Was Bruce born to run to the top of the charts?
How did Hong Kong rain on Pierce Brosnan's parade?
Will Les Mis Robes be Broadway's biggest hit of the year?
Does Will Wheaton have the magic touch?
Entertainment tonight for Friday the 13th.
Rock scored the Ides of March.
You don't say, whoa boys, these horses are out of control.
Hello everyone, John Tesch is on vacation.
I'm Rob Weller. And I'm Mary Hart.
And the hottest story for this Friday the 13th is football.
The National Football League has completed a deal with all three television networks to televised NFL games this fall.
The networks paid a combined total of slightly less than last year's $493 million.
And the NFL will make up the difference by allowing ESPN, the cable sports network, to cover eight Sunday night games.
This marks the first time the league has elected to assign rights to games to any service outside of the networks.
CBS and NBC will continue to cover Sunday games, and ABC will be back with Monday night football,
but will no longer carry special Thursday and Sunday night games.
Last season, the networks reportedly lost $75 million on NFL football.
What's hot with the Olympics?
Well, ABC expects to lose $70 million televising the Winter Olympic Games from Calgary next year.
ABC spent $309 million to acquire the rights to the games back in 1984.
That's when sporting events were at a premium.
Now the sports market has softened, and even though ABC will sell out their 30-second commercial slots at a quarter of a million dollars each,
they'll be left holding a $70 million bag.
And what's hot in music videos?
Entertainment Tonight has learned that George Lucas directed the video for Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris' cover version of To Know Him Is To Love Him.
Lucas worked under an assumed name while helping the trio make that video.
To know, know, know him is to love, love, love him.
George helped us. We didn't have any money to do this record, I mean this video.
You know, there's no money in videos. You don't sell them.
So you know, you can only sort of get what you can beg out of the record company.
And we'd already begged a big advance, so they weren't about to part with another Red Stand for a video.
You know, they figured they'd sell this record anyway. They didn't have to make a video.
So we had kind of a limited budget, and he helped us a little bit, you know.
And it's not, this was not a George Lucas production. You know, I don't want people to be expecting Star Wars.
But certainly three big stars.
That single incidentally just cracked into the top 20 hits on the country charts, and the trio is in the talking stages of doing an HBO concert.
Wow. Well, there is always something hot going on with the Cosby show.
Lisa Bonet, who plays Bill Cosby's daughter on the show, is currently making her film debut in the ex-turned-R rated Angel Heart.
Now comes word that Bonet will appear in three nude photos in the April edition of Interview Magazine.
Malcolm Jamal Warner, who plays Cosby's son, will star in Father Clements, an NBC TV movie with Lou Gossett Jr., as a priest who fights the church in order to adopt a son.
Shooting will begin next month in Chicago.
Last night, a new musical extravaganza by the creators of Cats opened on Broadway.
Les Miserables is Victor Hugo's classic story of a fugitive accused of stealing a loaf of bread in 19th century France.
And it might just be the ailing Great White Way's biggest success in years.
Gene Wolfe was in New York for the premiere.
While most musicals open in prey, Les Miserables has already sold tickets well into 1988.
And producers expect to recoup their investment in a matter of weeks.
The record-breaking box office and the word of mouth that created those fabulous advance sales helped give the Broadway opening of this mega musical a real sense of occasion.
It certainly is an experience in the theater and a night and an emotional event, which is wonderful.
I think this and Lily Tomlin's show last year are certainly the highlights of the last about five years in theater for me.
People are reaching out for this show. People are absolutely.
It's what they need. It's it's filling a void. It really is.
One more day, one more day. Gene Wolfe Entertainment tonight.
Cole must be right. It is filling a void because audiences were thrilled.
And though critics mentioned an imperfect musical score, they gushed as well.
Howard Kissel of the New York Daily News says it is easy for the audience to lose itself in another world.
USA Today's Jack Curry says Les Miserables is what theater is all about and one of the most spiritual shows in seasons.
And veteran theater critic Clive Barnes of the New York Post felt the production was simply smashing.
As Ted Danson found out, it's a long way from the comfort of the cheers set to the desolation of an African desert.
He was there working on a made for TV movie called We Are the Children and he found that he wasn't prepared to come face to face with starving children.
