PASSAGES: 'Ellie' Due Back for More

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday March 29, 2002 09:25 AM EST

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REPRIEVED: NBC has decided to extend the Julia Louis-Dreyfus series "Watching Ellie" by two additional episodes, to air April 9 and 16, the network said this week. A modest improvement in last week's ratings for the closely watched (but not necessarily widely watched) new sitcom is responsible for this second chance, reports the New York Post . . . DECLINED: Warren Beatty, who turns 65 on Saturday, has withdrawn from the title role in writer-director Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill," and will be replaced by David Carradine, reports Variety. As Tarantino, who turned 39 on Wednesday, told the trade paper: "Me and Warren and (producer) Lawrence (Bender) were having dinner the other night, and Warren said, 'Why haven't you gone to David Carradine with this?' And it became mutually obvious to us that this wasn't the one for me and Warren to do together. This is the one for me and David Carradine. I've been talking to Warren Beatty for a long time about this role, and I totally expect to make another movie with him". . . GROANED: British actor Hugh Grant, 41, has told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper that fame has taken away his thrill in seducing women. "When I was younger, the great excitement in pursuing women was the sense of seduction and romance and chase," he is quoted as saying. "But when you are a celebrity, you discover that you are no longer the pursuer, but the pursued. You have to think about what things do you reveal about yourself, how wary do you have to be that the women you meet aren't concerned more with your fame and celebrity status."