"I don't own even one ripped sweatshirt anymore," says Jennifer Beals, 31, who danced her way to stardom wearing exactly that in the 1983 hit Flashdance. Now she's dressed to kill as the femme fatale who beguiles Denzel Washington in the new detective thriller Devil in a Blue Dress. "I begged and begged to do this role," Beals says. "I cajoled my way into a reading, and I had never been so nervous in my life. I thought I'd get a nosebleed." She didn't, but after more than a decade of working in such forgettable films as Vampire's Kiss and Blood and Concrete: A Love Story, she nabbed the part, a plum role in a major movie. "It's funny to be back," says Beals. "I'm thinking that maybe if I wear really serious suits this time around instead of torn sweatshirts, people will take me a lot more seriously."
RETRO SPECTIVE
Gregory Peck, veteran of more than 50 movies in a 50-year career, is touring the country in a one-man show called A Conversation with Gregory Peck, which takes the form of a cozy, front-porch-style chat with the audience. Asked to name his favorite role, Peck, 79, picks Atticus Finch, the small-town lawyer who defends a black man accused of rape in 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird. "Even if it weren't, it's the one I'll be remembered for—if I'm remembered," says Peck. "It's played in junior highs to this day. I've got a basement full of essays from kids." Peck remains in touch with Atticus's children: Philip Alford, who played Jem, owns a clothing store and a bar in Birmingham, Ala.; Mary Badham, who played Scout, is the mother of two in Richmond, Va. (She came to his show in Winston-Salem, N.C., where the two reenacted a Mockingbird scene together.) As for making new movies, Peck says, "Barring some incredibly meaty role, I am retired. I don't want to go on down the pike playing someone's crusty grandpa."
EYE TO EYE
Kevin Pollak and Kevin Spacey made a lasting impression on one of their costars in the crime thriller The Usual Suspects. "Kevin and I both do Johnny Carson, so we'd have Carson bake-offs—the two Kevins do the two Johnnys—and Gabriel Byrne was so fascinated that he videotaped it for his mom in Ireland," says Pollak, 37. "He'd say, Teach me how to do that,' and we'd work with him, but he sounded more like Michael Caine than Carson." Pollak himself learned from the master. "I did The Tonight Show a dozen times when Johnny was the reigning king. One time, on the air, I taught him how to do the Peter Falk single roving eye, and every single time I did his show after that, as I'd shake his hand, Johnny would lean forward and do a little Columbo for me. I had an inside joke with the king! That was just the coolest."
DOGGING IT
Her new comedy series on CBS, Almost Perfect, suits Nancy Travis just fine, since she likens her own life to a sitcom. "I did a dog movie called Fluke this summer, and they had to smear mushed liver all over my face for the dog to like me," says Travis, 34, who has two pooches named Max and Mabel. "Fluke knows commands, which puts my dogs to shame. But with my dogs, it's like I gave birth to them. I try to convince my husband [Savoy Pictures chief Robert Fried] that Max looks a little bit like him. He's like, 'No, Max is a dog. Stop it.' "
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
