Can 007 help the Untouchables get Al Capone?
Where were you 20 years ago today when Sergeant Pepper debuted?
Will David Bowie take Europe by storm?
How many colleges haven't given Bill Cosby an honorary degree?
Entertainment Tonight tunes up for Monday, the first day of June, 1987.
See you there.
Hello again everybody, I'm Mary Hart.
And I'm John Tesh, and the hottest story for this Monday is the signing of the biggest, most lucrative contract in the history of show business.
Entertainers Siegfried and Roy have made an agreement that will pay them $57.5 million over the next five years.
Superstar illusionists Siegfried and Roy, who have amazed and delighted audiences around the world,
signed the long-term contract to become the featured attraction of a new $500 million golden nugget resort and casino to be built on the Las Vegas Strip.
Both German-born, they met more than 20 years ago aboard a cruise ship,
and they quickly developed their unique act using exotic animals in feats of magic and illusion.
The magicians conducted a special performance at the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children in Los Angeles today,
and will leave for a tour of their native Germany tomorrow.
Jay Leno and Gary Shanling were named exclusive guest hosts for the Tonight Show at the NBC Affiliate's annual meeting today.
NBC Entertainment President Brandon Tartikoff said that this was the first time that Johnny Carson would have a permanent guest host since, quote,
What's her name? Her name, of course, is Joan Rivers.
Bill Cosby, known for turning down awards, was present at a graduation ceremony yesterday to accept one of special significance.
Cosby received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
The comedian, who also gave the commencement address, had some friendly advice for the 1987 graduating class.
Get out! And those of you who are cheering, I mean get out and don't call and ask for money or anything.
We love you, we do, but we're tired, you've worn us out.
Cosby also shared the spotlight with daughter Erica, who received her Bachelor of Arts degree.
Cosby has received several honorary doctoral degrees and earned one in education from the University of Massachusetts on his own.
Rock chameleon David Bowie has cranked up his Worldwide Glass Spider Tour in the Netherlands,
and fans couldn't wait to see what the veteran stage performer would come up with this time.
Tickets were snatched up in less than 24 hours for the opening of the Glass Spider Tour in Rotterdam,
and for their money, Rock's premier showman gave his 50,000 fans quite a performance.
This particular tour, for instance, I've really tried to put together all the elements and everything that I've been fascinated in theater and rock
ever since the beginning of my career really. It looks like the kind of show that I'd really want to go and see myself.
Bowie will visit over 100 cities in the next six months, traveling almost one and a half million miles in the process.
He'll hit our shores in late July. See you there.
Bowie will take his show to Belgium tomorrow, performing in a small town just outside of Brussels,
and he'll headline the Berlin City Festival this weekend.
Like the song says, it was 20 years ago today.
The Beatles' landmark album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was released on June 1, 1967.
It's still guaranteed to raise a smile, but one prophecy didn't come true. The Beatles never have gone out of style.
Sgt. Pepper, Billy Shears, and Lovely Rita couldn't attend, but Paul and Linda McCartney did, as did George Martin, the Beatles' producer.
It was a special birthday bash for Sgt. Pepper, complete with a cake.
This is the Abbey Road Studios, where the magic took place 20 years ago.
The Beatles were heading in a new direction, and the world patiently awaited the results.
The outcome was Sgt. Pepper, which is still regarded by most rock historians to be the great all-time classic rock album.
For us, what we were doing was approaching the whole problem of an album from a different angle, instead of 10 songs, 14 songs.
We wanted it to be something more, we wanted to see how much we could stretch it.
Something like a radio show, we were looking for that kind of idea, because we figured, you know, you pay your money,
you either got 14 songs or you got some links and you got some sort of extra ideas in it.
So that was really what we were going for on that.
Were they ever difficult to work with? Did you have to be a bit of a disciplinarian and say, no, come on down to work?
Well, I mean, my joke is that success hasn't changed them at all. They're still the same arrogant, self-opinionated devils they always were.
Now, I mean, really, that's true, because even before they were famous, they were pretty arrogant.
