, maybe we should still consider her the big winner.
And yet, Walters’ show will air in the distinctively pre-primetime, “I’m too busy bathing the kids to watch TV” hour of 7-8 p.m. Whereas Winfrey’s special gets the primo, post-“Grey’s Anatomy” slot on Thursday night.
And the winner is …. ? Your guess is as good as ours’. Maybe the loser can get a consolation slot as a contestant on Trump’s “The Apprentice.”
Spelling tries to stay in spotlight
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The track record for celebrity couples who do reality shows is dismal. See Jessica Simpson/Nick Lachey (“The Newlyweds”), Britney Spears/K-Fed (“Chaotic”) and Travis Barker/Shanna Moakler (“Meet the Barkers”). All have since divorced.
But that hasn’t stopped a recently married Tori Spelling and her actor Dean McDermott from trying their hand at an upcoming reality show for Oxygen. The gimmick? They run their very own bed and breakfast inn in southern California, gambling her $800,000 inheritance from her late father and legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling. Thus the pun-inflected name: “Tori and Dean: Inn Love.”
Spelling, the former “Beverly Hills 90210” star who appeared in a frothy white dress seven months pregnant with her first child, told the media at TCA she knew about reality show jinx but didn’t break the news to her husband.
“I had no idea,” McDermott said. “We’re going to be the exception, not the rule, and prove everyone wrong.”
The pair had met in Ottawa shooting a film and stayed at a bed and breakfast, instead of the usual four-star hotel because it was closer to the set. Spelling had never been to one. “I had some trepidations because my makeup artist at the time said, ‘Oh, B&Bs are just creepy and they’re old [with] people’s used things.”
And indeed, that’s what they saw. She described the inn as “old and musty” with things like “decrepit teddy bears with eyes hanging out.”
“Smelled a bit like pee,” McDermott added.
But Spelling said they came away wanting to “reinvent” the B&B for a new generation with chic designs and happy hours. If the first one is successful, McDermott even envisions opening multiple inns.
The cameras will capture the couple cleaning, cooking and entertaining guests.
Spelling does draw the line: “I don’t clean toilets.”
And she didn’t recoil at the comparison to MTV’s “Newlyweds,” which elevated Simpson to a pop culture figure with her ditzy comments, including her now-famous inability to identify the meat in Chicken of the Sea.
“We are still newlyweds,” Spelling said, “but we have a baby on the way and we’re juggling our careers in the new business so it’s kind of ‘Newlyweds: Part Deux.’ “
And, she noted, “I know what tuna is.”
View alum Ling rings in
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lisa Ling, a journalist who spent three years on Barbara Walters’ “The View” back in its early days, speaks in measured, thoughtful sentences, the complete opposite of current headline-grabbing “View” gabber Rosie O’Donnell.
And Ling maintained her poised mien even when journalists at the Television Critics Association gathering in Pasadena inevitably peppered her with questions about “The View” while she was promoting her new documentary series “Who Cares About Girls” on Oxygen about the plight of young women around the world.
“I don’t begrudge anyone for their interest in ‘The View’ or anything going on in entertainment because, listen, at the end of the day, I’m as much a pop culture junkie as anyone else,” she said Wednesday. Ling, who also works with the National Geographic Channel and “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” admits people bring up “The View” to her virtually every day. “I’m astounded people really care,” she said in a baffled tone.
At the same time, she said she harbors no regrets doing “The View,” saying the experience made her a known name, allowing her to do what she does now, pursuing weighty topics such as child prostitution and girls whose moms are in prison.
“The View,” Ling noted, is “extremely empowering. It’s women of different generations who have this forum to talk about everything from what’s going on in presidential politics to Donald Trump’s combover.”
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