Is Mary Tyler more than ever?
Are Streep and Redford the next Hepburn and Bogart?
Does Sherlock have a clue who Santa is?
Is Geraldine Page booked solid?
Can you think of a sweeter holiday treat than a nutcracker?
How does Lonnie Anderson check out her image?
Is this the season for Jennifer Holliday?
Entertainment this week ties it all up in a neat package.
Where'd you get that rubbish from?
Hello everybody and happy holidays. I'm Lisa Givens.
And I'm Rob Weller and welcome to Entertainment This Week.
If you're making a list and checking it twice, relax.
Help has arrived. We've got a show full of holiday treats.
Plus an unusually candid interview.
Rona Barrett one on one with Lonnie Anderson.
What more you may ask? How about starting with a more named Mary Tyler.
Her impact on television and on all of us.
Scott Osborne does the honors.
Every character I've played has had a great deal of Mary Tyler more in them.
Especially the television characters.
I can only play based on my instinct and my knowledge of other people and myself in given situations.
Mary Tyler Moore has invested herself in her TV characters for nearly a quarter century.
She seems to be an honest person.
Sweet.
Vibious.
Caring.
A good person.
In the 60's she was the lovably frazzled young married woman, Laura Petrie.
She's funny, she's energetic.
Down to earth.
Pulsing.
Proper.
I think she's pretty much upstanding.
She seems to have ideals and morals.
I think you identify with her in each role that she plays.
In the 70's she was the young professional woman, Mary Richards.
She was always very determined to do a good job.
She's a real go getter.
She goes out there and does it.
Kind of teaches the women of today not to sit around and wait for it to happen.
Laura Petrie was me, Mary Richards was me, and this new Mary Brenner is also me.
So as I have grown as a person, my characters have grown too.
Each of your characters has provided a role model.
And if you're my age you've seen them on a consecutive basis.
And if you're my age too.
What role model does Mary Brenner provide?
I have no idea, just as I had no idea that I was going to become a role model in either of the two preceding characters.
Who are your role models?
Catherine Hepburn not only personified the strength of character on film and on stage, but she also had it in spades herself.
I am the proof that if you live long enough you become Saint Hitch. So here I am. Mary Tyler Moore is very generous. Thank you.
You have to be true to your material and true to yourself and your own instincts.
You can't second guess how it's going to be received.
Because if you do then you become a television businessman or a television or a business filmmaker.
And I think eventually you're not too happy with the results.
It's clear though that the audience for the premiere of Mary Tyler Moore's new show wikes the lady they see.
She did it in the 60's, she did it in the 70's, she's doing it today.
I think she's a wonderful lady.
I like her. I really do.
Glad she's back.
Yeah she looks great.
Sure does. There's lots more coming right up on entertainment this week.
Including Lonnie Anderson. She tells Rona Barrett that she and Burt Reynolds ignore their publicity.
It's the best way. It certainly has helped us through four years now of being together.
Geraldine Page. She's in three movies and a play at the same time. That's a lot of acting.
I love it. Inordinately. I'm the biggest hand in the world.
And David Huddleston. He plays Santa Claus. What made him think he was right for the part?
Look at these rosy little cheeks.
All coming up all new on Entertainment This Week.
A romance set in Africa to start our movie section on spooling.
Our exclusive movie preview out of Africa based on the literary works of Esauk Dineson.
In this scene the author to be played by Meryl Streep has just been saved from an attack by a lioness by Dennis Finch-Hatton.
Robert Redford who eventually becomes her lover.
Did you save my life Finch-Hatton?
No. The lioness did that. She walked away.
So I am not indebted then?
Ah, but I am. We pay our storytellers here.
It's lovely. But my stories are free. And your presents much too dear.
Write them down sometime.
Take care of Finch-Hatton.
You wouldn't rather call me Dennis?
Fairness.
Streep and Redford are two of Hollywood's best known actors.
But there are of course many relatively unknown actors.
And as Al Owens discovered some of them are receiving recognition for portraying some very familiar characters.
Chosen one, come forward.
Henceforth you will be called Santa Claus.
What is it like when they say you have the job? You are going to be Santa Claus. What was your first reaction?
I did about four flips in the air. It was terrific.
I mean, I think I figured out that this is my 32nd picture.
And to get this one at this stage in my life is good.
You might not immediately recognize his name, but David Huddleston's face is certainly familiar.
