HEARTBURN
Comedian Richard Lewis has made a career out of being a hypochondriac, so it wouldn't have been surprising if his colleagues at the Fox sitcom Daddy Dearest had laughed when he told them he thought he was having a heart attack just before the show's Oct. 15 taping. But after quickly determining that the 46-year-old Lewis wasn't joking, they sent him off to a Los Angeles hospital, where a doctor found that Lewis's chest pain was caused not by his heart but by plain old gas.
Lewis's ills didn't end there, however. When he returned to work the following week, he and his costar, Don Rickles found out that their low-rated show had been put on indefinite hiatus by Fox. According to his publicist, Lewis will keep busy for the next few months "trying to finish" a screenplay, No Life to Live, which the rep describes as "an autobiographical comedy."
BACK IN MOTION
Former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who has already shown he can score as a cohost of CBS's The NFL Today., is making a play for sitcom of his own, a source says. The word is that Bradshaw has been tabbed to star in the pilot of a CBS series about a spokesman for a failing savings and loan. The sitcom, as yet untitled, will be produced by Witt-Thomas-Harris, the company responsible if or such hits as The Golden Girls and Empty Nest. Would the two-time Super Bowl MVP have to chuck his NFL Today job if his new series took off? Bradshaw's manager, David Gershenson, would say only that it's "extremely premature" to be discussing anything about the new project.
MADONNA HOLDS THAT TIGER
Wearing dark glasses, a skintight red-and-black sweater, a short black skirl and grungy army boots, Madonna was recently spotted at the International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show in New York City. The Material Girl worked her way through the show, picking up and inspecting art objects as she went. One that momentarily caught her attention: an 18th-century porcelain figurine of a tiger devouring a man. After scrutinizing it, she put it back without offering to buy. When Madonna moved away from his booth, dealer Alastair Sampson hung a sign on the tiger that read, "Touched by Madonna—No increase in price."
THE SUPREME TREAT
A couple of months ago, when the Sultan of Brunei was having a few hundred of his nearest and dearest pals over one evening, he flew Diana Ross in to perform. Now come word that reps of the Sultan had a tape of Ross' concert remixed in Los Angeles for what will be a double CD set. According to a source, the Sultan intends to distribute the CD, "but only to his close personal friends." Very thoughtful.
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