LEAKY FAWCETT: In a bizarre day that began with a press conference with U.S. Senator John McCain, veered into Tammy Faye Messner and polar opposite film dudes Spike Lee and John Waters territory, there was only one way to end it -- with Farrah Fawcett.
The '70s sex goddess was on tour to promote Chasing Farrah, a TVLand reality series a la The Osbournes with Fawcett as the celebrity stalking victim.
From the back of the room, Fawcett looked pretty much her old self in a clingy white sweater suit with black pumps. Her wild hair still has that collie shag sheen.
A clip was shown featuring Fawcett romping on the beach with ex-squeeze Ryan O'Neal. Any truth to reports that the two have run off and remarried?
Fawcett paused, looked left and right, stammered and finally said, "I-don't-think-so."
We'll find out more March 23 when the series debuts on the diginet TVLand.
NIXON PLAYS ROOSEVELT: How do you go from playing one of the Sex And The City hotties to matronly war time first lady Eleanor Roosevelt?
"Fake teeth," says Cynthia Nixon, who co-stars with Kenneth Branagh in HBO's FDR biopic Warm Springs (premiering in April on The Movie Network/Movie Central).
"We tried different teeth and different sizes and different levels of buck-toothness and stuff," says Nixon. Didn't the fake choppers get in the way of the dialogue? No, says Nixon, it was easier to sink her false teeth into the role because "a lot of the way she spoke was trying to speak around her teeth."
GIRL TALK: Another Sex And The City alumnus, Mario Cantone (he played bitchy wedding planner Anthony), had critics in stitches this past week at the session for his one man variety show Laugh Whore (coming to Showtime in April; no Canadian network as yet).
Cantone did outrageous impersonations on everyone from Judy Garland, to Bette Davis (in her dotage on The Tonight Show) to Golden Globes' red carpet assassins Joan and Melissa Rivers.
"They exhaust me," shouted Cantone. "Joan -- she won't know where she is."
Cantone says he prefers imitating divas from Hollywood's Golden Age to today's flickering stars. "Paris Hilton -- what the f--- does she do? Even these young gay boys are too busy partying," he complained.
"Whitney Houston was great -- but we've lost her."
FRIEND FINDS WORK: Still speaking of Sex And The City, that show's former executive producer, Michael Patrick King, has teamed with former Friends' star Lisa Kudrow on The Comeback, a scripted HBO comedy that looks like an Osbournes-style reality show. The 14-episode series is centred around Valerie Cherish (Kudrow), a former B-list sitcom star so desperate for a career comeback she agrees to be stalked by 24-hour reality cameras. It airs later this year on The Movie Network/Movie Central.
"One of the things I liked about the character was how she spins humiliation," says Kudrow, who came up with the concept. "To me, nothing is more humiliating than reality cameras photographing people."
Kudrow also told reporters that she was way past her post-Friends trauma. "I left pretty much kicking and screaming," she said. "The minute it was over, I was fine."
UNDER OVER: HBO chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht announced Friday that the fifth and final season of Six Feet Under would begin this June. (The series is simulcast in Canada on The Movie Network/Movie Central). He also said that HBO's explicit western Deadwood will kick off its second season March 6.
Albercht hinted that the future of the critically acclaimed police drama The Wire may be in doubt. "I have received a telegram from every viewer of The Wire -- all 250 of them," he joked. While he was proud of the show he did feel that the season-three finale did bring many of the characters full circle. He said a decision on the show's future would be made in the next few weeks.
NEW ENTERPRISE: Former Star Trek skipper and Boston Legal weasel William Shatner beamed aboard the tour Friday to promote Invasion Iowa, a new punk'd reality show beginning Jan. 25 on Spike TV.
Shatner and a film crew descended upon Riverside, Iowa, the self-declared future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. The idea was to audition locals as extras for Shatner's new sci-fi movie. The locals all lined up for their shot at Hollywood -- only to eventually find it was all a big fat hoax.
"We didn't really dash their dreams," said Shatner. "They're on television from Tuesday to Friday."
In the end, the producers gave the town $100,000 US and awarded many of the hoodwinked townspeople extra prizes.
STAND UP GUY: Quit picking on my sister-in-law, Ashley Simpson, says Nick Lachey. The former 98o singer and Newlyweds stooge asked reporters to give the kid a break.
Raven-haired Ashley had her pants pulled down on Saturday Night Live when a misplaced backing track betrayed that the set was lip synched.
"When you have as quick a rise (in show business) you're more open to those criticisms," said Lachey, who was on press tour to promote an as yet untitled new MTVproject. "Trust me -- she's not the only person who's done it on Saturday Night Live."
