Brian Wimmer, who played Boonie on China Beach, had some explaining to do after his non-actress girlfriend checked out his clinches with costar Marcia Gay Harden during shooting of the new movie Late for Dinner. "My girlfriend always wants to know my every thought when I'm in these little love scenes," said Wimmer, 31, who plays a young father who is frozen for almost three decades and returns to woo his now middle-aged wife. "So I make up stuff. I tell her it has to be romantic, otherwise it looks soap-operaish. I tell her I'm kissing someone else but I'm thinking of her. I say, 'I have to get into it for a bit, but only for a little while. Then I can come home and take it out on you.' "
RADIO DAYS
Remember Deborah Norville? Well, the once embattled cohost of NBC's Today show, who fled TV for the security of motherhood last February, is making waves again, this time on the radio. Starting on Monday (Sept. 23), Norville will be hosting The Deborah Norville Program, an ABC Radio Networks family-oriented news, feature and call-in program. "It's not going to be the Deborah Norville show, where Deborah Norville goes on ad nauseam about herself," promises Norville, 33, who will be broadcasting live from her New York City apartment from 7 to 10 P.M. while keeping an eye on infant son Niki. "I'm really fortunate to have this opportunity. I was fully prepared to put my professional life on hold until Niki got bigger. God has smiled on me and said, 'No, you don't have to do that, Deb.' Now I'm revitalized, and I've cut my hair off, have a whole new look, and my husband [businessman Karl Wellner] loves it. That's always a big concern."
ON A DIFFERENT NOTE
Tom Brokau plans to leave the singing to Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo when he cohosts the live TV broadcast saluting the Metropolitan Opera's 25th anniversary at Lincoln Center on pay-per-view cable on Monday (Sept. 23). "I'm in a deficit when it comes to musical skills," admits the 51-year-old NBC Nightly News anchorman. "My children [daughters Jennifer, 25, Andrea, 23, and Sarah, 21] gave me advice: 'Don't try to hum along.' I'm that bad."
HELL'S KITCHEN
Beverly Hills, 90210's resident mom, actress Carol Potter, 43, can't stand the heat and would like to get out of her kitchen. "All I did in one recent episode was separate the recyclable plastic and glass on-camera," says Potter. "I do that and make very elaborate meals. I hardly ever leave that house. One day I think I'm going to pick up the script and read that Cindy [her character] is agoraphobic! My aunt said to me recently that Donna Reed is alive and well on Beverly Hills, 90210. I'm not asking for a story line around my character, just maybe one scene where I'm coming in from having lunch with somebody." Any thoughts about what she will do if the producers don't improve her character's social life? "What do I plan to do? I plan to keep accepting the paychecks."
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!
