Actor William Atherton, who played the obnoxious reporter in both Die Hard movies, did something recently that actress Penelope Ann Miller may have felt was obnoxious in real life.
At The Freshman's Los Angeles premiere, Tri-Star Pictures publicity people were saving seats in the theater for Miller, 26, a co-star of the film, and her party, which included her escort. Woody (Cheers) Harrelson, and her parents. By the time Miller arrived at the theater, the seats were occupied by Atherton, 43, and his party. Miller asked one of the Tri-Star people to intervene diplomatically and see if Atherton wouldn't mind moving his party to other vacant seats. He minded.
So Miller approached Atherton herself and compared the importance of this night for her to the one he must have had some weeks before at the Die Hard 2 premiere. She then asked him to move so her parents could sit down. Again, he refused.
Miller's mother, who had already seen the film at an earlier screening, left and walked into an adjacent theater where RoboCop 2 was playing. Meanwhile, Atherton never budged from his seat, and Miller, her father and Harrelson had to find other seats.
Atherton confesses that he didn't realize who Miller was until halfway through the movie. "I had already been moved twice," he says, "by the time [Miller] approached me." Atherton, who says he feels "very badly" about the mix-up, apologized to Miller at the postpremiere party.
MURPHY TRIES NEW SERIES
Will the second time be the charm for an Eddie Murphy-produced TV series? His first attempt, the 1989 comedy special What Is Alan Watching?, did well critically, but CBS passed on it as a series.
Now Murphy, 29, who in 1988 signed a production deal with CBS, is trying to tempt them with a new pilot. Contractually, he is to produce and deliver to the network two more hour-long specials and three half-hour pilots. CBS has guaranteed that at least one pilot will be picked up for 13 episodes.
Mark McClafferty, head of Murphy's TV company, tells us that earlier this year CBS's new programming chief, Jeff Sagansky, took a meeting at Murphy's Beverly Hills home, hoping to hatch the comedian's next TV move. McClafferty says Murphy suggested a black barbershop as "a funny arena for a series," and Sagansky liked the idea.
The result is Clippers, a half-hour comedy pilot starring John (Die Hard 2) Amos as a barber and Cicely Tyson as his wife. (McClafferty says that, despite the setting, it's not a spin-off from Coming to America's barbershop scenes with Murphy and Arsenio Hall.) The pilot was shot in Los Angeles on Aug. 2 and will be delivered to CBS later this month for midseason consideration.
RELAX, ROCKY LIVES
When news reports surfaced last month that Sylvester Stallone's character, Rocky Balboa, dies at the end of MGM/UA's Rocky V, due Nov. 16, Stallone quickly invoked the words of Mark Twain, saying the reports of his death had been "greatly exaggerated."
"I'm still here," Stallone said, "and so is Rocky."
The real story is that Stallone wanted to put the character behind him and had to be talked into keeping Rocky alive on the outside chance he might one day want to do another sequel. According to a source close to Stallone, Rocky did die "in an early draft of [Stallone's] screenplay. Only after MGM/UA and others close to him put pressure on Sly not to kill off the character did he agree to change the outcome and keep him alive."
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!
