Ever since The Partridge Family began its four-year run on ABC in 1970, DAVID CASSIDY has been dogged by his image as a teen singing idol. "I was on my way to becoming a serious and credible actor when I chose to do this one job [The Partridge Family], a pilot, and then I became this thing—David Cassidy, the thing," says Cassidy, now 40 and busy recording his first LP in the U.S. since the mid-'70s. Cassidy, who spent much of the intervening years concentrating on acting (and marrying and divorcing twice, first actress KAY LENZ and then horsewoman MERYL TANZ), says of his Partridge-era singing career, "I retired and left at the top. I didn't end up playing some lounge in Toledo, and that means a lot to me." His new album, due this fall, features rock songs, but Cassidy may sing his 1970 bubble-gum smash, "I Think I Love You," when he tours. "It's a great song. There's no denying the impact it had on a generation, and I love that about it."
CHANGE OF LIFE
Now that CBS's Newhart comedy series has ended its eight-year run, JULIA DUFFY has finally served her last bungled breakfast. "I don't think anything will ever top Newhart in my career," says Duffy, 37, who played spoiled, rich kid Stephanie on the show. "A spin-off is just something I'm not interested in. I never got tired of playing Stephanie, but there's something very childish about her, and I'd rather play grown-ups. I just received a made-for-TV movie offer in which I play a housewife—no actress has ever been as excited about playing an ordinary housewife as I am."
PURLOIN CLOTHS
"She has this annoying habit of borrowing my nighties," says AUDREY LANDERS, 30 (below, left), when asked if there's anything about her equally famous sister, JUDY, 28, that bugs her. (The two starred last week in Ghost Writer, a syndicated TV movie.) Audrey says, "Judy has a lingerie mania. She always likes new ones, even though she has a closetful. She always steals my clothes." Audrey, who joins the cast of ABC's One Life to Live this week, says she is tolerant of the steady stream of Landers sisters one-liners favored by late-night talk show hosts. "I think half of them think we're twins. We get twin jokes. I wish sometimes they would make independent-sister jokes."
BUTTER FINGERED
Eleven-year-old CHARLIE KORSMO, who plays the prominent role of the orphan in the new Dick Tracy movie, offers this scintillating firsthand peek at the offscreen lives of WARREN BEATTY and MADONNA, his rich-and-famous co-stars. "Madonna and Warren got into this huge discussion about the ingredients in Molly McButter, the butter substitute," reveals Korsmo, who was visiting them at Beatty's house in Los Angeles before being cast in the film. "Frankly, I was hoping for real buttered popcorn, but Madonna was into counting her calories." Korsmo also reports that Madonna seemed tense when he first met her but eventually loosened up. "I think she knew I wasn't impressed with big-name celebrities, and she wasn't used to that."
DEBATING, THE ISSUE
"In 1988 Americans gave [GEORGE] BUSH and [MICHAEL] DUKAKIS $46 million each to run their presidential campaigns," says NBC Nightly News's eminent commentator, JOHN CHANCELLOR, 62, who has written a new book on contemporary American social and political problems, Peril and Promise. "If we're going to give them $46 million each, then I think the public should put conditions on how that money ought to be spent, such as getting real debates instead of the sham press conferences that I have to participate in. We don't really have much say in how these debates are structured, and the maneuvering that goes on is embarrassing to anyone with a press card. The idea that the politicians get to pick the panelists is demeaning to the press. I think many politicians are afraid of real debates, of getting into the ring where you can make mistakes."
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!
