LL (Love Letters) Update

The Feb 12, 2005 performance of LL (Love Letters) in Joliet, Illinois has been postponed. The new date is Saturday, May 7, 2005.

Wagner, Schilling, Romano latest poker stars

For the fifth time, celebrities are ready to go all in for charity, as Bravo prepares to launch its fifth season of the popular "Celebrity Poker Showdown."

The new season of "CPS" will premiere Jan. 5 with a showdown featuring two "Everybody Loves Raymond" stars (Brad Garrett and Ray Romano), Catherine O'Hara, Sara Rue and World Series star Curt Schilling. No word on whether or not Schillings recently repaired ankle will have to be resutured for the night's round of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em.

After moving to Sunday in its last season, "CPS" will air on Tuesdays with its familiar format. Each of five episodes features a showdown between an eclectic group of stars, with the winner from each table moving onto a final game and the chance to donate the lion's share of the $250,000 prize pool to the charity of their choice.

This season's mixture of new and veteran players features Jason Alexander, Nicolas Gonzales, Allison Janney, Chris Kattan and Mary McCormack (all in Week Two), Lacey Chabert, Bonnie Hunt, J.K. Simmons, Robert Wagner and Scott Wolf (in Week Three), Brandi Chastain, Camryn Manheim, Colin Quinn, Tom Verica and Kevin Weisman (in Week Four) and Heather Graham, Jesse Metcalfe, Andrea Parker, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Fred Willard.

Dave Foley will be back as host, joined by expert poker commentator Phil Gordon.

Previous winners have included Nicole Sullivan ("King of Queens"), Maura Tierney ("ER"), Seth Myers ("Saturday Night Live") and Mekhi Phifer ("ER").

This season's featured sponsor will be Cadillac, taking over for NetZero.

More Pix from "Angel in the Family"

The spirit of a deceased wife and mother revisits life to make amends - and mend the spirit of the broken family she left behind, in Angel in the Family, a Hallmark Channel Original holiday movie premiering Saturday, December 18 (9/8c). L to r: Meredith Baxter, Tracey Needham, Ronny Cox and Natasha Gregson Wagner star.



In this 2004 photo from Hallmark Entertainment, Natasha Gregson Wagner is seen starring in the Christmas-themed movie 'Angel in the Family,' airing Saturday, Dec. 18, 2004, on the Hallmark Channel. She co-stars with Meredith Baxter, Tracey Needham and Ronny Cox, background. She's the adopted daughter of actor Robert Wagner and the daughter of the late actress Natalie Wood.

For more pix from "Angel in the Family," go to:

http://www.hallmarkent.com/property.php?propertyId=AngelFamily&page=photos

Natasha Wagner to celebrate sunny, warm Christmas in LA

LOS ANGELES - Actress Natasha Gregson Wagner is planning to spend a warm and sunny Southern California Christmas with her family.

The holiday is one Wagner's favorites, so she jumped at the chance to star in the Christmas-themed movie "Angel in the Family," airing Saturday on the Hallmark Channel. She co-stars with Meredith Baxter and Ronny Cox.

Wagner, 34, and her husband, screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis ("High Fidelity" and "Grosse Pointe Blank"), will join her father Robert Wagner, his wife Jill St. John, and her sisters Katie and Courtney for Christmas.

"My nanny Willie Mae-South, who still lives at my dad's house, prepares her famous orange stuffed yams and my dad still writes a letter from Santa Claus asking if I've been naughty or nice," she said.

Wagner was 11 when her mother, actress Natalie Wood, drowned off California's Catalina Island a few days after Thanksgiving 1981.

"It left a huge hole in my heart," she said. "But with a lot of therapy and the support of my two dads and my sisters and my brother, I discovered how resilient the human heart can be."

Wagner's father is Richard Gregson, who was Wood's second husband. She was later adopted by Wagner, who married Wood twice.

"Angel in the Family"







Sarah Bishop, a struggling artist, and her estranged sister Beth, a successful advertising executive, are reunited days before Christmas when their father suffers a mild stroke. He wants only one thing for the holidays: to return with his daughters to the idyllic community and family home they abandoned after his wife's death. There, sweet memories stir Sarah's impossible dream: That her mother might be with them. Could such a miracle happen? Hallmark Channel airs "Angel in the Family" at 9 p.m. Saturday, starring Ronny Cox and Meredith Baxter as the parents, with Tracey Needham as Sarah and Natasha Gregson Wagner as Beth.

Jane Froman Stamp

Dear Friends,

I have just read and signed the following:

"PETITION TO SUPPORT THE ISSUANCE OF A STAMP IN HONOR OF JANE FROMAN"

We are trying to reach 5000 signatures, and we need your assistance!

Please help to get a stamp issued honoring the gracious and courageous Jane Froman by signing this petition. It only takes 30 seconds. Please follow this link:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/796528020

Once you have signed, help even more, by telling your friends and family to sign as well!

Thank you!
Meredy

With a Song in My Heart on DVD

20th Century Fox says that since there are songs by many composers, they would have to pay royalties to all of them, which makes it too costly to release "With a Song in My Heart" on DVD.

