After winning the Best Actor Oscar last year for his portrayal of an alcoholic determined to drink himself to death in Leaving Las Vegas, a hard-bodied Nicolas Cage looks as if he drinks nothing but protein mega-shakes in his skyjack thriller Con Air due June 6. "It was important that my character look like a man who could survive jail," says Cage, 33, who plays an ex-convict turned hero. "Prison life is survival of the fittest. You spend much of the time working out so you can handle dangerous situations." So how did he transform himself into a buff, tough fighting machine able to take on a dozen prison inmates? "I did a lot of aerobic conditioning," says Cage. "Plus, I would run six miles a day and lift weights. I cut out all the butter and oil from my diet. I used skim milk, ate a lot of canned tuna fish and fat-free pretzels. I call it the Con Air diet."
GETTING REAL
Kelly McGillis, who counts Harrison Ford (Witness) and Tom Cruise (Top Gun) among her screen leading men, has a special affection for Washington's Shakespeare Theatre, where she is starring onstage in Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra. "Both of my kids were conceived at this theater," jokes McGillis, 39, who has two daughters, Kelsey, 7, and Sonora, 4, with her restaurateur husband, Fred Tillman. In fact, McGillis, who first performed at the theater in a 1988 production of The Merchant of Venice, now maintains a residence in Washington, far from the Hollywood spotlight, because of her kids. "Being an actress, people tend to treat you a little differently, and it's important to me that my children realize that I am no different from anybody else by virtue of what I do," she says. "One of the great things about D.C. is that the true stars are the politicians. To be an actress here, well, no one really cares."
TALENT SCOUT
Pam Dawber, who costarred with Robin Williams in the old ABC sitcom Mork and Mindy, teams with another stand-up discovery, Rick Reynolds, in her new CBS comedy, Life...and Stuff, premiering June 6. "I had been warned against it by other actors because not every stand-up comedian can act," says Dawber, 46. "But during the course of shooting the five [episodes] that we've done, Rick has become an actor." Dawber previewed a tape of Reynolds's one-man show All Grown Up...and No Place to Go, which Life...and Stuff is loosely based on, the day before meeting him. But, she admits, "I was more interested in what he looked like at that point. Is he cute?" And what did Dawber, who has been married to hunky actor Mark Harmon (Chicago Hope) for 10 years, decide upon close inspection of her new TV husband? "He's got a nice smile," she says. "I can kiss this guy."
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Playing a paleontologist in the $75 million Jurassic Park sequel, The Lost World, actress Julianne Moore learned there are some things worse than getting a bad table at Spago. "I had to hang out of a motor home that has been pushed over a cliff by the T. rex," says Moore, 36. "I was in a harness that was hoisted about 20 feet off the ground. And the scene went on and on. It was a little scary." So how did she manage to hang on to her nerve through the stunt-filled shoot? "During the tough scenes, [director] Steven [Spielberg] would sing kids' songs to us," says Moore. But which is the bigger jungle, really—The Lost World or Hollywood? "Hollywood," she admits, without hesitation. "The Lost World is make-believe. Hollywood is the real deal."
CELINE’S INFERTILITY STRUGGLE: MY PRIVATE HEARTBREAK
Daily injections, painful tests and four failed IVF attempts: The singer, 41, reveal her dreams for a second baby. ‘I’ll try until it works’
