Who's News Blog

Billy Campbell on the NBC disaster miniseries 'Meteor'

Whether you’re a longtime fan of Billy Campbell’s from his big-screen star debut as The Rocketeer in 1991, or are more familiar with his stint on the family drama Once and Again, you’ll be happy to see Campbell back on TV in NBC’s two-part event miniseries Meteor, which premieres this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET and concludes next Sunday. A fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, Campbell — who just turned 50 on Tuesday — stars as an L.A. cop trying to track down a psychopath who’s threatening his family, although a bigger problem comes down the pipeline in the form of a giant asteroid screaming toward Earth. Check out a sneak preview below of the miniseries also starring Christopher Lloyd, Marla Sokoloff, Ernie Hudson and Stacy Keach, and click read more for our Brian Truitt’s Q&A earlier today with Campbell.

Photo by Eric McCandless

It doesn’t seem like you’ve done anything this action-packed in a while.
Not that I recall, no. It was a great deal of fun. It’s nonstop action, and I can’t remember the last thing that had that much action in it. It’s aways great fun. It’s play-acting. It’s been great fun since I was a baby.

What kind of roles do you look for these days? Do you look for big, epic things such as Meteor?
What I really for is good writing. In lieu of good writing, an interesting location or interesting people to work with. In lieu of that, money. In lieu of that, the simple fact of employment. There’s a whole host of priorities, and you can usually tick off one or two from a job.

Looking over your career, what works are you proudest of?
I don’t often use the word “proud” but I was pleased with quite a few things. I’m pretty much pleased with every job that I ever do because I have a good time with my work. Of the things that I was really really happy with the way they turned out, Rocketeer and Once and Again may be top of the heap.

I watched Rocketeer when I was a teenager, but kids are still being introduced to it now.
Rocketeer was awesome. It has a timeless quality. It makes sense to people in any era in a way, and I loved it for that reason. I was only 30 at the time, but I’d always loved period movies and was loving the notion of doing one.

I read that you’re a rugby lover. Do you still play a lot?
I do. I shouldn’t but I do. I’m too old. What I do most is trail running, but I do play some rugby and go to the gym.

Through the years, were you allowed to play rugby while working on projects?
No, I just did it anyway. [Laughs] I remember I was doing a TV series for Michael Mann, Crime Story, in the mid-‘80s, and at the time I was playing for the Chicago Lions because we were shooting in Chicago. We had had trials the night of the premiere of the pilot, and I came running down from Lincoln Park just muddy, bloody and sweaty. I ran up to the production office, I thought no one would be there and I was going to watch it on the TV. Sure enough, Michael Mann was sitting behind his desk. It surprised the hell out of me. He said, “What the hell have you been doing?” I couldn’t think quickly enough to make up a lie, and I told him I’d been playing rugby. He just said, “Oh. OK.” That was it, and as far as I was concerned, I had permission after that.

Who's News this week? Lots of TV favorites

My Who's News column in the magazine this week featues a number of your favorite TV men. Don't miss updates on:
• David James Elliott. The former JAG star is one of the most asked-about personalities in my email box, He was just in an ABC mini-series and later this month has one on NBC.
• Frederick Weller. The In Plain Sight star is paired perfectly with Mary McCormack on that USA Network series; he has a successful cousin in the business — do you know who?
• John Goodman. The man who made Roseanne work back in the day, is just finishing up a Broadway play (that's him with Nathan Lane and Bill Irwin on the left in a scene from Waiting for Godot).
• Robert Newman. Fans of the daytime soap Guiding Light know who I'm talking about. He has been part of the cast for 28 — yes, count 'em — years.
Also read about The O.C.'s Autumn Reeser, who has a new gig on Entourage, and Jon and Kate Gosselin, who, in my opinion, need to end that TLC show.

Photo by Joan Marcus

Where were you when man first walked on the moon?

It was the summer of '69 and I was in high school in Port Huron, Mich., a small city north of Detroit where Lake Huron begins and Canada is within sight. I still have tthe front page of the Port Huron Times Herald ( where later I worked two summers) from that historic day. The yellowed, fragile page is in a trunk in my attic. My memories of the lunar landing are all in black and white because I watched it on a small black and white set and there was no color in newspapers back then. It was an exciting and hopeful moment in the country, a time that even a teen with boyfriends and beaches on her mind could appreciate. Many of us have clear memories of that historic day 40 years ago, and for our cover story this weekend we talked with a number of notable Americans about theirs, including Neil Armstrong, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, John McCain and Sally Ride. Now's your turn: Tell us in the comments section below where you were when man first walked on the moon.

