THE LOVE CONNECTION
Actor Frank Langella is the beneficiary of a major career boost thanks to some Hollywood hardball played by his girlfriend, Whoopi Goldberg. You'll recall that reports of a romance between Goldberg and Langella surfaced last fall after they completed Eddie, a comedy with a basketball setting, due in May. The two subsequently ended their respective marriages and currently are a couple. Now I'm hearing from a source close to the movie that Eddie's producers called Goldberg last month and requested some reshoots on a monologue. She said she would do it only if costar Langella's name was elevated in the credits to appear side by side with hers above the movie's title. (Although Langella won't get more money for Eddie, the change in his billing could mean significantly more dough for him on future projects.) At first the producers said no. But the Whoopster held firm until they gave in. Goldberg, through her rep, says she never made the demand....
After seeing a copy of the screenplay for Howard Stern's movie version of his autobiography, Private Parts, I can report that the man who often shares his radio mike with a wide variety of celebrities plans to keep the celeb speaking roles to a minimum onscreen. The script, which concentrates primarily on Stern's marriage and his rise to fame, limits the shock jock's celeb encounters to Bay-watch beauties Pamela Lee and Yasmine Bleeth, and Bea Arthur, assuming that any of these three are interested. The Paramount movie is scheduled to begin in May....
After making their obligatory post-Oscar party rounds, Best Actress winner Susan Sarandon and significant other Tim Robbins capped their night by hosting a small soiree in their suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles. I suspect that jaws there dropped when Julia Roberts walked into the party with ex-Saturday Night Live star David Spade. Before the paparazzi go on full alert, be assured that Spade was just riding up in an elevator—intending to call it a night—when Roberts, stepping into the same elevator, invited him to come along. Two days later, I spoke with Roberts in the hotel's restaurant while she was having breakfast with her estranged husband, Lyle Lovett. Don't jump to conclusions there either. Since their breakup last year, the two have tried to break bread whenever they're in the same city at the same time. This was one of those times....
For the record: Buckingham Palace has officially denied a rumor making the rounds in England that Prince Andrew has AIDS....
Sources at Fox's Married...with Children tell me that Bruce Jenner was hired to play himself in the May 19 season-ender, but dropped out after taking umbrage at the following dialogue—Jenner: "Hi, I'm Bruce Jenner." Al Bundy: "You mean exercise bike, infomercial pitchman Bruce Jenner? Costar in the Village People classic Can't Stop the Music Bruce Jenner?" Jenner: "I prefer to think of myself as decathlon gold medal winner Bruce Jenner." Bundy: "And I prefer to think of myself as high school football hero Al Bundy, but we all have to live in the present." Kris Jenner, Jenner's wife and manager, says that while "Bruce is the first person to poke fun at himself," he thought he was being hired to play a sportscaster....
Update: Marcia Clark, the racing greyhound I last reported on coming in third in November at a Bridgeport, Conn., dog track, is now chasing rabbits at Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha, Wis., where she has managed just two wins in 17 tries. And has yet to receive a book contract as a consolation prize.
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