It may have been 20 years, but McCartney says not enough has changed.
I mean, then we wanted an end to apartheid in South Africa, we wanted to encourage peace on Earth,
we wanted some love and understanding between people everywhere.
So now what have we learned? If anything, that change comes slowly.
Let's keep our faith and keep pushing and pray that we have better news to report 20 years from today. Thank you.
In London and Diamond Entertainment tonight.
Sergeant Pepper has sold 2.5 million copies in its first three months and has sold an estimated 15 million copies to date.
That figure will jump. Today the album is being released on Compact Disc.
President Reagan shared the podium with Elizabeth Taylor at a benefit for AIDS research in Washington, D.C. yesterday.
Tickets for the fundraiser ranged from $25 for a seat to $25,000 for a table, but there were no problems in selling out.
Entertainment was provided by Roberta Flack.
You may say I'm a dream.
The host for the event was Elizabeth Taylor, chairperson for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
However, as civilized human beings, we cannot allow moral judgments to interfere with our willingness to speak out frankly about AIDS prevention.
Taylor welcomed old friend President Reagan to the stage. He also expressed concern about the disease.
America faces a disease that is fatal and spreading, and this calls for urgency, not panic.
It calls for compassion, not blame, and it calls for understanding, not ignorance.
There are going to have to be change in moral standards, in moral structure of today's world,
with especially teenagers and young people.
Promiscuous sex can no longer just be taken lightly. There's a heavy price.
Yesterday's fundraiser brought in $1.5 million for AIDS research.
Coming up next, ex-007 Sean Connery is packing a gun again, but his new role as a streetwise Irish company untouchables his a far cry from the suave James Bond.
And ahead, jurors on the gruesome Twilight Zone trial delivered a not guilty verdict on Friday.
Will it give Hollywood directors a sign that action is more important than safety?
The heat is still on at the box office for Beverly Hills Cop 2.
The Eddie Murphy movie was the top film in the country last weekend for the second week in a row with $17.2 million in ticket sales.
The total ticket sales for the four other top five movies in theaters this week amounted to only a little more than half of Cop's take.
Ernest Goes to Camp was number two in theaters, The Secret of My Success was in third, in fourth place Ishtar, and The Gate was in fifth place.
Now anytime you gather a couple of leading men, a hot newcomer, an action-packed true story, and a noted director on one film, you are bound to create some excitement in the movie community.
That's why people in Hollywood have been talking about The Untouchables, a new film shot on location in Al Capone, Chicago.
Somebody messes with me, I'm going to mess with him.
And messing there is in this Brian DePalma action thriller.
It's the classic Chicago gangster story pitting Kevin Costner as Elliot Ness against infamous mobster Al Capone played by Robert De Niro.
But in this feature film version of The Untouchables, there's a new twist.
Ness, I am just a poor beat cop.
Now, how can I help you?
Sean Connery plays Jimmy Malone, a crusty Irish cop who teaches Ness the realities of dealing with the mob.
I thought it was a very clever concept to take the old cop and use him as this kind of old dog that teaches a new dog the tricks.
I want to get Capone, I don't know how to get him.
You want to get Capone? Here's how you get him.
He pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue.
That's the Chicago way.
The Chicago way also meant shooting in the city from a script that was written by a Chicagoan, David Mamet.
As for the ultimate victor in this movie...
You got an all-out price fight, you wait till the fight's over, one guy's left standing, and that's how you know who won.
The Untouchables opens in theaters around the country on Wednesday.
Of course, that story of Al Capone and Elliot Ness is classic, but so is the work of the late comedian and film star Buster Keaton.
Leonard Malton is here with us for a look at some rarely seen footage of the comic genius. Leonard?
Thanks, Mary. Buster Keaton is one of the giants of movie history.
To see one of his silent film comedies is to see genius at work, and that's no exaggeration.
But his career and personal life took a nosedive in the early days of talkies, and his later work has always been dismissed because most of it isn't very good.
But Columbia Pictures has compiled a program of his later comedy shorts as playing in revival theaters around the country, and it shows that Buster still had greatness in him.
