Faces & Names: Married Bakula plays it single

Married Bakula plays it single

Scott Bakula, husband and father of four, gets a kick out of portraying a feckless playboy at midlife on TNT’s “Men of a Certain Age.”

“I don’t hope and dream of that other lifestyle, but it’s fun to play a character that’s living it. I have friends who live it, and I’m happy to let them have it because it’s not an easy road out there,” said Bakula, who plays Terry on the series that also stars Ray Romano and Andre Braugher.

“It’s a struggle for my friends trying to date younger women or find somebody to get married and have a baby,” Bakula said.

When TNT’s “Men of a Certain Age” returns Monday for its second season, Terry finds he’s got decisions to confront about work, life and growing up as he turns 50.

Witherspoon gets Hollywood star

Oscar-winner Reese Witherspoon has been saluted with a star on Hollywood Boulevard.

The “Walk the Line” actress unveiled her Hollywood Walk of Fame honor on Wednesday outside the W Hollywood Hotel. It’s the 2,425th star dedicated on the celebrated avenue.

The ceremony was designed to coincide with the Dec. 17 release of Witherspoon’s latest movie, “How Do You Know,” co-starring Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson, and written and directed by James L. Brooks.

In 2006, Witherspoon won the best-actress Academy Award for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in “Walk the Line.”

Her credits also include “Pleasantville,” “Cruel Intentions,” “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Legally Blonde.”

Norris an honorary Texas Ranger

Actor Chuck Norris for years played a Texas Ranger on television. Now he’s going to become one in real life.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry presented the actor and executive director of “Walker, Texas Ranger” with a designation as an honorary member of the famed law enforcement group Thursday.

Ceremonies to honor the 70-year-old martial arts star and entertainment action hero, who is known for doing good and going after bad guys and gals in the long-running TV series, were at a Texas Rangers office in suburban Dallas.

Billboard to honor ‘Glee’ star

Even though Lea Michele stars on a television show, her “Glee” role has had such an impact on music this year that Billboard is honoring her with a “triple threat” award.

Michele is due to receive the honor today at Billboard’s annual “Women in Music” luncheon in New York City honoring the Black Eyed Peas’ Fergie.

“We worked so hard over here at ‘Glee’ and we put together these mini-movies every week that is filled with dancing and singing,” Michele said. “It feels like such a nice sort of wonderful recognition.”

But even though she’s being honored by a music publication, Michele has no plans to put out a record like her co-star Matthew Morrison, who started working on an album this year.

“I really am taking my time with making an album. ... It will be somewhere in my future, but right now we are so busy over here,” said Michele during a break in her “Glee” schedule. The show airs on Fox.

Elton John edits UK newspaper

Elton John has turned newspaper editor, overseeing an edition of Britain’s The Independent to mark World AIDS Day.

Wednesday’s paper features more than a dozen pages of stories related to the fight against HIV, including contributions from some of John’s famous friends, including Elizabeth Taylor, Stephen Fry and Bill Clinton.

In an editorial, John highlights progress in the battle against the disease, noting that there has been “a 25 percent drop in new infections across the worst-affected countries since 2001.”

The newspaper’s front page is taken up by a painting of red roses by British artist Gary Hue.

The newspaper said revenue from Wednesday’s edition will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Douglas optimistic about return to work

Michael Douglas already is looking forward to his next film role.

The 66-year-old actor, who has been battling throat cancer since August, tells the weekly Hollywood Reporter that he’ll play the title part in Steven Soderbergh’s “Liberace,” which is set to begin shooting in May or June.

Douglas says he will learn in January if his cancer has been eliminated. Doctors have told him there is an 80 percent cure rate.

He says his cancer diagnosis has brought him closer to his 93-year-old father, Kirk Douglas. The two had a strained relationship for many years, but “he really made an effort” after the diagnosis, Douglas says. “He was back here almost 10 days. He came over everyday. He was great.”

Douglas says that when he was growing up, his father was angry and often absent.

“In those key years, when Kirk was doing five movies a year, if we saw him it was only out of his guilt,” Douglas says.

Depp says Disney hated his Sparrow

Johnny Depp’s flamboyant portrayal of Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean” was good enough for an Oscar nomination, but he said Disney was less than thrilled.

Depp talked about it in an interview with rocker Patti Smith for the January edition of Vanity Fair magazine. Depp said Disney “couldn’t stand” his Sparrow and one person there even asked if Sparrow was gay. Depp told the Disney executive “all my characters are gay,” and he said that “really made her nervous.”

Depp’s next role is in “The Tourist” with Angelina Jolie. It opens Dec. 10.

Depp said he felt sorry for the way the paparazzi hunted Jolie, and had to be careful that photographers didn’t catch them too close together so rumors wouldn’t start.

