• January 18, 1999
• Vol. 51
• No. 2

Scoop

The Morning Aftermath
The alarm goes off at ABC as fewer viewers wake up to a bedridden show, so Charles and Diane agree to take over breakfast duty

Focus

Critics snipe, the enemy gains more territory, and the administration can't figure out how to stop the bleeding. It sounds more like Good Morning Vietnam than Good Morning America, the embattled and enfeebled ABC morning news program where executives last week chucked cohosts Lisa McRee and Kevin Newman in favor of likable former host Charles Gibson and ABC News superstar Diane Sawyer. McRee says she's feeling relief more than regret. "I wish they had figured out what they were doing with the show a year ago," says McRee, 37, who is pregnant with her first child. "Kevin and I have just been real frustrated." The show's bosses, she said, "wanted to go harder, then softer, then hard again, and they threw out the baby with the bathwater. Mistakes were made in every way." Her boss, ABC News president David Westin, admits that experimenting with GMA's formula resulted in a viewer exodus—ratings fell 25 percent in the past two years, popular hosts Gibson and Joan Lunden left or were pushed, genial weatherman Spencer Christian abandoned ship, and even the set's comfy old fireplace disappeared. But "when viewers reject a show," says Gail Shister, television columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, "it's not because there is or is not a fireplace. They reject the show because they don't like the content or the stars."

Newman, 39, has agreed to move on to ABC's Nightline once he completes his GMA stint Jan. 18. "I mean, this is a business, I am a grown-up, and they have to turn it around," he says. Meanwhile, ratings for NBC's Today have soared. The show overtook GMA in 1995 and continues to capture viewers with its lovable team of Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. Shister compares their onscreen chemistry to that of a sister and brother and believes that ABC would be wise to seek a similar "sense of family." Among those reportedly considered: Connie Chung, Meredith Vieira, Elizabeth Vargas, NBC's Jack Ford and actor Alec Baldwin. Gibson and Sawyer (she hosted a CBS morning show in the early 1980s and was reportedly feeling diminished in ABC's revamped prime-time news magazine schedule) are expected to stick around at least a few months until permanent hosts are found. Unlike McRee and Newman, says Westin, the new team won't be laboring under the pressure of achieving instant success. "What we are expecting, quite explicitly," he says, "is not miracles."

A Royal Face-off
As might be expected, Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth have wound up on opposite sides of a commemorative coin issued Jan. 5 by Britain's Royal Mint. With a face value of five pounds (about $8), the copper-nickel coin carrying their profiles is actually on sale for twice that much, thanks to a presentation folder that carries some of the Queen's words after Diana's 1997 death, photographs of Diana and a rose. On July 1—Diana's 38th birthday—the coin will go on sale at face value. In the meantime, 7,500 gold and 350,000 silver versions (costing $988 and $54 respectively) will go on sale in April. Proceeds will fund other memorials for Diana, ranging from teams of nurses for sick children to a garden at London's Kensington Palace, Diana's old home.

PRIVATE TIME

Who: Actress Rita Wilson

Activity: "My scrap-books, my photo albums. I put together my photo albums, but I'm really behind."

Why: "I love doing it."

Gimme That Sinking Feeling
Seldom—okay, never—has there been such a rush to get onboard a sinking ship. At the Titanic Official Movie Tour—a museum-like exhibit currently in London on the first stop of a 15-city worldwide tour—Titaniacs drift happily in a sea of costumes, set decorations and video displays about the making of the megamovie. Crowds can't get enough of the showstopper feature—a mock bow where you can take a snapshot in your best King (or Queen) of the World pose. At about $20 the tour isn't cheap, although some of the attractions are—an ersatz lifeboat "went up and down. That was it," complained Martina O'Reilly, 26. Kate Hodgson, 20, had hoped the show would be "more hands-on, like you could be able to touch the props." And sorry, ladies, Leonardo won't be leaving with you—not even a life-size cutout "There is no cardboard to take home," sighed Hodgson. "I would have taken three!"

