Wait A Minute, Shouldn’t He Be Eating Corn Chips?
Remember Erik Estrada? You know, Ponch Ponchorello on the old “CHIPs” cop show?
“I always loved Ponch, man,” Estrada tells Entertainment Weekly. “It was so much fun for me to be him, to put on my duds and get on that bike and bust the bad guys and help out the kids. And to get the babes.”
Now, at age 47, Estrada is making a comeback of sorts in an unlikely setting: MTV.
The band Bad Religion cast Estrada as Ponch in a video last year, while the Butthole Surfers enlisted him for a clip for their latest single, “Pepper.”
Explains Surfers guitarist Paul Leary: “We’ve kidnapped Erik Estrada and forced him to eat creamed corn, and he gets rescued by the cops.”
Loose talk
Dennis Hopper, discoursing on hemp (in Hemp Times magazine): “Sure, it comes from the same plant as marijuana, but industrial hemp has no value as far as its euphoric properties are concerned. I should know.”
Will he be making a comeback? No way, Jose
Bill Dana turns 72 today.
In other words, he could get off Scott free
The Stone Temple Pilots will launch a six-week U.S. tour starting Nov. 4 now that lead singer Scott Weiland is out of drug rehab, but first he has to appear in court for a progress report on Oct. 29. Says his lawyer: “I’m hoping it will be a grand celebration and the judge will say, ‘Great job. I’m thrilled and delighted to dismiss your case,’ which is what happens after someone completes a diversion program.”
High hopes got him in trouble to begin with
David Letterman’s Haight-Ashbury movie critic, Manny the Hippie (aka Micah Papp), has been sentenced to 1-1/2 years in prison for violating probation on a marijuana-selling conviction by moving from Ohio to California without court permission. When the sentence was announced, said Papp’s attorney, “He cried. He felt that all his high hopes would be lost.”
For now, his role will be an even bigger shrink
NBC’s hit comedy “Frasier” will stay on schedule despite star Kelsey Grammer’s entry into an alcohol treatment program. The show is being preempted for a few weeks by baseball playoffs, three episodes are in the can and a fourth will start shooting on Oct. 16, with Grammer in a greatly reduced role that he’ll film when he’s released later this month.
He’d better stay away from those needle tracks
The title of Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson’s autobiography (being co-written by Spokane’s own Jess Walter) has been changed from “Chasing the Dragon” after the publisher realized that’s street slang addicts use to describe coming off a cocaine high by toking tar heroin. The new name: “Slaying the Dragon: How to Turn Your Small Steps to Great Feats.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino