Question: There is a movie called "Dream Girls" that's either supposed to come out in theaters or air on TV — I can't remember when. The cast includes Eddie Murphy, Beyoncé Knowles and some girl from American Idol. Can you please let me know the 411? Thanks.Answer: Dreamgirls is a feature-film adaptation of the late theater director Michael Bennett's 1981 Broadway musical chronicling the rise of the Dreamettes (later simply the Dreams), a 1960s singing trio who bear no small resemblance to the real-life Supremes. The original cast included Jennifer Holliday (the show's breakout star) as Effie, the full-figured belter who gets squeezed out in the group's bid for crossover success;
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The Producer Circle Co., founded by Martin Richards, has filed a $10 million lawsuit against Miramax, claiming that it is owed a percentage of the $300 million-plus netted by the Academy Award-winning musical Chicago. A Miramax spokesperson tells the Associated Press that she has not seen the legal action and could not comment.
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Glitter: Renée Zellweger in Chicago
Question: Renee Zellweger has been nominated for an Oscar three years in a row. Can you tell me how many other times this has happened? Has anyone ever pulled it off more than three times in a row? Thanks!Answer: William Hurt and Russell Crowe have both been nominated for best actor three times in a row, Hurt for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987) — he won for Kiss of the Spider Woman — and Crowe for The Insider (1999), Gladiator (2000) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). Crowe won for Gladiator. And just for the record, Zellweger's three-in-a-row nominations were for Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Chicago (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003); the third time was the lucky one for her.
In the past, Elizabeth Ta
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Lisa Rinna on Dancing with the Stars
You never really know how hard dancing is until you get in there and start. Fortunately, I'm a workout fiend. I've done a lot of yoga over the past 10 years, and pilates, which is very dance oriented. So my body was ready for this. Or so I thought...
I've had a couple of ballet classes in my life, but ballroom? There's no comparison. The pros make it look so easy. But I'm slipping and falling all the time because I'm a klutz. I'm beat-up all over. The very first day of rehearsals, I got a big fat blister and I said, "I gotta put socks on." So I have this thin pair of black cotton socks — not very pretty — but they do the job.
The question was, could I? The waltz, the rumba, they're all hard as hell. But I thought, "OK, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones did this for Chicag
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Geena Davis, Commander in Chief
After the shell-shocked winners step off stage at the Golden Globe Awards, they go backstage to meet the press. When they find us reporters camped out in the Wilshire Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the stars are granted a second chance of sorts: They can either address the world with more eloquence than they mustered onstage, or simply make bigger fools of themselves! Once this TVGuide.com reporter got past surly security guards at the door, I took my seat and watched a parade of Lost thespians, Desperate Housewives and Brokeback Mountaineers take their shots. Read on to see how they fared in the media frenzy.
5:15 pm/PT What will Syriana scene-stealer George Clooney do with his best-supporting-actor trophy? "I'm going to put this on the hood of my car," he quipped. "Is that too much?" Everybody's a joker, George. But this time it's a plus: While Mr. Clooney couldn't resist making that Jack Abramoff crack onstage, at
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Eric Martsolf, Liza Huber and Lindsay Hartley, Passions
In today's installment of Passions, the perpetually shirtless Ethan (Eric Martsolf) awakens from his coma just in time for Christmas. Although Theresa's (Lindsay Hartley) prayers are answered, the lovelorn vixen won't stay happy for long. As this story line unfolds, Ethan and Gwen (Liza Huber) will make plans to relocate to India for a fresh, Theresa-free start in life!
TVGuide.com recently dropped by the Passions set to watch Hartley, Huber and Martsolf don gorgeous Indian costumes and perform a sexy (yet hilarious) choreographed dance number right out of a Bollywood movie. The talented trio demonstrated the "push and pull" of their soapy love triangle quite literally! You'll see it all for yourself in Gwen's daydream sequence that airs on Jan. 27. Take it from me, this is Passions' best production number since Edna, Beth and Charlie danced that
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Robin Givens (Head of the Class) has been tapped to succeed pretty baby Brooke Shields (who makes her own debut this week) in the role of Chicago's Roxie Hart, beginning Jan. 16. Personally, I'd be more interested to see Mike Tyson do a turn as Hairspray's Edna Turnblad.
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Brooke Shields, she of Pretty Baby, Blue Lagoon, Suddenly Susan and, soon, Broadway's Chicago fame, will get the E! True Hollywood Story treatment on Sept. 11 at 8 pm/ET. Who do you think will set his TiVo first, Tom Cruise or Christopher Atkins?
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Question: With the recent success of TV's Dancing with the Stars and cult movies like Shall We Dance? (the Japanese version, not the bland American remake) and Chicago, what are the chances Hollywood will stop remaking old TV shows into movies and start making musicals again? Christopher Walken, Richard Gere and John Travolta consider themselves dancers, and there are lots of actors with theater backgrounds who can dance and sing. What are your thoughts?
Answer: My thoughts, in a nutshell, are that the blockbuster mentality guiding the major studio filmmaking process favors known quantities, like popular old TV shows, and shies away from anything that smacks of a gamble. Musicals are a gamble: Chicago (2002) did $171 million in domestic box office, but it took it eight months to do it and was no doubt helped b
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Las Vegas and Crossing Jordan will be staging another crossover in October… Huey Lewis will bring "the power of love" to Chicago this fall when he makes his Broadway debut in the Richard Gere role. In other stage news, Richard Chamberlain has agreed to tour with On Golden Pond… Saved By the Bell alum Mario Lopez has been tapped to co-anchor ESPN 2's upcoming ESPN Hollywood series, which, contrary to popular belief, is not a matchmaking service for jocks and starlets. — Additional reporting by Matt Webb Mitovich
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