Soap-opera diva Linda Dano, who just ended a 17-year run as Felicia Gallant on the recently terminated NBC daytime drama Another World, has already landed another plum role, as Gretel Rae Cummings on ABC's One Life to Live. The character, played by Dano from 1978 to '80, will eventually cross over to the other ABC soaps All My Children, General Hospital and Port Charles. "I sent myself flowers from Felicia to Rae," says Dano, 56, who, as part of the deal, will also make appearances on the ABC talk show The View. "And I said in the card, To Rae, you're in such good hands. Have a good time.' I haven't told many people that because they'd go, 'Uh, is there someone you're seeing? Perhaps you should get to therapy right away.' I mean, to [throw] away $60 on a bouquet for myself? But I figured it was cheaper than a therapist."
Reversal of Fortune
Life wasn't always palmy in L.A. for Mexican-born actress Salma Hayek, but she hopes to strike it rich with her action-comedy Wild Wild West. "I determined I'd be here until I was too hungry to stay," says Hayek, 32, who costars with Will Smith and Kevin Kline. "I came this close. But I managed to survive." Back in those early days, Hayek went to fortune-tellers to see if things would improve, and she wouldn't take no for an answer. "I wanted to know everything," she says. "But if anybody contradicted what I [believed about] my future, I started fighting with them. I'd say, That's not true!' Some stranger is going to tell you what is going to happen? I can't give anybody else that power. Unless someone is willing to say, 'I saw your movie. It's wonderful. It's going to do great!' "
Sometimes, Less Is Moore
So does Julianne Moore, who costars in the comedy An Ideal Husband, believe such a man exists? "There are no ideals. There is no perfection," says Moore, 38, who is divorced from actor John Gould Rubin and now has a 19-month-old son, Caleb, with director Bart Freundlich (The Myth of Fingerprints). "Everybody is fallible. The important thing is to be tolerant and not to judge." In an ideal world the actress would prefer doing more independent films like Husband, which is adapted from Oscar Wilde's 1895 play. "But you can't make a living doing low-budget films," she says, "so once in a while I have to do big-budget films to get a paycheck. They kind of balance out." Of course if she really wanted to make money, she observes, she wouldn't be an actor in the first place: "I would have become a futures trader."
It's a Croc
In the thriller Lake Placid, opening July 16, Bill Pullman plays a game warden who battles a killer crocodile. "People who advise me said, 'You don't want to do this movie,' " says Pullman, 45. But, in fact, he did. "Secretly, I wanted to do it for my brother," he says. "When we were growing up, our hero was a forest ranger from Upstate New York. He had a patch on his sleeve and the coolest truck loaded with gear. So I knew if I did this movie, my brother would be jealous. He's only a doctor; I could be a ranger!"
That's No Lady
Actress Leslie Stefanson had an out-of-body experience playing the murdered title character in the thriller The General's Daughter. "There are many shots of my naked body being found staked to the ground," says Stefanson, 28. "So for the long shots, when John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe are looking at me, they made a replica of my body. That way I wouldn't be too embarrassed. I had to do a full body cast. That was strange, because you're locked into these clay molds, and they actually make another you. When I got to the set, I found out my new 'body' had been hand-painted to look authentic. It freaked me out a little bit. Many people have asked if I kept it. I didn't."
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!