Celebrity Birthdays: Adrian Grenier, Jessica Simpson

Happy 33rd birthday to actor Adrian Grenier. He's made quite a name for himself as mega-star Vincent Chase on HBO's popular series Entourage, and Grenier returns for the show's sixth season, which starts this Sunday. Singer Jessica Simpson is 29. The former pop star tried her hand at country but she left her label, Sony Nashville, earlier this year. Fortunately, she still has her boyfriend, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo. Rascal Flatts frontman Gary Levox turns 39 — you can catch him and his group now on tour with Darius Rucker. British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who's 35 today, has a couple of big movies coming up: the disaster flick 2012 with John Cusack later this year, and next year's spy movie Salt with Angelina Jolie. Legendary folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 62, and ace banjo picker Bela Fleck turns 51.

Photo by Claudette Barius

Michael Moore says new work is a 'date movie'

Michael Moore today revealed the title of his next movie, which I feel compelled to share — Capitalism: A Love Story. Due Oct. 2, Moore's film will look at the impact of corporations and their profit motives on the lives of Americans and others. Doesn't sound like much of a love story? Moore says it's a relationship movie and "It will be the perfect date movie. It's got it all — lust, passion, romance, and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day.”

Karen Duffy returns to TV Sunday

Former MTV VJ and Revlon model Karen Duffy, whose career was sidelined when she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in the mid 90s, is back with a new TV show Sunday, Surprise Vacations, on the Fine Living Network at 8 p.m. ET. Duffy, who shot to fame in the late 80s, hosts the show, which gives deserving people a surprise free vacation. She says the people to be featured have “truly been illuminating the world” with their charity work. Duffy tells our Steve Thompson that she has been filming the show for the past six months while also studying to be a chaplain at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. “One of the things we learn is care-taking for the caregiver,” says Duffy, “people who are taking care of a loved one or sick child.” Although Duffy, 48, has her own illness to deal with — sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease — she says helping others helps her. “My parents have always really led by example, (showing) that the only thing worth doing is what you do for others,” Duffy says. “I think that has really helped me through my hard times. I mean, my life isn’t perfect and I’ve got to deal with this big lump in my head all the time and deal with chronic pain issues, but I’m so grateful for the days that I feel good.” Next up, Duffy has a small role in Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox this fall, which — lucky for her — stars a former beau, George Clooney.

Photo courtesy of Fine Living Network

Celebrity Birthdays: Tom Hanks, Jack White

Tom Hanks, in theaters now with Angels & Demons, celebrates his 53rd birthday today. Looking ahead to 2010, the back-to-back Oscar winner will again voice sheriff Woody in Pixar's Toy Story 3. Multi-talented musician Jack White, of both the White Stripes and the Raconteurs, is 34. He started a new group this year, The Dead Weather, whose debut album Horehound gets released on Tuesday. Oscar-winning actor Chris Cooper (Adaptation) is 58. He next stars in the ensemble drama New York, I Love You, in theaters in October. Jimmy Smits, an alum of L.A. Law, The West Wing and Dexter, turns 54. Infamous footballer OJ Simpson spends his 62nd birthday in jail, after being convicted of armed robbery. Fred Savage, the curly-haired boy from The Wonder Years, is all grown up at 33, and Kurt Cobain’s erratic widow, singer Courtney Love, is 45.

Photo by Zade Rosenthal

Cohen increases the X-factor with 'Bruno'

Sacha Baron Cohen’s newest movie, Bruno, in theaters Friday, is expected to do big numbers at the box office. So I sent intern Steve Thompson to a screening Tuesday just to get an idea of what this movie, from the creator of the mega-successful but silly Borat, which made more than $125 million in the U.S. alone, is like.

Steve says Cohen likes to push limits, but in Bruno, no amount of full-frontal nudity, prankster antics (a couple of them with Paula Abdul and Ron Paul) and offensive comments is enough for the comic’s gay Austrian fashionista character. And much of the time those questionable actions don't come from his Bruno character but from those around him. Sometimes it's hard to decide which is worse, what Bruno is doing or the violent reactions of the people around him. (For example, there's a scene in Arkansas where Bruno is at a WWE-type wrestling show and ends up making out with another guy in front of some drunk fans.)

In Bruno and Borat, it’s usually what the apparently normal people say or do that is the most shocking and funny. But Cohen was on The Late Show with David Letterman last night saying the reactions are unscripted (and he’s got the lawsuits to prove it). Check out part of his interview below, which is for once the real Sacha Baron Cohen, not Borat or Bruno.

