February 15, 2000

Memo to 'Hannibal' producers: Get Najimy while the getting's good

By ROGER ANDERSON Scripps Howard News Service

CASTING NOTES FROM ALL OVER: Everyone knows that Jodie Foster has declined to re-create her "Silence of the Lambs" role as FBI agent Clarice Starling for the sequel, "Hannibal." What everyone doesn't know is who she will be replaced by, and the signs out there are very confusing, not to say contradictory.

For instance, on Feb. 9 Liz Smith claimed that Angelina Jolie, who has emerged hotter than ever from 'Girl, Interrupted,' may be the one to step into Clarice's pumps. On the other hand, the Feb. 14 issue of USA Today is pretty categorical in saying, "The ubiquitous Julianne Moore is in final negotiations" to do Clarice.

If either or both of those fine actresses were to fall through, there's always Kathy Najimy.

HOW DO YOU SPELL HER NAME? That's K-a-t-h-y N-a-j-i-m-y, who, as you know, has been filling a supporting role on the TV sitcom "Veronica's Closet" for the last few seasons. As fate would have it, she's leaving the show after this year.

"There's no scandal here," she says. Of course there isn't, there's only scandal when someone leaves a good show.

MORE CASTING NOTES: Fans of Mark Wahlberg should be very, very happy indeed to learn that their boy is replacing Brad Pitt as the lead in a movie titled "Metal God," about heavy-metal rockers. For the role, Mark is walking around these days with hair that comes down to here. Is it real hair, though?

"He's had some hair extensions," a "source" tells the New York Daily News. "They're painful. He's had trouble sleeping. And it gets into his mouth. But he wants to live the role." Hair extensions are painful?

LET 'EM EAT THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS' WORTH OF CAKE: And here's the Daily News with an item that has Adam Sandler treating a group of 65 friends, "including Edward Norton, Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, Dana Carvey, Ozzy Osbourne, Harvey Keitel and Henry Winkler," to dinner at a Beverly Hills bistro to the total tune of $5,300. (Ozzy Osbourne?)

CAMPAIGN SHOCKER: Then there's a story making the rounds that presidential candidate Al Gore, much to the chagrin of other paying customers at the Sheraton New York Hotel, rather high­handedly caused a treadmill to be moved to a private room for his personal use during a recent stay there.

Fortunately, a reporter manages to track down one of Al's reps, who explains that the move was undertaken as a security measure.

"Sometimes he has a treadmill sent up to his room," this person goes on to elaborate, "sometimes he uses a gym, and other times he runs outside. It all depends on his schedule." Fascinating.

INCIPIENT CELEBRITY PARENTHOOD: Music and fashion fans will be transfixed upon learning that David Bowie and his wife, the beautiful Iman, have announced that they expect Iman to produce a child in less than nine months.

"It's been a long and patient wait for our baby," David says in a statement, "but both Iman and I wanted the circumstances to be absolutely right and didn't want to find ourselves working flat-out during the first couple of years of the baby's life." It's a good thing he told us.

UNDER THE SIGN OF LEO: Speaking of People magazine, here's Virginie Ledoyen - she co-stars with Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Beach" telling one of its doughty reporters that Leo, despite his extraordinary fame, is actually a regular sort of person.

"He's just a nice guy," she observes. "Like any guy of 25. Sweet. Playful. He makes jokes. He's very simple. He doesn't act like a superstar. He's really normal, I swear." So those stories about the webbed feet aren't true, we guess.

Roger Anderson is arts and entertainment editor at Scripps Howard News Service.

back to top