He even had a gift for music, though the lady he's about to serenade isn't home.
In a little Spanish town was on a night like this.
Stars were peek-a-booing down was on a night like this.
A long battle with alcoholism may have taken its toll on Keaton, but it didn't slow up his timing or his comic agility.
Many skies have turned to grey because we're far apart.
Many moons have passed away as till she's in my heart.
Buster always took great falls, and even when the material surrounding them was second-rate, he kept things interesting just with his incredible body moves.
In a little Spanish town was on a night like this.
Television gave Buster a new lease of life in the 50s and 60s. He even co-starred with Ernie Kovacs in a pilot film that's never been seen before called Medicine Man.
No genius on display here, but some typical Keaton crackfalls, and a reminder at least of a great comic talent who could always be counted on for a good finish.
In a little Spanish town was on a night like this.
That's funny stuff. Nowhere near the greatness of his silent comedies, but when you're a Buster Keaton fan you find worthwhile moments in almost everything he does.
That's why I'm glad Columbia is distributing this program to theaters, and it might not be a bad idea to release it on home video, too.
Looks like he needed a stunt man, huh? Oh no, he was his own stunt man. He did the most incredible things for years, well into his 70s.
That's great. Thanks a lot, Leonard. Mary and I will have more for you in just a moment.
Tomorrow, what impact does motherhood have on the way an actress plays a role? Valerie Harper explains how her new daughter has helped her tackle the role of the mother of a schizophrenic.
This Wednesday we'll go on location in New York with teen heartthrob Rob Lowe for his new romantic thriller, Masquerade.
Last Friday, the Twilight Zone trial jury found director John Landis and four associates innocent of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two children.
Now, the tragic accident occurred during the filming of a late night special effects scene. One result of the case has been a dramatically improved safety record on movie sets.
Following the 10-month trial and five years after the Twilight Zone accident, Landis' reaction to the not guilty verdict was, as could be expected, one of relief.
Almost five years ago, an accident happened on the set of one of my films that killed three people and that nothing, none of this changes that. It's a terrible moment in my life, in our lives, in many people's lives.
This morning on Good Morning America, Landis applauded the jury for perceiving what he called the truth.
The truth was it was a terrible accident. It was a thoroughly dishonest and political prosecution and after 10 months, with all the evidence and everything being shown to them, they saw that that's exactly what it was. They understood that.
Since the tragedy in 1982, the Hollywood film industry has issued bulletins with guidelines for safety on the set.
In 1982, we had 214 actors injured in the course of production and that has declined every year to a point in 1986 when we had 65 injuries.
So that is our evidence that there really is a much safer practice going on in production.
Ironically, even with full attention to safety, the dangers continue. On Saturday, one day after the not guilty verdict in the Twilight Zone trial, a helicopter working on the new Chuck Norris film Missing in Action 3 crashed off the coast of the Philippines, killing four people and injuring five more.
And back to the Twilight Zone trial, civil suits totaling $200 million have been filed by the families of the two deceased children. They are still pending.
Operation Primetime is filming the syndicated miniseries Hoover vs. the Kennedys in Toronto. In one scene, they recreate a moment when Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday to President John F. Kennedy at a Democratic fundraiser.
They based their scene on this black and white footage of the original event.
It was May 19, 1962, just 10 days before John F. Kennedy's 45th birthday and less than three months before her tragic death. Marilyn Monroe serenaded the president at a Madison Square Garden fundraiser as only Marilyn could.
Last Friday would have been Kennedy 70th birthday and on that day, Heather Thomas reprised Monroe's famous birthday greeting for the docu drama.
Happy birthday to you.
I first saw this videotape of Marilyn singing.
I just burst into tears when I came back here because I not to associate myself with the grandiose but I will relate to her and what she was going through right now, especially since I've gotten so recently.
This is the Kennedy's will air in November.
Celebrating a birthday today.
Actress Lisa Hartman is 31.
Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood is 40.
Actor Renee Aubert-Genois is 47.