Franco, Hathaway will co-host the Oscars

LOS ANGELES — James Franco and Anne Hathaway have just what Academy Awards producers want as hosts of Hollywood’s biggest night. They’ll put on a show, rather than just another awards ceremony, organizers say.

Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer, producers of the Feb. 27 telecast, said Monday they had chosen Franco and Hathaway as hosts because the two are rising stars with broad talent that will help turn the night into a celebration of film.

Both have done serious drama and comedy. Hathaway earned a best-actress Oscar nomination for 2008’s “Rachel Getting Married” and starred in such comedies as “The Princess Diaries” and “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Franco had an Emmy nomination for the title role of 2001's “James Dean,” costarred in the Oscar-

winning “Milk” and delivered a memorable comic turn as a spacey pot dealer in “Pineapple Express.”

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin teamed up as Oscar hosts last time.

Debut of 'Spider-Man' on Broadway is rocky

NEW YORK — Spider-Man’s web has gotten tangled on Broadway.

Several delays and at least two actors who were left helplessly dangling from cables high in the air marred the first preview of the mega-musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.”

According to published reports, Sunday night’s performance of the reported $65 million show ran over three hours because flying tricks went wrong and the show had to stop at least five times.

Even so, The New York Times wrote that most of the show’s stunts “went off without a hitch, with children and some adults squealing in delight.” But the New York Post called the show an “epic flop as the $65 million show’s high-tech gadgetry went completely awry amid a dull score and baffling script.”

The show is the brainchild of Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor and U2’s Bono and The Edge, who wrote the music. More than eight years in the making, delays and injuries have plagued the show’s debut.

Celebrities to sign off Twitter for charity

Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga take charity work seriously, and they’re going offline to prove it.

Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher and other celebrities have joined a new campaign called Digital Life Sacrifice on behalf of Keys’ charity, Keep a Child Alive. The entertainers plan to sign off of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday, which is World AIDS Day. The participants will sign back on when the charity raises $1 million.

“It’s really important and super-cool to use mediums that we naturally are on,” Keys said in a phone interview from New York last week.

For the campaign — which also includes Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, Elijah Wood, Serena Williams, Janelle Monae and Keys’ husband, Swizz Beatz — celebrities have filmed “last tweet and testament” videos and will appear in ads showing them lying in coffins to represent what the campaign calls their digital deaths.

“It’s so important to shock you to the point of waking up,” Keys said. “It’s not that people don’t care or it’s not that people don’t want to do something, it’s that they never thought of it quite like that.”

‘Harry Potter’ leads holiday weekend

A fairy-tale princess gave young wizard Harry Potter a run for his money at the weekend box office.

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” remained the No. 1 movie with $50.3 million over Thanksgiving weekend, closely followed by the animated musical “Tangled” with $49.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“Tangled” is the latest Disney cartoon musical, with Mandy Moore providing the voice of fairy-tale princess Rapunzel. The movie raised its five-day total to $69 million since opening the day before Thanksgiving.

While “Deathly Hallows” continued to work box-office magic, Disney’s “Tangled” far exceeded industry expectations, delivering the

second-biggest Thanksgiving debut ever behind “Toy Story 2,” which had a

$57.4 million opening.

A little bit of Duluth on Broadway

A young actor with Duluth roots has landed another role on Broadway.

Matthew Gumley, son of 1978 Duluth East grad Teresa Kolar Gumley, plays the role of Michael in “Elf” at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

New York theater blog JK’s TheatreScene said “Gumley is the very best kind of child actor — he is real, not cutesy to the point of vomiting, nor a cloying stage hog. He is low-key and blissfully genuine.”

Gumley, 13, has been in the acting business for ages, remembered for his first Broadway role as Chip in “Beauty and the Beast” in 2004, when he was 7.

His grandmother, Avalon Kolar Vollmer, still lives in Duluth.

Yoko Ono, son swap memories for NPR

Sean Lennon is finding connections with his 77-year-old mother, Yoko Ono — not about the Beatles or John Lennon — but about her life in an interview broadcast on NPR as part of a national oral history

project.

In the interview aired Friday, Ono recalled meeting her father for the first time when she was not yet

3 years old. Ono said her mother was from a very rich family, and it made her father feel insecure.

Still, Ono said her mother would send her father to work as a banker in a chauffeured car. But he would get out two blocks from his office to walk so he wouldn’t be seen with a driver.

The 35-year-old Sean Lennon revealed to his mother that he used to do the same thing when she sent him to school in a limo.

Ono said it must be a DNA memory that led to the same experience.

Have an event that just happened that you’d like to share? Pictures, perhaps, or other goings-on from the Northland to Hollywoodland? Send them to facesandnames@duluthnews.com.

Tags: arts and entertainment, news, life, entertainment, arts, movies