Somewhere Deep Inside, He Heard Avon Calling
So why does John Goodman, best known as Dan on “Roseanne,” feel qualified to test his acting skills as Falstaff?
The production at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre this summer is his first attempt at portraying the portly companion of Henry IV in Shakespeare’s play of the same name.
“But I drank Falstaff before,” Goodman told Entertainment Weekly.
And the role isn’t really that much of a stretch. Falstaff and Dan, he notes, are “both great big, fat guys.”
Returning to the stage after so many years of television isn’t easy, Goodman admits. “It’s not like falling off a bicycle,” he said. “It’s like trying to drag a bicycle up Mount McKinley.
“I’m doing what I can to ruin the reputation of the Bard of Avon.”
Loose talk
Julia Ormond (“First Knight”), dubiously describing her life as an actress: “It’s very humdrum. If I go to a premiere - I’ve been to two in my life - I’m not the kind of person to whip out the cleavage.”
How can you eat cake when kids are starving?
Sally Struthers turns 47 today.
Where’d he take her? To the ‘moon, of course
Tom Arnold, who was Roseanne’s real husband for a while, will play blustering bus driver Ralph Kramden in the movie version of “The Honeymooners” - a role he’s currently researching on his honeymoon with 22-year-old ex-cheerleader Julie Lynne Champnella, whom he married last Saturday.
He’s lucky he didn’t end up on death roe
Richard Gere, Ormond’s “First Knight” co-star, was busted for fishing during his trip to Russia to serve as a judge in Moscow’s 19th International Film Festival. “I was arrested for illegally taking caviar from the river, but I’m not allowed to talk about that,” he said.
The kitchen? Right behind the green door
Fourth-generation New York firefighter William Bresnan, who won a medal for a rescue during the World Trade Center bombing, faces suspension or even dismissal for appearing in an R-rated pay-per-view film, “Bikini Bistro,” in which he plays a restaurant critic seduced by veteran porn star Marilyn Chambers.
Career-wise, she’s always in the driver’s seat
Hugh Grant gal pal Divine Brown will get $25,000 to model lingerie for a Brazilian firm, her agent says, but rejected an X-rated movie role because she felt it was beneath her.
It’s better to be a rebel without a caustic
Dennis Hopper confirms that he, James Dean and Natalie Wood decided to take a bath in champagne together in their younger days - and it “burned” her something awful. “We had to take her to the hospital,” Hopper says. “The lesson now is the same as then: If you are naked, do not sit in alcohol.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino