Heather Locklear, who will join the ABC sitcom Spin City this fall since her six-season run on Melrose Place ended in May, says she isn't feeling homesick for the FOX drama. "My friends are the most disappointed," says Locklear, 37, who has relocated from L.A. to Manhattan for Spin City. "They're like, 'Okay, now I have to find something else to do on Monday nights.' But I knew in my heart it was time to move on. We had a good run. I can't complain."
Later Comer
Although she was part of the Today show team in 1959-60, beloved Brady Bunch mom Florence Henderson says she was a bit surprised when she was asked to cohost Later Today, the new NBC morning show premiering Sept. 7. "The fact that these people who could be my children have that much confidence in me," says Henderson, 65, "I can't tell you what it means. It's very exciting." Henderson says she had not met either of her two cohosts, former Weekend Today anchor Jodi Applegate or Asha Blake, before she signed on. "We got together for two very intense days shortly after I said yes," she says. "We spent a lot of time together, and we really had fun." But she does have one small complaint about the two younger women: "They are absolutely beautiful. I may have to age them a little bit—very quickly!"
Man of Action
So how does LL Cool J (James Todd Smith, to his mama) feel about comparisons with another famous rapper turned actor, Will Smith? "I don't have a problem with that," says LL, 31, who, like Smith, continues to record. "The reality is that Will has opened some big doors. How many major box office stars are African-American?" In his latest film, the urban drama In Too Deep, LL plays a crime lord who calls himself God. "It was an opportunity for people to see me stretch a little bit," he says, "instead of just being the nice guy in a movie." But he's not about to give up the action heroics he most recently displayed in Deep Blue Sea. Says LL: "I love jumping through windshields and jumping over gates and getting rid of the bad guys."
Father Figure
Alec Baldwin had to get over his heartthrob past to portray the beer-bellied, blue-collar father of a teenage boy in the new comedy Outside Providence. "I used to make movies with girls who look like Amy [Smart]," says Baldwin, 41, referring to the 23-year-old blonde actress who plays his son's girlfriend, "and now I'm making movies where I'm trying to keep my son away from girls who look like Amy. You know, you stick around long enough, you wind up playing the father." The actor says he had no problem chucking his vanity for the role, "I thought, 'What's the point of trying to look good to play this kind of part?' " says Baldwin. "So I just let myself go. But I was halfway there anyway."
Mama's Boy
As an actor on the ABC drama The Practice, Steve Harris is used to early-morning calls. But even he was too groggy to answer the phone the morning the Emmy nominations were announced. "They called at the crack of dawn, like 5:30 or something," says Harris, 33, who is up for best supporting actor in a drama for his role as lawyer Eugene Young. "I just handed the phone to my mom, who happened to be in town. They told her, and she started screaming, so I figured I was nominated." His mother, Mattie, will again be right beside Harris at the Sept. 12 awards ceremony. "So I'll be nervous the day of," he says, "because she'll have me running around that entire weekend making sure she has the right accoutrements to whatever dress I have to buy her."
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!