Actor Clevon Little 48.
Singer Pat Boone 53 and actor Andy Griffith is 61.
In today's People Post scripts, Lucy de Barbin and her daughter Desiree Presley begin a national tour today to promote de Barbin's book Are You Lonesome Tonight?
Their first stop was Boston.
In her book, de Barbin claims she had a long running secret relationship with Elvis Presley and that Desiree is Presley's daughter.
De Barbin's book makes some very detailed claims but as Geraldo Rivera has reported on our show, it's short on verifiable evidence.
De Barbin made her first public response to her critics this morning when she appeared on Boston TV station WCVB.
I do have documents.
We do have blood tests.
That's the first thing I thought.
They do exist.
Yes, they do exist.
Very much so.
How did you sneak away with this man?
Believe me, it was difficult.
And Tom, it was more difficult for me than it was for Elvis because Elvis disguised himself a lot of times, by the way, as I detailed in Are You Lonesome Tonight?
But also, I was worried about some things but Elvis was the boss.
And yes, they were not as close to Elvis as they pretend they were, I mean, his associates.
Tomorrow, de Barbin and her daughter will appear on Good Morning America.
She says that's when she'll produce evidence that proves she did have a relationship with Presley.
This weekend, the city of Dallas chose to honor its favorite son.
Dallas star Larry Hagman was named Communicator of the Year.
387,000 million trillion people a week watch Dallas.
So much for taste.
Larry Hagman's estimate may be a bit high, but the fact is that close to 360 million people worldwide watch Dallas each week.
And for that, the Dallas Communications Council honored Hagman as its 1987 Communicator of the Year.
I don't like awards, as per se, where you have to compete with other actors like the Emmys and so forth.
I don't participate in those.
But when you get an award and you feel like you've been somewhat deserving, that's important to me and I feel I am deserving.
Last year's Coco Award winner was Texas-born writer, director Horton Foote.
In some ways, Los Angeles is a star-crazed town.
It's one of the few places where you can see celebrity photos on the walls of swank restaurants and hot dog stands.
If there's a celebrity tie-in, someone is bound to take advantage of it.
In today's Hollywood memory, Alan Thicke remembers when he moved to Hollywood from Ontario, Canada.
He discovered that the high price of fame extended even to him.
Hooray, Hollywood! Hooray, Hollywood! Hooray, Hollywood!
My very first memory of California was driving here with my U-Haul on the back
and eight miles over the border from Arizona being arrested for being in the wrong lane with a U-Haul.
Welcome to California.
And from there on, it went downhill for several months while I stayed at the farmer's daughter motel and then looked for a place to live.
And of course, every place that you seek to live has a star associated with it.
You know, this was the condo that Liz Taylor and Nikki Hilton lived in.
That's why it costs $11,000 a day.
And this is the hotel where somebody else was shot.
And there was an affair in the back room of this apartment building.
And that's how they gauge your rental rates.
So I couldn't afford to live anywhere but in the back of the U-Haul for the first few weeks.
Great digs. You may have noticed this weekend that Mary Hart was involved in the Children's Miracle Network Telethon. How did it go?
John, it was great. We finished up with nearly $39 million. Thanks to you for watching and sending in your pledges.
That's great.
Be sure to send in the money, by the way.
That's great. Congratulations to you.
And you're well. I'm glad you're back.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks.
Anyway, that wraps up our show for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow.
Lucy DeBarbin says she'll offer definitive proof of her relationship with Elvis.
You heard her say it. We'll find out what evidence she does have to offer.
Today we leave you with The Beatles and their first public performance of their number one hit song, All You Need Is Love.
They played to an estimated 400 million people via a live satellite broadcast back in 1967.
The clip is part of the MGM at UA Home video, The Complete Beatles.
Enjoy it and we'll see you tomorrow.
Bye-bye.
Hi, I'm John Corcoran, your lifestyle specialist here at Channel 7.
You want entertainment tonight? You've got it.
Check out my reports on the Boston entertainment scene weeknights at 11 on the New England News Nightbeat.