Will Smith

Insider

By Tom Cunneff

UPDATED 11/19/2001 at 01:00 AM EST • Originally published 11/19/2001 at 01:00 AM EST

Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, threw a magical Halloween/birthday party for their 1-year-old daughter Willow at their 100-acre ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. The couple's 3-year-old son Jaden and Will's 8-year-old son Trey from his first marriage were there, joining dozens of the kids' friends. The 8, 800-sq.-ft. house was turned into a haunted mansion with many of the rooms providing a different fright, except for one, which had a storyteller and a giant edible birthday cake topped with fairies. Studio makeup artists were on hand to give the kids gore galore, but the host wore a very familiar getup: a Will Smith mask.

In the two feature films set in Manhattan and released since Sept. 11, Serendipity and Zoolander, all images of the World Trade Center buildings have been removed from the final print. But the structures make a comeback in The Simian Line, an ensemble drama set across the Hudson River in Weehawken, N.J., which stars Lynn Redgrave, Cindy Crawford, William Hurt, Eric Stoltz, Tyne Daly, Jamey Sheridan and Harry Connick Jr. The director, Linda Yellen, had discussions with distribution executives about removing the shots but decided to keep them after audiences applauded the sight of the Twin Towers in test screenings. "You don't throw away pictures .of loved ones who died," she says.

Dan Rather also had a birthday—his 70th—on Oct. 31, but the CBS newsman didn't feel like celebrating in light of recent events, which included his office assistant testing positive for skin anthrax (she's expected to make a full recovery). His staff took the Texas native out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant near their Manhattan office. Then, after delivering the evening news, Rather headed to Yankee Stadium for Game 4 of the World Series.

Reports coming out of London contend that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe had to be dubbed toward the end of filming after the then-11-year-old's voice broke. But director Christopher Columbus as well as producer David Heyman now tell us the accusations are rubbish. The confusion comes from the fact that another young performer was hired to do voice-over work for the Harry Potter dolls and video games. But "every word" in the film spoken by the schoolboy wizard, they say, belongs to Radcliffe.

Anthony Geary and Genie Francis, better known as Luke and Laura, got hitched in 1981 on General Hospital, and this week would have marked their 20th anniversary had they not gotten divorced last June on the ABC show. On Nov. 16 GH will recognize the TV milestone, which remains the most watched soap event in history, when Geary has a flashback to their wedding vows on the anniversary. "My favorite part of the day was dancing the Virginia reel," Francis says now. "And of course hearing, 'That's a wrap!' "