Ticking Bombshells
Hostilities have ceased in Northern Ireland. Progress has been made in the Middle East. The Zsa Zsa Gabor-Elke Sommer feud, however, continues to fester. In the latest skirmish, the provincial high court of appeals in Nuremburg, Germany—which obviously has time on its hands—ruled that Prince Frederic von Anhalt, Zsa Zsa's husband, had no basis for saying that Elke had called all German men "pigs" and decreed that he must publicly admit this. The prince made the remark on German TV in 1994. The disagreement between the fading European-born sex symbols apparently started in 1984 when Elke, now 58, said that Zsa Zsa, 81, had a big rear end. In 1993, Sommer got a $3.3 million libel judgment from a Santa Monica court after Gabor and Anhalt called her a broke has-been. Reports that world leaders may ask Jimmy Carter to mediate are, so far, unsubstantiated.

ON THE BLOCK

ALFIE'S STABLE FUTURE
Michael Caine plans to move into a barn, but not because he's down to his last straw. Caine's is a $2.3 million, 10,000-square-foot renovated barn, sitting on 22 acres only 45 minutes from London. There are six bedrooms and six baths, a study, dining room, lounge, drawing room, cinema and a 39-foot-long breakfast-kitchen area. "He is a gourmet anyway, and he's got a wonderful kitchen now," says Patrick Gardner, the broker who sold the house. Next-door neighbor Ernie Maynard describes the area as "horse country," and notes that there are a lot of stables nearby—including on Caine's new property. Some of that building will house the actor's staff, however, as Caine, 65, has no interest in nagging matters. Meanwhile his old home in Oxfordshire, reportedly purchased for $560,000 in 1984, sold for an estimated $3.3 million last year.

The Nude Kid in Town

Yes, Nicole Kidman is naked—briefly—in The Blue Room, the hottest ticket in New York City in years. But it's her costar, Iain Glen, who cartwheels naked—now that's a Broadway debut. Scoop caught up with Scottish actor Glen, 37, most familiar here for his roles in PBS dramas (Adam Bede, Painted Lady,), to see how he was handling the fuss.

How did the decision to appear naked come about?

We shook hands and said, "I'll do it if you do it." And that's when we went for it, really. It's a very strange feeling [being naked]. It does make you feel vulnerable. But the thing that grounds us is trying to be inside the scene so that it's not about a thousand people watching you but one person—the character—watching you.

Have you appeared naked before?

In feature [films] I've been naked before, but the camera doesn't tend to dwell on the male genitalia. I have no sense whatsoever with the play that what we're doing with that little bit of nakedness is in any way ridiculous or ill-advised or inappropriate.

How long had you and Nicole known each other before you began the project?

A day. An evening, really.

It seems there needs to be a huge trust between you two.

Especially with this type of material. When it's done with great trust and ease, then it becomes such good fun. It can be very torturous and difficult if you lose faith in one another.

What do you make of the critics' response here in New York? They're a little less enthusiastic than critics were in London.

Well, [Nicole and I] made an agreement that we wouldn't read anything, so I've literally not read a single word.

Has the play opened up some doors for you that had been closed until now?

Sure, that's the great thing. America seems to really embrace things and give them a chance while they're cooking. Doors have been opening.

And how is Tom Cruise?

He was in and out during our rehearsal period, and so I got to know him then. Because we've got children of a similar age, we were able to hook up and do lots of things. [Nicole and Tom] are so generous sometimes that you're at a loss for what you can do for them because they're so kind, really. When [the play] started to preview, Tom was there very early on and was an incredible supporter and gave us great advice.

Any funny stories from behind the scenes?

I'd forgotten to put my underpants on and that can taunt you throughout the whole scene. It was the politician scene, where I had to take my clothes off and then put my pajamas on. I left that to the last minute.

A Pronounced change in young Hollywood

Famke Janssen? Zeljko Ivanek? Fairuza Balk? Fading, clearly, are the days when actors routinely opted for simple, sturdy stage names (Cary Grant, Rock Hudson) over their more cumbersome given ones (Archibald Leach, Roy Scherer Jr.). Herewith, a pronunciation guide to some current monikers.

Ralph Fiennes
Rafe Fines

Charlize Theron
Shar-LEECE THEAR-on

Ewan McGregor
Yoo-wen

Alicia Silverstone
a-LEE-cee-ya

Joaquin Phoenix
wa-KEEN

• Contributors:
• Larry Sutton,
• Michael Neill,
• Kyle Smith,
• Anna Lisa Raya,
• Karen Nickel Anhalt,
• Julia Campbell,
• Steven Cojocaru,
• Ellen Lieberman,
• Simon Perry,
• Ellen Tumposky,
• Cynthia Wang,
• Ulrica Wihlborg.