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Celebs and athletes play with deployed troops

Last weekend's cover story in the print edition of USA WEEKEND was on the charitable foundations that have been inspired by U.S. conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Writer Dennis McCafferty wrote about five of them; you can read his story here. However, one foundation that wasn’t mentioned — but deserves attention — commands much star power: Pro vs. GI Joe. It works with the USO to provide deployed servicemen and women with a once-in-a-lifetime experience — to play their favorite video game with a professional athlete or celebrity. And as often as possible, Pro vs. GI Joe seeks to match a deployed person up with an athlete or celebrity from his or her hometown, so family members and friends can both watch and greet their loved ones during the event. “During this year’s NBA All-Star Game festivities in February, for example, a serviceman stationed in Germany was able to hook up with star Shaquille O’Neal for a video game hoops matchup,” Dennis says. “Shaq was playing on his home court in Phoenix. And during the event, Shaq lifted the serviceman’s son to the Web cam for a special ‘hello’ to dad. The little boy just turned 8 that day.”

Celebrity Birthdays: Billy Crudup, Toby Keith

Happy 41st birthday today to actor Billy Crudup. He starred as super man Dr. Manhattan in the blockbuster Watchmen earlier this year, and you can currently see him on the big screen as FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover opposite Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in Public Enemies. Country star Toby Keith is 48 — maybe he'll make some time for cake while working on his next studio album, due this fall. Robert Knepper, best known as T-Bag on Prison Break, is 50. The show just finished its fourth and final season, although Knepper will reprise his role in the DVD movie Prison Break: The Final Break out July 21. He will play another villain in this fall's fourth season of Heroes, co-starring with another birthday boy, Milo Ventimiglia, who's 32. Kevin Bacon, the husband of Kyra Sedgwick who next stars in the summer comedy My One and Only, is 51 today. Indie rocker Beck turns 39, and legendary actress Anjelica Huston, who won an Oscar for Prizzi's Honor in 1985, is 58.

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures

Cody Unser opens up about living with paralysis

This week, PBS stations across the country will start airing Cody, a documentary following Cody Unser, the daughter of famed race car driver Al Unser Jr. Cody, 22, was a 12 year old playing basketball when she started having trouble breathing and her legs went numb. In 20 minutes, she was paralyzed. She was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a condition where your own immune system attacks your spinal cord. Since then, Cody has turned her disability into a passion, lobbying for stem cell research, creating the Cody Unser First Step Foundation, and getting a degree in Biopolitics from the University of Redlands. Our Steve Thompson watched the film (narrated by Glenn Close) and says it is an invasive and emotional look into the life of someone with a disability and the challenges she faces. Steve spoke with Cody about the film, so click read more to learn about her plans to change politics and to one day walk again. And click on the clip below to get a sneak peek at the film.

What made you want to open up your life to a film crew for this documentary?
Ever since I started doing some lobbying with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation in D.C. for stem cell research and quality of life programs, I came up with the idea of wanting to do a video diary. I was sort of telling politicians what my life was like, but I think video captures more than words can. I already had the idea in my mind; it was just a matter of time and the right place.

The film showed a lot of your life. Was there any time where you felt uncomfortable in front of the cameras?
We’ve done four showings of the film so far and people have come up to me and said, ‘Cody it’s so great that you’re so honest and that you show your vulnerable side,’ and stuff like that. But it’s so weird to hear that, because I just feel like I’m being myself. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything out of the ordinary. It’s weird, because I’ve sort of lived my life around cameras ever since I was born with my dad being a race car driver. I already knew about the media world. So it wasn’t necessarily a huge leap for me to do this.

How have you been able to keep such a positive attitude over the past 10 years?
To be able to start the foundation and make the paralysis bigger than myself was, for me, my coping mechanism. For me to be to able to put a face with transverse myelitis, and to get doctors talking, and to make a mission of it, that’s what actually helped me. I don’t think that I would have been able to get through it any other way.

Congratulations on graduating. What are your plans now?
My goal is to lobby and do the stuff I was already doing, but at a stronger level. I plan to cause more trouble.

How important is stem cell research for you?
Stem cell research is going to make me walk again. But, I think exercising like the film showed is going to be huge. On one hand, stem cell research is going to help, but then you can’t just lie around and wait for that to happen. You have to stay active and healthy to maintain your body for that moment. The bike has given me more muscle mass back that I lost. So, stuff like that is definitely going to be needed.

Do you think you will ever let cameras into your life again?
I think there are certain things in my life that I want to shoot again, like when I want to have a baby or when I walk again. You know, things like that that I want to mark and have on film.