His characters have played alongside some of Hollywood's biggest names for years.
He's also a veteran of more than 400 TV commercials.
How does one prepare to become the world's most famous traveling elf?
I actually put on 15 pounds to get the part because I figured that Santa Claus was substantial.
I always imagined Santa Claus to be a jolly good fellow that kids are drawn to like a magnet.
Who envelops them in his giant wonderfulness and their eyes light up and they find happiness there.
I still feel that.
Look at these rosy little cheeks.
What's your name?
Holmes. Sherlock Holmes.
How do you cast someone to play Sherlock Holmes when most people still think of Basil Rathbone as the famous fictional slew?
It's really elementary. Hundreds of actors were screened before 19-year-old Nicholas Roe was picked.
He's a Scottish college student who'd never been in a major film before.
It's a clever murder on the loose and I am going to find him.
It was encouraging. It was frightening, one, to think that I was going to have this part imposed on me and that they thought I could do it.
A great detective relies on perception, intelligence and imagination.
Where did you get that rubbish from?
It's framed on the wall behind you.
I like the way that he's allowed to express many more emotions than an older Holmes ever is allowed to.
You never see Basil Rathbone really cry or get terribly upset and it's nice, I think, in this movie that Holmes has a chance to.
Love is alive!
Roe's only regret was that his first big screen love scene was cut from the final version of the film.
It was a girl.
Great introduction, wasn't it?
Yes, if there was a chance to do a sequel, I think I would like to do it. I don't want to get stuck in a rut, but I would love to do it.
At the age of 61, most actors are content to accept an occasional role and otherwise rest on their laurels, not Geraldine Page.
Barbara Hauer explains.
Forget it, nobody's seen him.
Who asked you? I can focus world opinion and I'm going to do it.
Perhaps world opinion is going a bit too far, but Geraldine Page is certainly garnering a lot of attention these days.
Not only does she have three films in current release, White Nights, Flanagan, and Trip to Bountiful,
but she is also appearing off-Broadway in the new Sam Shepard play, A Lie of the Mind.
And when the end of Fatigable Lady isn't before the camera or a live audience, she is imparting the tricks of the trade at a New York acting workshop.
Probably erroneously, but I have a few things that I have heard and seen work that I know that if I share, it can't hurt.
Among the number of things Page has picked up over the years are seven Academy Award nominations.
This year, the Hollywood odds are on her receiving an eighth colon for her role in Trip to Bountiful, and perhaps this time, even the Oscar.
I think Rockin' Birds is my favorite of all.
I think it's mine, too.
I irritate some people sometimes because once I do something and they like it fairly much, then they want me to do the same thing again,
because they know I can do that.
They think it's safe to hire me to play something they've seen me do, and I've resisted that all my life.
I've always said, no, I just did that. I'll pass on that.
But it takes a gutsy, confident lady to be able to turn down a role and say, oh, I've already done that. That takes a lot of courage.
It takes somebody who's very selfish and stubborn. Now, I'm very stubborn, and I'm very selfish.
I like to enjoy acting. I love it inordinately. I'm the biggest ham in the world.
And therefore, it is worthwhile to me to wait till I get something my appetite will really rouse to and I can go.
In The Bride, you play a very small role, the housekeeper, the Frankenstein. Now, why did you take a part like that?
I wanted to be in that film of the thing. I wanted to be in a Frankenstein film, and I wanted to go to England.
And I like to get paid, and they paid me nice and all these things. It was irresistible.
You've taken your talent and a profession and made it work for you. You're not at its mercy.
You have to be stubborn, though. People really drive you crazy.
But how did you know you could get away with it? When did you realize you could do that?
I really think this is all because of the way my father brought me up.
I had all this propaganda in my ears from a tiny tot that if you're going to do anything worthwhile,
you should never get upset if people don't think it's any good.
It's probably an indication that you're doing something innovative and good.
So when I get bad reviews, and I say, oh, poor things, they don't know.
It's wonderfully self-deceptive, but it helps.
This weekend in Leonard Maltin's survey of what's going on at the movies, a Rocky, a defector, a sleuth, and a jewel.
A lot of people enjoyed romancing the stone, but these days movie makers aren't content to leave well enough alone.
They've got to make a sequel, and it's almost never as good as the original.
The Jewel of the Nile does have the original stars, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito.
What is this, the young and the stupid?
Not quite, but it's no gym, either. Adventure stuff's okay, but it was the development of the characters
that made the first film fun, and now they're set in place. So the results are a six.
Spies like us came as a pleasant surprise to me, a broad, surefire comedy that's full of laughs,
with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd doing a partner act like Hope and Crosby.
Piece of cake.
I like this one enough to give it an eight. There's no rationalizing Rocky IV.
Maybe the show is over.
Don't tell that to Sylvester Stallone. He makes a complete rehash of the same Rocky formula, and it still works,
with all the dumb dialogue and all the predictability intact. Incredible. And it rates a seven.
I wish they had a better formula for White Nights. It gets stuck in its storyline
and gives Mikhail Baryshnikov too little opportunity to dance.
I'd call this film defective, but with Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines on hand, it can't be all bad.
That's why it scores a six.
Finally, there's young Sherlock Holmes, which can only be called a disappointment.
It's faithful to the spirit of Conan Doyle's great character, but it brings in 1980s-style special effects,
and that throws everything off kilter. I can only give this misfire a five.
It's such a shame when a really well-made film just doesn't work.
That's coming from a dyed-in-the-wool Sherlock Holmes fan.
That's our Weekend Movie Wrap-Up. I'm Leonard Maltin. Entertainment This Week.
Tis the season for specials on the small screen, and next week there are plenty.
On Monday, an NBC TV movie, A Letter to Three Wives, starring Lonnie Anderson, Michelle Lee, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Ben Guzzara.
Tuesday, a CBS animated special, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. Friday, an NBC special, Andy Williams and the NBC Kids, Search for Santa.
And on Sunday, a repeat of the CBS telemovie, A Christmas Carol, starring George C. Scott.
One of the highlights of TV's Christmas season specials, Mikhail Baryshnikov's staging of the American Ballet Theater's The Nutcracker on PBS.
What's better than seeing this classic ballet on TV? Seeing it in person, of course.
And this holiday season, you can see it just about anywhere and everywhere across America.
Christmas. It's a traditional time, a time of parties and presents, trees with all the trimmings,
and all those things that combine to put a little magic into our lives and hope that our dreams will come true.
A young girl's dream, woven around a present given her by a mysterious party guest, is the story of The Nutcracker.
The classical ballet based on E.T.A. Hoffman's early 19th century tale with music by Tchaikovsky was first performed in Russia in 1892.
It's become a favorite Christmas entertainment for the whole family in America.
What's your favorite part? The dancing part. When the king of mice got scorched by the shoe.
Almost every ballet company, whatever their level of professionalism, stages the show.
The Boston Ballet's 22nd season is a mammoth production featuring over 100 performers.
More than $20,000 is spent on toe shoes alone during the run, but it's money well invested.
In 32 performances, over 100,000 people will see The Nutcracker and probably gross the Boston Ballet somewhere in the neighborhood of $2 million.
Meanwhile, a private school in Canoga Park, California is rehearsing for just four performances which will benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
The Sugar Plum Fairy is one of the coveted roles, whether danced for the ballet Pacifica and Laguna Beach or for the San Francisco Ballet.
I love Nutcracker. Music is wonderful. When I can hear this music, just my heart starts to sing.
The Nutcracker has been performed in San Francisco for 41 years.
Four, five, six, no, look at your line. Why are you in such a hurry?
We pride ourselves on sort of being the granddaddy because we were the first to stage the full length production in this country.
Across the bay in Oakland, that company is equally hard at work on their version of the classic.
And peeking, a nice high throw. That's it, that's it.
To come back to something familiar that you've lived with and grown up with, it's a nice feeling.
Keep your characters, oh, little eyes, keep it.
And in Dallas, they're also getting into shape.
They have all seen it from a very early age. They want to see it.
And then to participate in it, to take a part in the Nutcracker and even to dance steps and to act, I find it very fascinating for the kids.
They love to be on the stage.
Teeter, then the lullaby the whole thing.
While Mikhail Baryshnikov tones up his American Ballet theater stars for the production which will play Los Angeles.
And that's the story of Nutcracker and the King of Mice.
And so ends Hoffman's Tale, a fantasy which every season makes us believe in happy endings and brings a whole new audience to the ballet.
She's a woman with a real image, one that she created herself.
It helped her win one of the lead roles in a long-running TV series as well as a lot of publicity.
Today she thinks it might be time to soften or change that image with Rona Barrett, Lonnie Anderson.
Rona?
Thanks, Rob. Lisa, nice to see both of you.
Hello, everyone.
Lonnie Anderson first came to our attention as the blonde bombshell Jennifer in the CBS series WKRP in Cincinnati.
But she portrayed this bombshell with a real twist.
Lonnie played her as a bright, sensitive woman.
For her work, she received two Emmy and three Golden Globe nominations.
This Monday night, Lonnie takes another step forward in the NBC movie A Letter to Three Wives, a remake of the 1949 Academy Award-winning film.
It's the story of three women who learn that another has run off with one of their husbands.
Probably the strongest message that one gets after viewing A Letter to Three Wives is that so often we take for granted those people we love the most.
Has that ever happened to you?
Oh, absolutely. I've lost both of my parents now at a very young age.
They were both in their fifties, and you realize, especially when someone has a lingering illness, how much you appreciate that person and how awful it's going to be when they're gone.
But in this movie, you don't even think about it because you're not prepared.
You know, and in death, you're prepared.
But this is you go away happily, you think everything's fine, and someone says, when you get home, your loved one won't be there anymore.
I'm taking them away.
You know, for the longest time, Lonnie, I've looked at you, and I've always wanted to know one thing.
Okay.
When the blonde hair comes down and the makeup comes off, who are you?
There's a Midwest girl at home, kind of a sweeter, funnier, roll on the floor kind of person that I wouldn't necessarily present, maybe except in a role that I would play.
Yeah, a simpler person, I think, at home.
Why do you think it's so necessary to be this person?
To be this person?
I guess it's because it's what got me where I am, and so this is what I present.
The other person didn't seem to get any work at all, and so it's left over from that.
I feel insecure without it.
However, I keep wanting to, on screen, show that other person.
And the problem with having presented this is that if you take it to a network and say, I want to do this kind of brown-haired, regular, you know, they laugh and say,
well, do you think we'd buy Lonnie Anderson like that?
And so that eventually you have to convince somebody that you have to do that.
You just have to get that out so you can get rid of whatever persona that they've come to expect.
You bring up the word insecurities.
What are the insecurities?
I mean, it's very difficult, you understand, for a public who sees you dressed the way you are, looking the way you are, almost a perfect tan,
to say Lonnie Anderson has insecurities.
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, come on now.
Yeah. I'm insecure about the way I look.
I'm insecure about just a lot of different things, especially about the way I look.
I think I've always been insecure about it, and I really can't give you any reasons except that my mother and I discussed it,
and she said when I was little, nobody wanted to tell me I looked nice because they didn't.
The big thing was then you don't want somebody to be conceited.
So nobody ever told me ever that I looked nice, that I was cute or pretty.
And when I finally heard it from anybody, I would just eat it up.
Well, usually fathers love their daughters.
Yes, and mine.
And usually the father is the one that even if you're the ugliest person on earth, he's the one who always says,
my daughter is so gorgeous as he throws the pictures around the place at the office or at the store.
My dad and I had a real father-son relationship. I was like his son. We were very, very close.
But my dad was a very handsome man, and he hated that anyone said it to him because they discounted who he was.
They just looked at him, and he was a chemist, he was a very bright man, and he didn't want people to take him on face value.
So he did the same thing to me. But it created an insecurity.
And it's interesting, though, but you are very intelligent. I happen to know that.
And you're very sensitive, and you're very vulnerable, and yet you want people to see this side of you,
and yet everything you do, Lani, presents a totally different picture.
Why do you do this to yourself?
Oh, I don't know. I do think it's the insecurity. I really think that's what it is.
I want to be a very strong person. I want to be impervious to any kind of pain.
And I'm not. And I would like to be less vulnerable. And I think that's why I present it.
You say you want to be impervious to pain.
To pain, mm-hmm. What kind of pain have you been through?
Well, a broken marriage, the death of my parents. Those are very painful things.
Did you get married at 18 because he was the person who said to you,
you're so beautiful and you're so fabulous, and these were the words you hadn't heard from someone?
I mean, it often amazes me when very bright, intelligent, beautiful women go off and get married at age 18.
When they should know better. Right.
Why did you get married at 18?
Very much for those reasons. Yeah.
Tell me about that relationship. Who was he like? What was he like?
He was older, very attractive, and a real sweet talker.
And he did make me feel that I was lovely. I knew him for two weeks, and I eloped with him.
And he's a very nice man to this day. We're friends. We have this lovely daughter together.
But we're strangers. We only were together for a couple of months.
And that's... it was a mistake. We weren't anything alike.
When did you know? Immediately. You knew immediately?
I mean, like within the first day, the first week? Oh, yeah. The first day.
Why didn't you get married to Nould?
Nobody really wanted us to be married in the first place.
And I accepted the responsibility of getting married.
And I thought I was going to... I'm going to make this work.
I didn't just... I think I wanted to prove everybody wrong.
So I stayed. That's very much part of my character. Staying to the very last moment.
Who do you think instilled that in you?
Oh, my parents both were very loyal people.
Loyal to their families, loyal to their friends, their jobs.
Always the same thing to the last moment, especially my father.
He gave everybody the benefit of the doubt right down the line to the very last moment.
When you lost him, what was that like? Devastating. It was really... I was very close to him.
And he had cancer. And he lived for five years in a lot of pain.
And it was tragic.
I miss him. I talk to him. I wish he were here. I wish he could see this.
But he did write me a letter that I received after his death.
It said, I want you to give this to my daughter after I'm gone.
And tell her... So she knows that she's beautiful and talented.
And I know she's going to be a big success and make the most of her life.
And I'll be watching.
When you decided to get a divorce, the judge said he wouldn't grant you one because pregnant women were too emotional.
I mean, how did you react to such a statement?
I was furious. I couldn't even believe a man had said that.
And I spoke up and said, I suppose you know this because of all the children you've given birth to.
And he said, young lady, you will be put at contempt of court if you don't sit down.
And my lawyer said, you know...
And I really was... I'd been through so much then because at the same time my church...
I'd always taught Sunday school and was very involved in my church...
Had said when I was separated from my husband and was going to get a divorce that I was no longer fit to teach Sunday school.
So all within a very short time I got all these slaps in the face from things that I really believed in and trusted.
Would you say you were rather shocked or surprised when Ross Piquel then asked you to marry him thinking that no one else was ever going to have you because you were now this tarnished woman?
Well, it wasn't so shocking as it was a nice revelation that I liked this man and he liked me and we had everything in common.
And it seemed so easy.
And it must have been another double whammy to you, another shock when you realized that the marriage was over.
Yes.
How did you react? What did you think? What went through your mind at that time?
I really felt that... I think you feel like it's your fault.
You feel like you should never do it again.
You just keep making terrible mistakes.
That maybe all of my independence and everything that I want to be didn't fit with marriage.
I really didn't think that I would ever get involved seriously with anybody again and certainly never marry again.
Was your being the so-called star in the family have something to do with the relationship really breaking up?
Oh yes, definitely.
You know, you have a very strong identity as being a blonde bombshell.
And I think that one of the things that associated with sexy, glamorous women are also a woman's breasts.
And you went and had a breast reduction.
Why did you do that?
Well, I wanted people to look in my eyes.
I think it's so unfortunate that if you have something that everybody's eyes go right to it, then you never notice anything else about you.
First of all, they don't notice your intelligence, your talent, your personality, the color of your eyes.
I mean, it really does get down to that.
But it seems to me that if you really wanted that, then this blonde hair has got to change.
And a lot of other things have got to change so people can really see the real Lani because I think the line...
They're still caught up in that.
I think all of us are caught up in that.
And I think that the person that's underneath is not the person that we see at all.
And I want to know, when are you prepared?
Well, I looked at the script.
And what's it going to take?
You caught me.
Today I got a script that I liked very much about a mother who is a checkout clerk in a grocery store and goes to prison for stealing some money because she can't take care of her children.
And I want to do it.
And I don't want to be a blonde in it.
And I want to be plain in it.
And I want to be an ordinary housewife who works in a grocery store.
And the very fact that I got the script today is a first.
And it shows that the network that presented it to me to even consider it is maybe thinking of me now, as much as I've gone in everywhere and said, please, would you consider me for this, somebody finally has.
Your friend, Mr. Reynolds, is also someone who has a very definite image.
What do you think the key is to your successful relationship with him?
That we ignore our images.
That we ignore publicity about us that of course isn't true.
So by just ignoring it all?
That's how.
It's the best way.
It certainly has helped us through four years now of being together.
And you once said, I don't think I will ever get married again unless I meet a man who certainly earns more money than I do.
That was a number one priority.
Do you still feel that way?
I really do.
I mean, that's the way I've been heard in the past.
I do believe that the only kind of man I would marry would be more successful than I am.
And then we'd be able to deal with it.
So where do you think the relationship with Bird is going?
I think it's just a very happy relationship for all the years that we've spent together.
I like it just the way it is.
I like the way it's going.
Where do you want it to go?
I'd like it to go on just the way it is.
Would you want to get married again?
I don't know.
I like the closeness.
We're together all the time.
I don't know if that piece of paper really means something to me anymore that this relationship doesn't have.
I thank you very much.
Thank you.
And I wish you lots of luck.
Thank you.
Coming up next week on Entertainment Tonight, Monday, Kathleen Turner turns up the heat for the Jewel of the Nile.
Tuesday, James Taylor back on the charts with That's Why I'm Here.
Wednesday, Lou Gossett Jr., a skilled actor, tackles an unusual role as an alien.
Thursday, Whitney Houston.
She's crossed over from soul to pop, and she's more successful than ever.
And Friday, Valerie Harper gets back in the comedy race with her own series.
All next week, all on Entertainment Tonight.
Records and cassettes have become as traditional a stocking stuffer as candy canes and toys.
Here's a quick rundown from five to one of the top-selling Christmas singles as charted by Billboard magazine.
Happy Christmas, War Is Over from John Lennon, Jingle Bell Rock from Bobby Helms, Blue Christmas by Elvis Presley,
White Christmas from Bing Crosby, and at number one, that seasonal tear-jerker, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer from Elmo and Patsy.
Theater audiences were bowled over a few years ago with the sudden presence of Jennifer Holliday.
Now she's looking down the road past Broadway towards pop success with No Frills Love,
now a huge hit in the dance clubs. It looks like it just may be holidays time of year. Al Owens has more.
Four years ago, Jennifer Holliday sang a song which won her many accolades.
Jennifer Holliday won a Grammy and a Tony Award for her work in Dreamgirls.
And now she feels it's time to move into pop music with the release of her second album, Say You Love Me.
It marks a move away from her success on Broadway and toward the unknown.
This change has got to be a little frightening, doesn't it?
Yes, it's a little scary, but it's exciting. I'm a risk-taker, you know. I'm sort of a gambler.
I like challenge and I like doing things not because they provide security for me, but because I want to do them
and I have the belief and desire that they're going to work.
As she travels the country hoping to pick up new fans, she's fully aware of how fickle fans can be.
I take it as it comes and I take nothing for granted, you know. All of this could disappear tomorrow,
but Jennifer's still going to be fine, you know, because I know how to drive and I don't have to be chauffeur-driven all the time.
I'm growing up and allowing myself to grow up and the things that are not working for me is forced career,
things that I'm changing. I move those people out and I'll keep changing until I get it right.
And one of the changes Holliday probably won't be willing to make is her love for love songs,
whether it's the danceable new hit, No Frills Love, a ballad like Say You Love Me,
or a song about universal love.
But with all the love she sings about, Jennifer Holliday hasn't found her Prince charming yet.
Has the Prince come your way yet?
He knocked on my door. Let me put it like that. He knocked on my door. I just haven't let him in yet.
Hello, freedom.
And now a rundown of who to see in music and where.
Huey Lewis and the News are at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu.
The Manhattan Transfer at the Carlton Celebrity Theater in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Lee Greenwood at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.
The Thompson Twins at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Virginia.
And Rapp headlines the County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas.
Looking ahead now to next week's news that's yet to happen,
Monday's Mail will deliver preliminary ballots to select Oscar nominees in sound effects, editing, and makeup.
And Saturday, a gentleman named Bugs Bunny gets a long overdue star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
And in this week's entertainment headlines, Disney's Down and Out in Beverly Hills got an R rating,
the first in that studio's history.
That means no one under 18 can see it unless accompanied by an adult.
Rock singer David Crosby, wanted in Texas for failure to appear to bond hearing,
was jailed after surrendering to the FBI in Florida.
James Cagney filed a $1.4 million suit against a Canadian advertising company
for using a photograph from the film Public Enemy in a mouthwash ad.
And a husband and wife songwriting team who brought suit against Dolly Parton,
claiming that her hit song, 9 to 5, is based on a song of theirs,
turned down an out of court settlement offer from Parton, saying it was just too small.
And that's our quick review of the week's top entertainment news headlines,
now for a day-by-day review of events told in pictures.
Monday, ET is at the Kennedy Center Gala as Lifetime Achievement Awards are presented.
Well, I had some fun, but on the last number I cried a little bit. All those memories.
And Clint Eastwood makes the day at the Hollywood Women's Press Club.
He shows up to accept his Golden Apple Award.
It's really fabulous being at the same table with June Haver and next to Dorothy Lamour
and all these fabulous people, and Glenn Ford, all these fabulous people
that have been around a lot longer than me.
Not much.
Tuesday, ET gets off on the right foot, taking in New York's movie premiere of A Chorus Line.
As a child I grew up in the theater and I studied dance
and I went to all those cattle calls just like everyone else did.
It just happened a lot earlier and then I went on to do television and recording.
So this is sort of bringing back a lot of bittersweet memories.
And the Christmas season officially gets underway with a countdown in Rockefeller Center.
Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling you.
The fun is lovely when the boys play right together with you.
Wednesday, ET goes on location in China, behind the scenes during the filming of Taipan.
I knew it was going to be one of those jobs where my discipline had better be pretty good
and my patience had better be pretty good because it was going to be a lot to hang around.
And back in the USA, we catch stars at the New York premiere of Clue,
the movie with three different endings.
If you knew that in one theater, for instance, you would not be the murderer,
then you would have to play the whole role as if you were innocent.
If you knew that you were the murderer,
then you would have to play the whole role a little bit as if you were guilty.
So it was a little difficult trying to find out how to tread that line.
Thursday, ET covers General Electric's multi-billion dollar deal to take over RCA,
parent corporation of NBC.
We have had in RCA a very strong, supportive parent
and I expect GE to be exactly the same, even stronger,
in that the combined companies will be larger.
And Vin Scully is named Sportscaster of the Year.
I humbly and gratefully was a guardian, a custodian, if you will, of that modest gift.
I also have some tremendous news for you.
I am not going to write a book.
Friday, ET is in a Washington, D.C. area
shopping mall where modern technology makes it possible
to save the memory of Junior on Santa's lap.
It's for her father and I'm divorced
and I thought it would be really nice for him to see her.
And that's a quick review in pictures of the week's entertainment news.
Are some tunes familiar for a reason?
Could be television is the reason.
Music is the theme of this weekend's Shoemaker Report.
The soundtrack from Miami Vice is still one of the top-rated albums in America.
There's even a music from the TV show Dallas album out too.
But all this is not new.
Many old TV shows had popular musical themes.
Who hasn't thrilled to the sounds of Star Trek
or tensed up to the music from Mission Impossible
or chuckled at the Jetsons theme.
TV tunes.
Steve Gottlieb believes in TV themes, which is only natural
because from his New York apartment he's distributing this album
containing 65 of TV's greatest hits.
Lots of folks are surprised what's stuck in the nooks and crannies
in the back of their mind.
But somewhere back there the Addams Family lurks.
They're all together, ooh, keep the Addams Family.
However, half the tracks on the album are reproductions, not originals.
For example, the Beverly Hillbillies theme.
Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed.
But it's tough telling what's original and what's a reproduction,
especially when dealing with classic music like the theme from Mr. Ed.
A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one...
Everyone it seems has a favorite TV musical theme.
Mine, for example, is...
Ladies and gentlemen, we are experiencing technical difficulties.
Please stand by.
Okay, the problem is not with your set, it is with Dick Shoemaker.
Of course.
Hey, our theme song is one of the most recognized.
You go out to do an E.T. story.
I know, it drives you crazy. Everybody's da-da-da-da-da.
Of course, they come running from the kitchen and other parts of the house to be with us.
And they sing it in tune.
They do. And we hope you'll be with us on Monday for Entertainment Tonight
for a visit with Kathleen Turner and an unusual Sidelines report
on the Dallas Cowboys from actor David Keefe.
Plus, a pageant, elephants and camels in a cathedral right here.
Oh, I wouldn't miss that.
Be sure to come back same time, same station next weekend.
When Entertainment This Week will feature Walter Mathau, Dan Aykroyd,
Chevy Chase, Danny DeVito, and a rare interview with Elizabeth Montgomery.
Have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.
Bye-bye now.
MUSIC