In We Are the Children, Ted Danson plays a cynical journalist whose coverage of the famine in Ethiopia in 1984 affects him deeply.
Danson's work took him to the windblown northern desert in Kenya and though he is actively involved in a number of issues, he said this experience was different.
It was the most moving two weeks I've ever spent in my life, bar none.
Part of the message of this is to open yourself up to what's happening in the world and see whether or not it is something you can do something about.
You know, it doesn't have to be the famine in Ethiopia, it doesn't have to be Africa, but it should be something that you involve yourself in,
that you become part of a network that takes care of others because it's critical and we must.
Danson says the fame he has achieved as an actor means little unless it can be used in a constructive way.
I think my wife, I love my wife, I love my wife, she, her celebrities as far as she's concerned are, you know, between, you know, like they're,
we're no different than anyone else unless you do something with your celebratiness.
You know, I mean, you act great, that's wonderful, good for you, but the celebrity part of it is kind of silly.
Unless you use, you know, kind of deflect it and use that energy to do something positive with.
And I think that's important.
We Are the Children will air this Monday night on ABC.
Coming up next, Nina Blackwood has a first look at the Boss's brand new video, Springsteen Sings Born to Run.
And we travel to exotic Hong Kong with Pierce Brosnan for an earth-shaking good time on the set of his new mini-series, Noble House.
Mrs. Kaskowski has a very sore throat.
It's hideous. It hurts to swallow, it's hot, raw.
Will fast-working chloreceptic spray bring her relief sooner than we can finish this commercial?
I doubt it.
Doctor recommended chloreceptic goes to work right where the hurt is.
Stop sore throat pain really fast.
But will Mrs. Kaskowski really start to feel relief before we can finish this commercial?
Well, Mrs. Kaskowski?
My baloney has a first name, it's O-S-D-A-R.
My baloney has a second name, it's M-A-Y-E-R.
I love to eat it every day, if you ask me why I'll say.
Cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A.
If the name's Oscar Mayer, it's quality meat and no fillers. Just the best that it can be.
How's that?
Let's start!
Terrific.
Well, there is our own bon vivant gal on the town, ourselves, Nina Blackwood with Weird
Alley Yankovic.
That's cute.
Yeah, looks like we're getting married.
Of course, we were not.
Alright, let's get into the boss and also some trouble with the Beatles in recording, huh?
That's right.
Alright, it's all yours.
Thank you, Rob.
Anyway, the most exciting news in the music world this week is the release of the brand new Bruce Springsteen video,
Born to Run. It's the latest release from the live album.
Born to Run was Springsteen's first top 40 hit. In 1975, it went to number 23 on the charts.
Springsteen has never had a number one hit single, but the boss is not worried. His albums do sell.
In fact, the multi-disc live album has gone triple platinum, selling more than three million copies.
Another former chart-topper, Ringo Starr, was back in the recording studio. The Beatle was working with Chips Moment,
the man who produced many of Elvis Presley's albums. A newspaper columnist got wind of the project and took a cheap shot at Starr.
The columnist, Rita Grimsley Johnson, said an aging Beatle is yesterday's news.
Chips Moment immediately organized a protest, claiming the article was so upsetting that the project may not be finished in Memphis.
We don't need this paper to hurt people's feelings who come to this town to do work.
A source close to Ringo tells us that the musician did not read the article before he left Memphis,
but also speculates that Starr will not return to the city because of the negative publicity.
The source also said that Starr has refused to give the paper an interview, and that may have sparked the derogatory column.
Ringo currently is on vacation and unavailable for comment.
Last night in New York City, the queen of shock rock took her vision of the American dream one step further.
Wendy O. Williams has blown up buses, crashed into a pile of TV sets, and now has taken a chainsaw to a stage full of living room furniture.
A little party here tonight.
Party with a statement on society. Somebody had to make it.
Now you probably want to think twice before inviting Wendy O. to your next open house. What do you think, guys?
I'd say be ready for anything if Wendy O. comes over.
I don't think I want to think about it.
Not for you, home area.
Hey, at the end of the show, we're going to show more of that Bruce Springsteen new video, Born to Run, right?
That's right.
But right now we're going to shift gears just a little bit. Thanks, Nina.
James Clivell's epic novel, Noble House, is coming to the small screen next season.