Write your memorial tribute to Michael Jackson here

Thousands of regular folks like those pictured at left scored tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial today at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. But millions more will be glued to their TV and computer screens as the extravagant service gets under way at 1 p.m. ET. If you're stuck in an office without TV, E! Online will be streaming live video from the event, which features Mariah Carey and Jennifer Hudson, among others, paying tribute to Jackson. You can pay tribute, too, right here. Write your thoughts about Jackson and his legacy, the memorial service, the media coverage or anything else Michael-related in a post below.

Photo courtesy USA TODAY

Celebrity Birthdays: Ringo Starr, Shelley Duvall

Beatle Ringo Starr, who still looks the part of a rocker post-retirement age, celebrates his 69th birthday today. Starr and the other living member of the Fab Four, Paul McCartney, took the stage last month at E3 to promote the new The Beatles: Rock Band video game, out in September (check out the eye-popping trailer below). Billy Campbell, who had his breakout role in The Rocketeer in 1991, is 50. He next appears alongside Marla Sokoloff and Christopher Lloyd in Meteor, a two-part TV event that premieres on NBC Sunday night. Shelley Duvall, of such classics as Annie Hall and The Shining, is 60. Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan turns 29, and WNBA pioneer Lisa Leslie, who will be retiring after this season with the Los Angeles Sparks, is 37.

Take a peek inside the weird and wonderful 'Warehouse 13'

The Sci Fi network changes its logo and its name — to Syfy — officially tomorrow, and it’s kicking off its new identity with a new original series, Warehouse 13. The show, which our Brian Truitt thinks is Indiana Jones by way of Moonlighting, stars Joanne Kelly and Eddie McClintock as a couple of Secret Service agents who are reassigned to a mysterious South Dakota warehouse. What's being housed in the middle of nowhere? Strange and oftentimes supernatural artifacts from throughout history collected by the U.S. government. Brian liked it so much he wanted to get the scoop on the show from the stars and its producers, Jack Kenny and David Simkins, so click read more to see what he learned and check out a sneak preview of the series below.

Photo courtesy of Sci Fi

Whereas The X-Files had a monster of the week, Warehouse 13 has its relic of the week, starting in the first episode with Lucrezia Borgia’s magical hair-comb as the object that the constantly bickering team of Myka (Kelly) and Pete (McClintock) have to track down and take care of before a whole town is ravaged by romantic rage. It nicely sets up the rest of the series, which will also unveil other interesting things such as an unreleased pop record with mood-control properties, Lewis Carroll’s mirror (a personal favorite for Kelly, an admitted Alice in Wonderland fan) and Adolph Hitler’s microphone. “If we can do an artifact that really sort of forces Pete and Myka to look at themselves or to look at the world around them a different way or to get the audience to sort of reconsider something,” Simkins says, “then we know we’ve landed on our artifact that we can probably run with.” (He also reveals that this is the 13th of such warehouses throughout history, so keep that in mind as the season goes on.)

As much as the series is about the weird things our heroes find on a weekly basis, it’s also about the pairing of two opposites in the buttoned-down, no-nonsense Myka and the cookie-loving, overgrown kid Pete. Both Kelly and McClintock say their characters’ chemistry was there even during their first audition. “I screwed up a line and he started making fun of me in the audition,” Kelly recalls, “and I stopped them and tried to restart the audition again. And those were the two characters. I mean, it was kind of right on the money.” McClintock adds: “I’ve been describing our relationship as I’m the younger brother who’s constantly pulling at her pigtails, and she’s in turn always punching me in the arm. It’s actually kind of how it goes — minus the pigtails.”

The producers know that there will be X-Files comparisons, but Kenny sees Myka and Pete more like a pair of Indiana Joneses. “He never feels like he knows much more about the situation than you know as you’re watching him, but he manages to get through and find his way. And that’s the sense I get with Pete and Myka. They’re sort of thrown into these situations, a different one every time. They don’t know what’s going to happen, they don’t know how an artifact works, but they’re getting through it anyway using their wits and their observation powers.”

And how would Kelly and McClintock fare as real Secret Service agents? OK, McClintock thinks, “as long as it didn’t include, you know, mathematics.” “I’ll take the math,” Kelly says. “Being a Secret Service agent would be cool, man. You could wear those headsets and run around with guns all the time. I mean, what’s not fun about that, right? Diving in front of the bullets, maybe not so much.” McClintock chimes in: “That’s why Joanne and I are so suited for our characters. She is the mathematician and I’m the bullet-diver.”

