Marlon Brando's long-awaited autobiography may finally be approaching lift-off. According to a source at Random House, the publishing house that signed Brando to a seven-figure book contract a year ago, Brando has begun putting pen to paper.
The 67-year-old actor, who just completed playing Torquemada in the Ilya and Alexander Salkind film of Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, is writing the book himself, without the aid of a cowriter. Our source says Brando recently sent Random House his first 40 to 50 pages, and adds that Brando "hasn't done as much writing as he had hoped, [but] we expect it will start to come faster now."
PEE-WEE'S FEE
What price Pee-wee? Try $105,000. That's the difference, a source says, between the $45,000 producers offered Joan (Twin Peaks) Chen to play a vampire's assistant in the comedy-horror movie, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and "the $150,000 producers wound up paying Paul (aka Pee-wee Herman) Reubens for agreeing to perform the same role after Chen declined the offer.
Howard Rosenman, coproducer of the film, would not confirm the figures, saying only that "everyone involved is thrilled to have Paul Reubens in the film."
IS JULIA ROBERTS SEATTLE-BOUND?
Call it a partial reunion of the gang that brought us the 1990 blockbuster Pretty Woman. A TriStar official tells us that Julia Roberts and her Pretty Woman director. Garry Marshall, are talking about joining forces again, this time on the contemporary love story Sleepless in Seattle.
This was the film that TriStar had originally given to director Mick Castle after Hook was taken from him so the studio could give it to Steven Spielberg.
The TriStar official says Sleepless has been handed over to Marshall "because [Castle's] vision of the film was too serious. We wanted more humor."
Aside from playing Tinkerbell in Hook, the only acting Roberts has done since her breakup with Kiefer Sutherland last June was to play herself in a cameo for director Robert Altman in his upcoming film, The Player.
IS JASON PRIESTLEY HAVING A HEARTH ATTACK?
Breaking news from the real estate beat: Jason Priestley took Christine Elise with him when he went on a house-hunting expedition in Hollywood, according to a source.
'The Beverly Hills, 90210 real-life twosome have been dating for several months, ever since Elise was featured earlier this season on three 90210 episodes as Emily, a character who had an obsessive crush on Priestley's Brandon character.
Can we now assume they'll be taking up residence together? Jason's rep says that while Elise may be looking at houses with Jason, any purchase would be Jason's alone.
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!
