Dead-time Stories
Playing coroner Jordan Cavanaugh on Crossing Jordan has given Jill Hennessy an appetite for autopsies. "During a scene where I was cross-sectioning a liver, I cut pieces of latex with a scalpel and thought, 'Gosh darn it if it doesn't feel like I'm cutting filet mignon,' " says Hennessy, 34. "It crossed my mind that I should have some peppercorn sauce and fries on the side." Hanging out on the set with the "corpses," who are actors in makeup and prosthetics, is just as odd. "Their skin is a gray-blue-yellow, and their rib cages are splayed open," says Hennessy. "They walk around in fuzzy bathrobes and slippers eating doughnuts. They're bizarre zombie versions of Hugh Hefner."
The Aging Process
Now that George Clooney has gotten comfy behind the camera, will the Confessions of a Dangerous Mind director ever quit acting? "Eventually my looks will fall apart and I'll have to give it up," says Clooney, 41. "You [direct] to have some control over your career when people say, 'I don't want to see you act anymore.' " Isn't it too soon for the actor to talk retirement? "Paul Newman is acting almost into his 80s, but name another one," he says. "Robert Duvall? Fine. But he's Robert Duvall! He did To Kill a Mockingbird. I did Batman & Robin. He did Network. I did Battle of the Network Stars. There is a difference."
Saying 'I Glue'
As All My Children's conniving Erica Kane, Susan Lucci has been tried for murder and addicted to painkillers. But the daytime diva wasn't ready for this plot twist: getting married with a really bad hairdo. "It was so out of left field," says Lucci, 56, after Children's viewers suggested the wacky storyline (as part of a network promotion) in which Erica's daughter Bianca, played by Eden Riegel, spikes her hair conditioner with glue on her wedding day. For the Feb. 12 episode, stylists used hairpieces and Lucci's own locks to create the brutal bridal look, which reminded the actress of a personal hair horror show. "A girlfriend once said mayonnaise was a great conditioner, so I slathered it all over," she recalls. "It was greasy and matted. I smelled like salad. I washed my hair four times to get it out."
Where Rubber Meets the Road
For the premiere of his western-on-wheels, Biker Boyz, Laurence Fishburne led a pack of 300 motorcyclists down Hollywood Boulevard. "That's one of the coolest things I've ever done," says Fishburne, 41. "Any time you see somebody else on a motorcycle, something unspoken passes between you. It's pretty profound." The actor has been riding for years and is a vice president of the Guggenheim Motorcycle Club, a posse of celeb bikers that includes Dennis Hopper and Jeremy Irons. "We spent our summer riding with members of motorcycle clubs across Southern California," says the actor, whose new wife, actress Gina Torres, joins him on road trips. "They're guys who have 9-to-5 jobs, money and kids—they're pretty responsible."
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