If you're a comedian, how do you turn down an invitation to appear on NBC's 90th-birthday tribute to Bob Hope? Johnny Carson didn't. And neither did Jay Leno, Roseanne Arnold, Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Reiser or George Burns. But Jerry Seinfeld said no.
Seinfeld's manager, George Shapiro, says his client couldn't make the Hope taping May 1 because he was on vacation in Europe. (The Hope show airs May 14; his birthday is May 29.)
"Jerry hasn't taken a vacation in 14 years," says Shapiro, adding that Seinfeld will be back in time for an appearance in Atlantic City this Friday, May 7. How did Seinfeld plan to spend his vacation? Says Shapiro: "Among other things, he was looking to buy a Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany."
DARLING, YOU'VE NEVER BEEN MORE BLURBABLE
Most authors have to settle for getting promotional plugs for their books from fellow authors. Not Glathy Cash Spellman, whose latest novel, Bless the Child, is blurbed by that voracious reader Elizabeth Taylor.
"I have never read a book or connected with an author who has touched me so deeply," gushes Taylor in ads for Bless the Child.
Did Liz simply happen upon this book in her local bookstore and want the whole world to know how she feels? Hardly. Spellman's husband, Joseph, is an executive with the company that puts out Liz's perfumes, and Taylor and the best-selling author are buddies.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES
Whoopi Goldberg and Ted Danson come prepared. At a press junket in L.A. to hype their new movie, Made in America, the reported lovebirds held up signs when journalists asked questions the duo felt were too close for comfort. Danson's read, "That's personal," and Goldberg's said, "Next question."
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS...
We hear that when Garry Shandling said thanks but no thanks to NBC's multimillion-dollar. multiyear contract offer to take over David Letterman's late-night spot, he told sources it was because he "didn't feel comfortable following [Jay] Leno." In other words, Shandling suspects that Leno might not deliver enough of a 12:30 a.m. audience if Leno loses to Letterman when the two go head-to-head in August. Of course, now that will be Co-Dan O'Brien's problem (see page 40).
NBC denies making Shandling a "formal offer."
THE CLOCK IS TICKING
With his Indecent Proposal ensconced as No. 1 at the box office three weeks running, director Adrian Lyne is mulling over the casting for his next project, a remake of Lolita (1962). The original, based on Vladimir Nabokov's novel about man of letters Humbert Humbert's sexual obsession with a 12-year-old nymphet, starred James Mason and Sue Lyon.
Lyne tells us that Dustin Hooffman has expressed interest in playing Humbert. "He'd be good, wouldn't he?" says Lyne. "But Humbert is supposed to be about 40." Hoffman is 55.
Lyne has met with Juliette Lewis, 19, about playing the Lolita role. As with Hoffman, though, he's worried that "maybe she's too old." There's no start date yet on Lolita, a Carolco Pictures project.
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!
