• June 15, 1998
• Vol. 49
• No. 23

Insider

By Nancy Perry Graham

According to cast members on the set of Hope Floats, the romantic comedy costarring Sandra Bullock and Harry Con-nick Jr., the big-time crooner turned part-time thespian kept things pretty lively. In the final scene, which involves a parade, an assistant on the movie used a bullhorn to shout instructions to a big crowd of extras. But a playful Con-nick kept grabbing the loudspeaker and bursting into song—when he wasn't doing imitations of other cast members, that is. Says one observer: "They finally had to take the megaphone away from him." Now that Connick has six films to his credit, he has changed his tune about one thing: He no longer cares whether moviegoers view him more as a singer than as an actor. Says Connick: "I have fun doing both."

Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi have discovered that marriage ain't so easy. When I ran into the Suddenly Susan star at a party in Cannes, she told me that the first year of their union was "the hardest year of my life." Said Shields of that traditionally tough time: "I'm like, 'Uh-uh! I don't want to do this again.' Nothing changes and everything changes."

Elizabeth Hurley says she's ready to get back in front of the camera. Although she has coproduced two films (Extreme Measures and the upcoming Mickey Blue Eyes, both of which star her longtime love Hugh Grant), she tells me that producing "takes much longer and I get paid less." Now she's shooting edTV, a satire about celebrity. "My scenes are with Matthew McConaughey, so that's not too bad," says Hurley, adding that she can relate to the movie's theme: the obsession people have with the rich and famous. "You and me and everyone else is guilty of the crime that killed Princess Diana," she says, "which is morbid curiosity about someone else's life."

Bronson Pinchot, who is busy promoting his upcoming movie, The New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy—for Love or Mummy, knows what it feels like to be upstaged by a fellow actor. Jerry Maguire scene stealer Jonathan Lipnicki, now 7, recently costarred with Pinchot in the short-lived TV series Meego. "Everywhere we'd go, people would shake hands with Lipnicki and ask for his autograph," says Pinchot, 39. "People would say to me, 'My God, aren't you intimidated?' It was a maturing experience. I used to be the cute one. I didn't realize how soon I would be following my own credo: When it's the other person's turn, it's the other person's turn."

• Contributors:
• Hugh McCarten.