Reeve Is A Perfectly Able Spokesman For The Cause
“Without Pity,” a documentary about disabled people that airs tonight on HBO, is pretty compelling stuff to begin with.
But given its choice of narrators - Christopher Reeve, the former “Superman” star who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident - it’s particularly powerful.
‘I wasn’t thinking about myself while I was doing it,” Reeve told the Chicago Tribune. “I was intrigued and captivated by the stories of these people.”
Take Charlie Gentry, a second-grader born with no arms and no legs. “The first time I saw Charlie roll down the hall, it was agonizing to watch,” Reeve says. “But then you see he doesn’t feel sorry for himself and how he makes friends in school. You see what a normal kid he is.”
Loose talk
Dolly Parton, on her oft-recorded “I Will Always Love You” (at the Country Music Association Awards): “I got a lot of cheap wigs and padded bras out of that song.”
Toss another candle on the cakie, there, mate
Paul Hogan turns 57 today.
But odds are they’ll still keep the tabs on her
John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy returned home from their honeymoon Saturday to find a horde of reporters and photographers camped outside their Manhattan apartment. When they were still there on Sunday, John-John made a plea on his wife’s behalf: “This is a big change for anyone, and for a private citizen even more so. I ask that you give Carolyn all the privacy and room you can.”
With that much money, it’s easy to stay friends
Following months of well-publicized negotiations, TV Guide reports that the six stars of NBC’s hit sitcom “Friends” - Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer - have agreed to a new, six-year contract that will pay them $75,000 per episode this season (about double last year’s take) and increase steadily to $120,000 per in 1999.
A Southern belle? It just wouldn’t ring true
Rhea Perlman, back on the small screen with her own series, “Pearl,” says people are surprised that she’s nothing like her abrasive “Cheers” character, Carla. “I guess it’s because I’ve played tough cookies for so long,” she said in an “Entertainment Weekly” interview. “It’s what I do best. I’m not sure I could pull off a genteel Southern belle.”
She wouldn’t play anything but the masters
Barry Manilow and Suzanne Somers have each donated $5,000 to help replace musical instruments stolen from the College of the Desert in Palm Springs. Somers said her school band helped her overcome low self-esteem: “I began to accept the fact that I was not smart, bordering on stupid. I finally found myself through the music department at my school. That is where I soared.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino