Is the movie as wild as the party?
Are they still doing that old pie in the face routine?
Can Sly handle success?
Is Bill Murray acting or is he really a clown?
Will Arkani's honeymoon go on forever?
Is that Peggy Lee behind those foster grants?
Those questions and more answered on Entertainment This Week.
Hello everyone, I'm Dixie Plotley.
And I'm Alan Arthur.
We've got the very latest from the world of show business, TV, music and the movies.
And the newest movie to join the summer box office rush is Bachelor Party which opened
Friday.
Its star Tom Hanks has achieved success much quicker than he ever dreamed.
I'm getting married.
Yeah right, yeah.
I don't believe it.
Look, if this is what you want, good luck man.
The least we can do is make sure you go out in style.
Yeah, let's have a bachelor party!
So the stage is set for Bachelor Party, a new comedy starring Tom Hanks.
There is a set formula for a bachelor party that evidently everybody adheres to.
And doesn't matter where it takes place, it could be in the back room of a restaurant
or it could be in a hotel or it could be at some guy's house.
They all follow the same exact pattern.
Although some end up in death, I understand.
The idea for the film was sold before the script was written and writers Pat Proft and
Neil Israel based it on a true life adventure.
Actually, the original bachelor party was my brother's bachelor party.
He got the idea to do this picture and rather than, why bother with the script, he figured,
when you could already advertise it.
So he hired an artist and in the original poster, it wasn't Tom Hanks' face, it was
my brother's face, bursting through the door looking at the legs.
Hanks had completed filming Bachelor Party well before the release of his movie Splash.
With its subsequent success and the star power that is now associated with Hanks, the producers
of Bachelor Party stumbled into an advertising gold mine.
We were very lucky to get Tom Hanks when we got him because I think he's going to be a
major human being.
Would you still go to bachelor party if you'd known what a success splash would be?
On the spectrum of what, of movie comedy, they were so far on the opposite ends that
variety wise, it was really a pleasure to jump from one into the other.
Rick Gasco, who is the quote hero of Bachelor Party, knows no rules and there's no problem
saying or doing anything at all.
Bond, James Bond.
Alan Bauer in Splash was a very repressed guy.
He was a boring kind of individual.
He found himself now in this very unusual position of falling in love with a mermaid.
And what does Hanks think about the fact that his name is becoming a valuable asset in movies?
You can't concern yourself with that as an actor.
If you think about that kind of stuff, you end up demanding things like better coffee
and you won't come out of your trailer and say, unless your better coffee is on this.
You can't think about that stuff.
You have to just make sure that your head is as clear as possible and you work the way
you work as best as possible.
Otherwise you're going to choke yourself and you won't be being true to yourself or to
the piece.
So I just went to work every day and tried to remain as interested as possible as I could
in what was going on.
That's my secret.
Yes, Cleveland wins the pinch.
Now here's a quick look at the week's entertainment news from our camera crews.
Monday, ET reports on trouble in Foxboro, Massachusetts for the Jackson Tour, which
was supposed to stop there in August.
It was supposed to, but it won't.
We don't think that the concerts would attract undesirable elements, but the stadium is located
in the town and if that's how the residents feel, we're not going to press the point where
we abide by the decision of the town fathers.
And property which belonged to Yoko Ono and the late John Lennon brings $433,000 at auction
in New York.
An organ went for $5,000, a jukebox went for $20,000, and on it went.
Ono said the money would go to charity and bidders were happy.
Caution goes, good sense goes, and you just keep going until you get it.
Tuesday, ET finds Conan's out in force to greet the real McCoy at a Hollywood movie
premiere.
The first one was very successful.
The sneak previews have shown to us that the second one will be more successful.
So I think we will be doing three, four, five, or whatever, you know.
And Esther Williams is back in the swim.
She's honored in a month-long tribute to her movie career.
In order to swim the way I swam in my films, I had to be a strong national champion first.
Wednesday, ET reports on a group that wants beer and wine commercials outlawed on television.
From a public health perspective, it is preposterous to allow the continued alcohol indoctrination
of our young through the use of public airwaves.
And Little Richard, who sang about Miss Molly and Tutti Frutti in the 50s, files suit over
royalties.
The little money that I got was so long, I haven't forgotten how much it was.
Thursday, ET covers the Emmy Awards, saluting the best in daytime TV.
I'm really happy that the Academy felt I was good enough to put me up just for nomination.
I was happy that far, but I can't believe this.
And word comes that Aretha Franklin has bowed out of the starring role in the musical biography
of Mahalia Jackson.
Unfortunately, Aretha was just unable to get on an airplane.
It's quite that simple and had this phobia about travel.
Friday, ET gets reaction to the Supreme Court decision that took away the NCAA's exclusive
rights to college football telecasts.
We are divisive right now.
I don't care what anybody says.
There are people pulling against the coalition, getting together and putting their package
together.
If it falls apart, chaos.
What's the likelihood?
Chaos.
And lots of the winners wore fur coats at the annual Patsy Awards in Hollywood, where
best actor animal winners include a black leopard, a Samoyed, and their feathered friend
Merlin the Hawk.
And that's a look at the week's entertainment news in pictures.
And now the week's ETW news headlines.
Contract talks are being held this weekend in an attempt to avert a director's guild
strike that could drastically affect movie and television production.
PG-13, a new category in the movie rating system, is now official.
It urges parents to give special guidance about movie attendance to children under 13.
The world's biggest movie soundstage, Pinewood Studios in Iverheath, England, was destroyed
by fire Wednesday.
The Federal Communications Commission has relaxed broadcast regulations.
Those rules govern the amount of news and public affairs.
TV stations must broadcast as well as how many commercials can be aired.
Breakaway, the syndicated TV magazine show hosted by Martha Lambert and Norman Mark,
was canceled by Metro Media.
And that same company has also announced that the late night talk show, Thick of the Night,
would go off the air at the end of summer.
At the top of our celebrity file, this question.
What ever happened to romantic music?
For the answer, we went to Howard Keele.
You know, the male animal is just as sensitive as the woman, probably a little bit more.
And I think that what they're doing, they're frightening the male animal away a little
bit.
And they're losing that wonderful sense of romance because of that.
Next up, we asked novelist Gore Vidal for his thoughts about television's coverage
of political campaigns.
I think it is obscene, the advertising on television of candidates.
And the idea of subliminal 30 second spots just raining on you, raining on you, raining
on you, I think is a total obscenity.
And you certainly don't get to know who the candidate is because all you see is an image
that has been crafted in a TV studio.
The question to pop singer Ray Parker Jr.
What next after his big hit with the theme for the movie Ghostbusters?
I want to be in films.
Did everybody get that?
I want to be in films.
Just ahead and only on Entertainment This Week, does success make Bill Murray misbehave?
I don't want you to put me on a pedestal.
I'm just as obnoxious as anybody you've ever met.
Did Sylvester Stallone find sudden success, Rocky?
He just nearly annihilated me.
Is there music on a small screen before MTV?
And what about break dancing?
All this and much more just ahead on Entertainment This Week.
Leonard Malton has been meeting some unusual characters at the movies, not just in the
audience.
Here he is with a roundup of five reviews.
I've been spending some time at the movies with spies, bullies, good old boys, ghosts,
and safecrackers, and that's just while waiting online.
Here's a look at some of this summer's colorful crop.
Top Secret mixes spy movie cliches and rock and roll for a comic souffle that's slight
and silly.
It's the latest work of the writing and directing team that brought us Airplane, but this one
never takes off to the same heights of lunacy.
For a natural high, I recommend The Karate Kid, an old-fashioned feel-good movie about
a youthful underdog who battles some bullies and wins the girl with the help of a Japanese
mentor who teaches him about confidence and common sense, as well as karate.
Common Sense tells me that Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone are not a match made in
heaven, but Rhinestone insists on proving the point.
It's a dumbbell comedy that submerges these talented stars with material that would even
have Rocky down for the count.
Ghostbusters KO some real live ghosts for real big laughs.
It's a comic sensation with some of the most impressive special effects you'll see this
year, and endearingly flaky performances by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis
as the title trio.
And if you want more substance and shading than you'll find in all this escapism, go
see The Pope of Greenwich Village, a vivid look at some colorful losers that comes out
a winner.
It's an acting tour de force for Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, and a sensational supporting
cast.
That's our weekend movie wrap up.
I'm Leonard Malton, Entertainment This Week.
Leonard Malton called The Karate Kid a feel-good movie.
Well, how do moviegoers on both coasts feel about it?
They loved it.
According to MovieTrack's survey of ticket buyers, 33% said it was the best and 48% loved
it, and usually high percentages in both categories.
16% liked it, while only 3% were sorry they came and not one moviegoer surveyed thought
it was a bomb.
MovieTrack's previous surveys have shown that if over 65% of the audience rates the film
the best or loved it, that film will be a box office hit.
Well, the Karate Kid's best and loved it total is 81%.
So MovieTrack predicts a big box office success for the Karate Kid.
Just what is it that's so appealing about The Karate Kid?
We asked moviegoers in Los Angeles.
Oh, I thought it was fantastic, by far the best movie of the summer.
It was really a very up-good movie.
I mean, it was a good, wholesome, great, except for the language.
That was the only little problem there, but it was really a very enjoyable movie.
I liked the philosophy and the relationship between the man and the boy.
I thought it was great because the karate was really neat-o.
For a 12-year-old or under, it was okay, but the storylines had to go.
We didn't need a Rocky IV.
It was exciting, really exciting.
It was even sentimental at the end.
I cried at the end.
It was really good.
It was the best picture I've seen in a long time.
It made me feel real proud when I walked out.
I felt real happy because I felt like it was me up there winning.
That's great.
Well, another of this summer's hit movies is Ghostbusters, and one of the reasons is
Bill Murray.
Nancy Collins talked with the serious man behind the comic antics.
It's been over four years since Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd worked together on Saturday
Night Live.
Now, they're reunited in Ghostbusters, which was co-written by Aykroyd for his friend,
John Belushi.
According to Murray, he and Aykroyd have come a long way from their old NBC stomping ground.
I think we better split up.
Good idea.
Yeah, we can do more damage that way.
We had a lot of fun because, you know, it's just so silly.
We used to work in a theater with no props, a couple of hats and some chairs, you know,
and now, all of a sudden, there's these monstrous machines and giant steps, and we're thinking,
this has gone too far.
People assume that the old Saturday Night crowd stay in touch or are very close.
Is that true?
You don't see people for a long time, but when you see them, it's like blood brothers,
you know, or you went to Woodstock together, you know.
We went through something that no one else could ever imagine, you know.
When Saturday Night Live hit, you were 26 years old.
Were you ready for that kind of success?
I don't think you'd ever be ready for really big success as much as you might be qualified
to earn it or to get it.
I think success is really much more shocking, always much more difficult than you think
it's going to be, like anything else.
In Wired, the overwhelming success of John Belushi has been called into question as a
contributing factor in the late comedian's death from a drug overdose.
Murray agrees only that Belushi's fame was much greater than that of his colleagues on
the show.
I think fame and success is really difficult.
I think John was much more popular than most of the people that I know that are even popular.
I think people really embraced John and demanded a great amount from him.
Were you aware that he was getting into such heavy drug usage?
No, not really, no.
No, I mean, everybody, you know, the drug thing, you know, is a part of the culture
that happened, you know.
The fact that he died accidentally, I think should be remembered.
It was an accident, you know.
The guy did incredible things.
You could not do what John Belushi did and really, you know, be what people are trying
to paint him as.
What kept you from getting wrapped up in that drug scene?
Well, I don't want you to put me on a pedestal or anything, you know.
I'm just as obnoxious as anybody you've ever met.
You know, I'm one of the most horrible people you'll ever meet.
I mean, it could have been falling out of a window doing a joke, you know.
I mean, we used to clown around hanging out the windows of the RCA building, you know.
I used to barbecue on my ledge, you know, and I'd be out there turning over bratwurst.
I could have fallen out the window and they'd say, yes, he died at a beer and bratwurst
party, you know.
I mean, it could have been me.
Greek actress Irene Pappas has the image of a strong and independent woman.
As Catherine Mann discovered, that image isn't always what it seemed to be.
Irene Pappas is the classic Greek tragic figure in roles ranging from Electra to the Trojan
women to her most loved performance in Zorba the Greek.
Pappas is best known for her portrayals of the strong, dark and powerful Greek heroine.
Sometimes it's a mistake of literature that presents strength, strong and black.
Sometimes very tiny people and very blonde people and very fragile people are so much
courageous than the big black girls like me.
And I'm not a very courageous person.
I'm kind of a, you know, coward.
I find it very hard to believe that you're not strong and brave.
You come across that way in so many of these projects.
I know, but I think people should learn that people don't look the way they are.
So I'm talking like that because I went through a great...