It’s Not Moore’s Forte To Play Ordinary People

After starring on two of the most popular sitcoms in television history, Mary Tyler Moore has had a tough time making a third show work.

And she likely has given up the fight.

“It would have to be a very strong project to lure me back,” Moore told TV Guide. “Too much of your total artistic contribution is left in other people’s hands.”

Her latest effort at network success ended when her show “New York News” folded. Moore, the one-time star of both “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and her own “Mary Tyle Moore Show,” had been cast as a tough lady editor of a Big Apple tabloid.

Moore complained that “New York News” was scheduled opposite NBC’s popular “Seinfeld,” and she didn’t like her lines. “I felt my character was becoming a caricature,” she said.

Loose talk

Geraldo Rivera, fantasizing about his future (in TV Guide): “At this stage, as my hair grays, I’d like to have the center chair of a news vehicle… to be one of the wise men of the end of the century.”

Venus Flytrap, Johnny Fever, Les Nessman send regards

Gary Sandy turns 50 today.

Walking with a swish put too much stress on the joint

Patrick Swayze, just nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actor award for his role as a drag queen in “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar,” had minor knee surgery Wednesday. Surgeon Wayne Christie said Swayze’s dance background was the main culprit, along with the fact that he has “chosen to do his own stunts in a lot of movies, so he’s been tossed around quite a bit.”

Some folks will go to any length to get an autograph

Madonna is a busy woman, but a Los Angeles judge ordered her to his courtroom or face the consequences. She’s to testify against Robert Dewey Hoskins, a drifter accused of stalking her who was shot and arrested outside her Hollywood Hills home on May 29.

At $75 per seat, they can’t afford to cancel very often

When actress Zoe Caldwell couldn’t go on for two performances of the play “Master Class” on Wednesday, it marked the first time in nearly 15 years that a Broadway play had been canceled. Caldwell was suffering from a “severe sore throat.”

Ah, but of course that still leaves women and animals

Screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (“Basic Instinct,” “Sliver,” “Jade,” “Showgirls”) has sold a four-page outline for a new movie called “Trapped” for, get this, a $5 million deal. Surprisingly, Eszterhas says, “There is no sex in ‘Trapped’ between men and women, or men and men, or women and women, or men and animals.”

Those were Stern looks that Dave threw at his audience

What was too much for Jay Leno was, apparently, all right for David Letterman on Wednesday. Howard Stern swayed onscreen dressed in a gold-sequined gown and blond wig. He showed off his painted toenails, danced on Dave’s desk and encouraged two bikini-clad men to kiss.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster