Nicholson Gives Famous Smile On Gq’s Cover

The January cover of GQ (some old-timers still call it Gentlemen’s Quarterly ) has a cover photo of Jack Nicholson that will have you chanting, “Red rum! Red rum!” It’s that scary smirk from “The Shining,” with a cover line that simply reads, “Jack!” Nothing more; but do you need anything else with a legend?

While Nicholson has been the subject of a million or so profiles, he never disappoints - and doesn’t here, either. In this Q-and-A session, the 58-year-old actor considers his various stints and notes, “I thought ‘Hoffa’ was one of the best things I’d ever done.”

For a tough guy, he seems incredibly thin-skinned when it comes to critics.

“With very few exceptions, I always arrange to be out of town when the responses come in,” he says.

Nicholson says he doesn’t watch television (“I think it’s a cancer vs. the movies”) and claims he’s looking forward to turning 60, although 50 nearly killed him.

“Fifty put me to my knees for a year,” he said. “I couldn’t do nothing for a year except think I was dying. But once that was over, there was something magical about the number and how it affected me psychologically, and I haven’t thought about it again.”

Now he’s too busy going to Lakers games and considering future movie roles. Nicholson says he’d love to play a gay character, although he’d want him to be over the top. “I think I’d like to really swish one up. Really swish one up.” We’ll believe it when we see it, Jack.

More obscurely

Crank magazine has an attitude that’s - well, predictably cranky.

In his debut issue (published more than two years ago), Editor Jeff Koyen took off on Rush Limbaugh in a way that many liberals do. Limbaugh’s television producer just got around to reading the piece and sent an intimidating letter to Mr. Crank, who publishes the correspondence verbatim in his just-released issue No. 5.

Writes Limbaugh associate Stewart Kasloff: “As the producers of the ‘Rush Limbaugh Television Show,’ we are compelled to look after the interests of Mr. Limbaugh. We take very seriously any attempts to tarnish Mr. Limbaugh’s public image.

“While we would not usually take action against printed publications such as yours, which we consider below the line of public interest, we are unnerved by your presence on the Internet’s World Wide Web.”

Kasloff tells Editor Koyen he’s asked the show’s legal department to determine “whether or not your claim that Mr. Limbaugh is the mouthpiece for ‘racist Americans’ constitutes libel.”

Koyen doesn’t seem fazed by the threat and responds in his magazine with a series of unprintable epithets.

“I know it’s passe to hate Limbaugh, but I still do, with every drop of blood in my black, black heart,” writes the Crank boss. “I’ll dance on your grave, fat boy.”

That’s the tone of the entire New York-based magazine. And it’s nearly as strong in his screed against actor Keanu Reeves in the latest issue, so stick around to read about further legal action. (Crank, P.O. Box 757, Stuyvesant Station, New York, NY 10009; $3; web site: http:/ /www.btf.com/crank).