For the first time in 20 years, Penny Marshall couldn't make the mutual birthday party that she and Carrie Fisher throw themselves every October (Fisher turned 44 on Oct. 21; Marshall celebrated her 57th on Oct. 15) at Fisher's home in Beverly Hills. What happened? Well, Marshall wanted to hold it in New York City, where she's directing Riding in Cars with Boys, but her pal said no. "That would defeat the purpose of the party," explains Fisher, who went it alone. "Most people come for the food"—special southern fare prepared by Fisher's longtime cook Gloria Crayton and her sister Mary French, who has worked for Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds, for 38 years. Some 200 guests attended the soiree on Oct. 21, including Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Meg Ryan and Fisher's former stepmom Elizabeth Taylor, who liked the food so much that she had leftovers delivered to her home the next day.
The stars of director Tim Burton's upcoming version of Planet of the Apes have been monkeying around for the last month and a half. "Ape movement coordinator" John Alexander has been training Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan and Tim Roth at an L.A. soundstage. Here's one simian secret: Keep your weight on the outside of your feet, in a sort of half-squat. "It's very demanding," Bonham Carter says. "My thighs are killing me! I've got to put ice packs on them."
TV actors, especially those in hour-long dramas, often work 16-hour days and spend more time on the set and in their trailers than they do at home. This season JAG star Catherine Bell (with a little help from Paramount Television) made it cushier by buying a 40-ft. Monaco Dynasty coach bus, which retails for more than $300,000. It has a living room, kitchen and bedroom, plus maple cabinets, Corian counters and Ralph Lauren fabrics, so you can understand why Bell calls it "my little Four Seasons on wheels." And at the end of a long week Bell can even drive it off the lot and take a trip with her husband, actor Adam Beason, and their two Italian greyhounds.
Party of Five alum Jeremy London makes his directing debut this month with an antismoking video, Secrets Through the Smoke, aimed at teenage children and starring Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, whom Russell Crowe portrayed in The Insider. It's a cause close to London's heart. His grandfather died of lung cancer and most of his family smokes. One who doesn't is his mother, Debbie Nielsen, who kicked the habit after she suffered a smoking-related heart attack the day before the video started shooting.
- Contributors:
- Stacie Hougland,
- Hugh McCarten.
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!