Check out our exclusive clip from 'I Love You, Beth Cooper'

Before Chris Columbus was directing big-budget movies like the first two Harry Potter movies and producing the Fantastic Four and Night at the Museum franchises, the filmmaker got his start in Hollywood writing the 1980s classics Gremlins and The Goonies. It’s this era he harks back to in his new comedy, I Love You, Beth Cooper, in theaters on Friday. In the movie based on the Larry Doyle book, a nerdy high school valedictorian named Denis Cooverman (newcomer Paul Rust) confesses his feelings for the most popular girl in school, head cheerleader Beth Cooper (Hayden Panettiere), in front of the student body on their graduation day. From there, they and their friends are thrown into the wildest night of their lives. We have an exclusive clip from the film, and our Brian Truitt caught up with Columbus last week on the set of his next directorial effort, Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Adapted from the popular book series by Rick Riordan and boasting an A-list cast including Rosario Dawson, Uma Thurman and Pierce Brosnan, it’s a modern-day family adventure interspersed with Greek mythology that opens in February. Click read more for Brian’s exclusive Q&A with Columbus, and check out our Beth Cooper clip below.

Photos by Joe Lederer

Did you know you’d be coming out the same month as the next chapter in that other movie franchise you started, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?
We’re like the little tiny movie between my old friend Harry Potter and Transformers. It’s so ironic. But I decided to go back to my roots and do my homage to John Hughes in the middle of this particular summertime. I started to feel like as a director a little spoiled given these enormous budgets to do whatever I wanted. Although that’s fun, I thought I would like to do the kind of film I did when I first got out of film school. If I were a first-time director, what would I do? I’d write a picture either like Gremlins or Goonies, or I would direct a picture like Adventures in Babysitting. And suddenly, Beth Cooper came into focus as a companion piece to that first picture that I did.

Reading the book alone takes you back to Hughes films from the ‘80s such as The Breakfast Club and Sixteen Candles.
I felt this enormous responsibility to pay some respect to one of the guys who gave me a big break in this business, John Hughes. Aside from dedicating the movie to him, it was a real homage to John because those movies inspired, everything from Ferris Bueller to Sixteen Candles to Planes, Trains & Automobiles. Although it’s not set in the ‘80s, it has kind of an ‘80s vibe. A lot of the kids I talk to, a lot of my kids’ friends and the kids I’m working with on Percy Jackson, they’re obsessed with the ‘80s. And this is a film they can actually pay for and get into – a kid who is 13 or 14 can actually go and see the movie without having to sneak into. That’s what those great John Hughes high school movies did.

Denis is a little like those 1980s characters. Maybe he won’t put the boombox over his head, but he does have Star Wars figures and skeletons in his room.
It would have been the Hollywood way to go with an attractive, handsome young guy and give him nerdy qualities. But I thought the physicality of Paul Rust was a real interesting choice for me because I knew those guys in high school. Well, hell, I was one of those guys. I’m not going to deny it – I was a complete and utter freak. I lived that kind of lifestyle so I knew what rejection was like and how it would have felt not to fit in.

We’ve seen Hayden as a cheerleader both in films and on TV, but do you feel she’s on the cusp of being a real movie star?
The thing about Hayden that was completely surprising to me is I didn’t realize she had such emotional depth as an actress. Aside from her incredible comedic timing, which I never really saw in Heroes, I wanted to make sure the [major] scene between Denis and Beth was toward the end of the schedule so we could chip away at the Beth Cooper facade and we actually see she’s harboring some deep emotional feelings. Hayden was really impressive in terms of her abilities as an actress to be very believable and very touching in those scenes.

You could connect with Beth Cooper because of the character and the John Hughes-yness. Does Percy Jackson come from a secret interest in Greek mythology?
No, that’s the real geeky side of me, like Denis Cooverman: I had an interest in Ray Harryhausen and all those movies. Jason and the Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, I just love them and I grew up on them. Those along with the Hammer horror pictures were just a geek fest for me. We’ve never really seen monsters like Medusa and the Minotaur in the full-blown CGI glory that we can actually accomplish now. When people see Uma Thurman as Medusa, they’re just going to be blown away. It’s really cool.

Celebrity Birthdays: Sylvester Stallone, 50 Cent

Happy birthday to both John Rambo and Rocky Balboa, as the '80s action icon Sylvester Stallone celebrates his 63rd. He just finished filming next year's flick The Expendables, which he wrote, directed and stars in with fellow action heroes Jet Li, Jason Statham, Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Fresh off the July 4 holiday, former commander-in chief George W. Bush is 63. Interestingly, our former president shares his birthday with the Dalai Lama, turning 74, and a first lady, Nancy Reagan, who is 88 today. Rapper 50 Cent will probably be partying on his 34rd birthday. The G-Unit mogul is set to release his next album, Before I Self Destruct, this fall. And actor Geoffrey Rush is 52. He's one of only 20 people ever to have won an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony.

Photo by Robert Hanashiro/USA Today