ER's Eriq La Salle quickly picks his favorite episode of the hit NBC medical drama's debut year: the one in which his character, Dr. Benton, missed his mother's birthday party to save the life of a skinhead with a "Die, Nigger, Die" tattoo. "What a wonderful dilemma," says La Salle, 33, who won an Emmy nomination for his role. "My character's not just an over-achiever, he's got that God complex that surgeons have—the feeling that they're the highest of the high. Dr. Benton is strong, arrogant, intelligent, stubborn. But most of all, he's a black man on TV who's got the guts to be offensive." La Salle promises his character won't mellow this season. "We've drawn the outline, and I'll continue to color him in."
JUST WALK AWAY, RENE
In her new comedy Get Shorty, 5'8" Rene Russo obviously isn't playing the title role. But she is playing against type in one respect. "I play a B-movie star with big breasts," says Russo, 41, who helped save the world from the Ebola virus in Outbreak and kicked Mel Gibson's can in Lethal Weapon 3. We hate to ask, but how did she, uh, prepare for the role? "I got a Wonderbra," says Russo, laughing. "My motto was, 'Have pads, will travel!' " She plays John Travolta's love interest in the crime caper, due Oct. 20, about a loan shark trying to collect on some gambling bets. "I just loved playing this woman," says Russo. "She walks around in tight, teeny-weeny, shorter-than-short skirts and skintight shirts. The only disappointing thing was that not one of the guys on the set even noticed because everyone was so tired. It was, 'Yawn, there's Rene. Tight outfit. Are you in pain?' "
NOT BLUE ABOUT BLUE
Ask David Caruso, formerly NYPD Blue's, brooding Det. John Kelly, if he has any regrets about leaving TV's top cop show, and he's happily unequivocal. "Not a one," says Caruso, 39, who stars in the upcoming thriller Jade as a district attorney who suspects his ex-girlfriend (Linda Fiorentino) of murder. "I did a great season of TV, but it was time to move on. The opportunities in films couldn't be ignored." Especially since Jade's director, William Friedkin, called the shots on one of the most memorable car chases ever filmed, in the 1971 Oscar winner, The French Connection. "I'm thinking I'm the luckiest guy in the world," says Caruso, "doing high-speed car chases with Billy directing. Not bad for a faded TV star."
NOW, AND THEM
Treat Williams' chilling performance as a psychotic gangster in the upcoming black comedy Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead won raves at the Cannes, Montreal and Telluride film festivals and may resurrect his career. Despite his critically acclaimed performance in 1981 's Prince of the City, Williams fell off the actors' A-list and into TV limbo. (Remember him as Shelley Long's costar in the short-lived sitcom Good Advice?) "Acting-wise," says Williams, 43, "I couldn't get arrested. I did some bad movies, and the heat was off. My roles were about making a living. I'm the world's biggest worrier, so it wasn't a pretty time. I thought it was over." But he kept trying. "I thought, if they ask me to audition, I'll just shut up and audition. I gave up any sense of 'Don't you know what I was?' "
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!
