The Naked Truth
Four months of night shoots in the dead of winter on the Pittsburgh set of The Mothman Prophecies had Laura Linney yearning for the quick shoots she usually does for indie movies. "I really need to have a deep attachment to the work," she says of feature filmmaking. "Otherwise it robs you of your humanity. You're up at 4:30 in the morning. You never make a meal for yourself. You're driven everywhere. And Mothman was cold, cold, cold." Braving the icy temps did not prove nearly as hard as doing a nude scene in last year's Maze. "When things get tough, painful and embarrassing, you have to feel good enough about what you're doing," says Linney, 38. "If I had my choice, I would never be nude. Who enjoys that? But there are times when it helps the story, and in those cases I do it. And when I'm 80, I'll be damn glad I did."
Model of Imperfection
As the new face of INC clothing, Heather Mills, the betrothed of Sir Paul McCartney, hopes to raise awareness for her Adopt-a-Minefield charity. But that isn't the only worthy cause on her agenda. "I hope there is a trend toward using more real-size women and more real-age women," says Mills, 34, a former model. "The modeling industry typically uses 6-year-old girls, makes them look 25 and then tells them they need wrinkle cream. Even Claudia Schiffer has stretch marks," she says, laughing. "All women have stretch marks." As for when and where she and McCartney will wed, Mills will only say they don't plan to follow Madonna and Guy Ritchie's lead. "We do have a date and a location," says Mills. "All I can tell you is that it won't be at Skibo Castle!"
Roads Rage
Sex and the City siren Kim Cattrall breaks type to play Britney Spears's mother in the drama Crossroads, due Feb. 15. "It was one of the hardest jobs in my life," says Cattrall, 45. "I had to be mean to Britney Spears. She is such a little southern sweetie who is only 20. She was so nervous and so well-prepared, and I had to reject her onscreen because I'm her horrible mother who has left her."
The German Count
If Arnold Schwarzenegger seems intimidating as a vicious cyborg in The Terminator, imagine him in his role as the Disciplinarian. "They know when I mean business," says the Collateral Damage star of his four children—Katherine, 12, Christina, 10, Patrick, 8, and Christopher, 4—with wife Maria Shriver. "They can read the body language. I have a certain look and a certain voice. I count to three, and by three, things happen. So by two, they make sure they've straightened out their acts. And if I'm counting in German, they know I mean business." There are things that unnerve the action star, though, like the thought of his daughters dating. "I'm so thankful that hasn't happened yet," says Schwarzenegger, 54. "I have no idea how I'm going to act. Then again, I surprise myself as a parent. For instance, I let them stay out overnight. I let them sleep with me in the bed. Ten years ago I said that would never happen in my house."
Marriage Counselor
Will & Grace's Eric McCormack isn't a lawyer—or a gay man—but since he plays a character who is both, do people seek his counsel? "More often people ask me for relationship advice," says McCormack, 38. "They think of me as a gay character first and a lawyer second. If it's a gay couple, I tell them that I am married and not the greatest authority." He does, however, have a favorite lawyer joke. "What do you call a hundred lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?" asks McCormack, who stars on Hallmark Channel's Here's to Life on Feb. 16. "A good start. Of course, that's the kind of joke that works with actors too."
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