AND THE CHECK GOES TO...
Never count on logic when it comes to deal-making in Hollywood. If you had told me that Michelle Pfeiffer had agreed on just a $200,000 salary for her next movie (her usual asking price is reportedly $6 million) and that Tom Arnold had turned down $4 million to star in another film, I'd think you were a Milk Dud shy of a full box. But both these stories are true. Universal wanted Roseanne's ex to play the lead in a film based on the old Ernest Borgnine television show, McHale's Navy. The studio offered Arnold $4 million, but his agents held out for an additional million, which proved to be a deal-breaker. Pfeiffer, meanwhile, is preparing to work again for her husband, producer David E. Kelley (CBS's Picket Fences and Chicago Hope), but this time her role will be slightly more substantial than the cameo she had last season on Fences. Pfeiffer will costar with Peter Gallagher in the big-screen version of Michael Brady's off-Broadway play To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday. Kelley adapted the play and will produce. Pfeiffer is scheduled for just one week's work, but will receive the same $200,000 fee that Gallagher and the other actors are getting....
Also taking a smaller role in a new movie is Steven Seagal, whose macho character will disappear early in Executive Decision, an action thriller starring Kurt Russell. A Seagal rep says the actor took the job because he "liked the script."...
On the romance front this week, Lorenzo Lamas, 37, of TV's Renegade, has a new girlfriend, model Shauna Sand. The thrice-married Lamas met Sand, 23, in July when she played a bikini-clad extra in an episode of his syndicated show. Lamas's publicist says the two are now living together and could become engaged soon....
Last month, Paramount Pictures quietly agreed to drop its appeal against a 1992 court decision that favored Art Buchwald. The humorist had successfully claimed that the studio used a character in Coming to America, its 1988 Eddie Murphy movie, that Buchwald had created earlier. Under the terms of the new settlement, Buchwald and a partner will receive $850,000 from Paramount, only $50,000 less than an L.A. Superior Court awarded them in 1992....
From Water world to water hazard: Kevin Costner is getting help on the links from CBS golf analyst and touring pro Gary McCord for Costner's next role as a pro golfer in the movie Tin Cup. The pair spent two days together last month on a golf range. Says McCord: "Kevin is not a golfer, but he is a great athlete and learns real fast."...
And finally, Alma Wahlberg was so excited when she heard a TV promo saying that her son Mark Wahlberg, known as Marky Mark when he raps, had gotten his own nationally syndicated talk show that she called his brother, former New Kid on the Block Donnie, with the good news. Donnie immediately got on the phone with Mark and yelled at him for ripping off an idea that Donnie said he'd had for a similar show. Hey, don't blame me, protested Marky Mark. The Mark Walberg in question, whose show begins Sept. 11, is in fact a former game show announcer who also warmed up the audience for Studs.
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