December 14, 1999

PUBLICIST: NICHOLSON, BOYLE STILL JOINED AT HIP

By ROGER ANDERSON Scripps Howard News Service

CELEBRITY ROMANCE (1): Rumors have been flying fast and furious to the effect that superannuated movie star Jack Nicholson and his much younger arm ornament, Lara Flynn Boyle of “The Practice," are no longer keeping company.

Fortunately, Lara's publicist - obviously not suffering from the mistaken idea that her client's romantic activities are not the public's business - corrects someone from the New York Daily News in terms that are far from uncertain: "They're madly in love," she says.

CELEBRITY ROMANCE (2): However, when we stray over into the realm of professional athletics, it's a different story. For example, when word is bruited about that a New York Rangers hockey player named Alexandre Daigle is pitching woo with music goddess Alanis Morrisette and a New York Post reporter goes in search of the truth, the answer gleaned from a Rangers spokesman is: "If he is, it's his business."

CELEBRITY ROMANCE (3): Then there's the matter of Marc Anthony, the salsa star who piloted Paul Simon's "Capeman" Broadway effort into a mountainside. Marc, it appears, has decided to try the patience and devotion of his female fans, who are, of course, legion, by getting himself engaged to be married to a former Miss Universe named Dayanara Torres.

"It's going to take a while," Marc says when pressed for a firm matrimonial date, "but I'm engaged and definitely committed. But as far as planning the wedding, we haven't set a date. I think all my fans should be happy for me, because I am."

IN OTHER NEWS: Barbara Walters, Rosie O'Donnell, Michael Feinstein, Alan Cumming, Mary Tyler Moore, Nathan Lane, Wendy Wasserstein and Sarah Jessica Parker all make more money than you do. They also all attended the first night of Liza Mlnnelli's hotly anticipated return to the Broadway musical stage in a one-woman show titled "Minnelli on Minnelli."

Alan Cumming, the only person on the foregoing list whom we couldn't pick out of a police lineup, tells a reporter, "I think Liza should be made into a national monument. People should pay to look at her." But people do pay to look at her if she's singing while they look at her.

A LIKELY STORY: What, you're wondering, are Sharon Stone and her husband, newspaper editor Philip Bronstein, going to do on New Year's Eve?

"We'll put together bits from our favorite films," Sharon tells a journalist, "and watch them back-to-back."

But what did they do last time around?

"Last year," Sharon recalls, "we watched Kurosawa's 'Ran,' an amazing experience." Now we remember - TNT canceled its Three Stooges festival at the last minute.

SEMI-GRACEFUL AGING: Hey, pick up a copy of USA Weekend this weekend. Why? Because you'll get to read what Suzanne Sommers says about plastic surgery.

"I'm strangely proud of the wrinkles I have," Suzanne observes. "What I'm giving up in elasticity, I'm gaining in wisdom."

A very admirable philosophy. But matters become somewhat murkier with a later quote.

"When I can no longer hold it together," Suzanne hedges, "I would do that (have surgery performed). When you lose your looks, I don't know what you feel like."

A CAUTIONARY TALE: If you think Martha Stewart's existence is just one long chain of unbroken perfection, you're not necessarily 100 percent correct. For instance, here's Martha talking to USA Today about the importance of keeping records of the domestic projects one undertakes.

"I want to help people remember that they should preserve the wonderful things that families create," says the super-wealthy doyenne. "I've lost a couple of recipes that I'm really, really sorry about. My grandmother made a very fabulous stuffed fish - she would fill a whole big fish with a mousse of fish - that we lost the recipe for. Nobody ever did write it down." Then how do we know you're not just making it up?

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

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