If you'd like to join in a letter writing campaign in an attempt to get the film released on DVD, please send a polite note to:

Mr. Peter Staddon
Senior Vice President, Marketing
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Inc.
PO Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900

Relative Values: Robert and Courtney Wagner

The career of the actor Robert Wagner, 74, has spanned five decades. He has appeared in over 100 films and television shows, including The Towering Inferno, A Kiss before Dying, the Pink Panther movies, and the hit TV series Hart to Hart. More recently, he played Number Two to Dr Evil in the Austin Powers films. He lives in Brentwood, Los Angeles, with his third wife, the actress Jill St John. His wife Natalie Wood was found drowned after disappearing from their yacht in 1981. Courtney, 30, his only child by Wood, lives with him in LA. She designs jewellery for Wagner & Ko, the company she formed with the handbag designer Anita Ko. Courtney has two half-sisters.

COURTNEY: Growing up with Mum and Dad felt like being in a fantasy world. I was always entertained — quite mesmerised — by them. Maybe it was because they had this real connection and great love, and it was always so much fun. I'm not sure that I really understood the magnitude of who they were. Even now I'm not sure, so I sometimes compare them to, say, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, or Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder.

I remember there were so many people around, it was kind of crazy. Paparazzi were all over the place, and I didn't like that at all. I just knew it was wrong. It felt invading, and I wanted to ask them to leave us alone.

We did get some alone time, though. And we always did things together, like camping in Aspen and travelling a lot.
It was kind of a big posse, including my nanny and Dad's secretary and my other two sisters, Katie and Natasha.
My dad loves life and meeting people and doing activities. He's engaged in it all. He'll take me for a drive in his car up the coast just to watch the clock tick over 500,000 miles, or he'll come and get me if he sees a spider weaving a web in the yard. Or we'll see someone on the street that's really unfortunate, and he'll say: "Imagine what that person's perspective is." He instilled in me the need to have care and compassion for others. Not that we weren't spoilt. I always got great toys, and I got a car when I was 16, but he wanted me to make sure I had a manual gear so I'd pay attention to the road.

I don't remember very much about my mother. I do remember her laugh and the way she smelt, and I remember her hands — things like that that made me feel close to her. Today it's strange to see her in, say, Splendor in the Grass, as I didn't know her then. But to see her in my favourite movie of hers, The Cracker Factory, which was made after I was born, that's what I remember her to look like.

When she passed away I was seven.

I remember feeling I was watching all this stuff happen. My father and I and my sisters started travelling a lot. We went to Switzerland and spent a lot of time there, which I think was important. I think that everything Dad did then — like not being around this crazed atmosphere in LA with the paparazzi — was a good idea. It brought us all closer together. And I always had compassion and respect for him for keeping the family together — it could easily have fallen apart.

Dad got together with Jill soon after my mother passed away, though they didn't get married until I was 16. And I appreciated that stability. I think it would have been a real mess if a bunch of different women had been coming in and out of the picture, and that was never the case. I'd say that in the past three years I've developed a relationship with Jill that's been worth the wait. She's one of the smartest people I know. She knows anything about anything, and she's very funny. When I was younger I had a nanny, though — Willie Mae. She raised me, and is really more like my mother. I was glued to this lady like you've no idea, and that's maybe why things didn't seem as horrific for me as they did for other members of my family.

Willie Mae still lives with my dad, and I moved back myself recently, as I'd just sold my house. My sister Katie and I kind of rotate staying in his guest house, and it's nice being back close to Willie Mae and my father. Of course, I have moments where I think: "Oh God, am I stepping backwards here?"

But I feel it's important to stay in the moment. I don't think there are many people that have the relationship with their father that I and my sisters have with mine. He's a father, he's a friend, and he's been such a strong male role model that it's a concern, because I don't think I'll ever find anyone like him. And if I were to search for it, I'd find myself a very lonely lady. I tease him and tell him to freeze his sperm. I'm just joking — but not really. My sister thinks I'm sick for saying that. But I think if I was to find somebody who cared like he does about the Earth and humanity and feelings and family, then that would be good.

A lot of people ask me if there's any pressure living up to the Wagner name, but I don't think so. The only pressure
I would ever feel is, I would always want my family to be proud of me. I just want my dad to feel he raised a solid person to be compassionate and care about the things that he cared about.

ROBERT: Marriage and family were always very important to me. It was the real core, the most important thing in my life. If you've got the right relationship, one that's very strong, interference from things like your career won't affect it. The relationship takes priority.

It was most important for Natalie and me to have a child, and so exciting. Courtney's arrival was a very special moment in our lives. Our priorities were to try to spend as much time as we could with her. It was the most intense time of my life. When you have the privilege of having a child and watching her grow into a woman, it's a big-time odyssey — about the biggest trip you can have. And a journey where you have absolutely no control. I'm sure there were times when I was distracted by my career. Luckily, I managed to take my children with me on location, and I think that was an interesting education for Courtney — better in many ways than school, because I was able to take her to different countries.

Courtney was always very definite about what she wanted, and she was always looking for something different. She had a tremendous gift for art from an early age. Everybody thinks their child is so special, and they are — but she had a gift from around four years old. But I didn't try to push a brush in her hand — she found all the things she's been interested in for herself. I'd support her whatever she wanted to do.

I think it's a wonderful thing what she's doing with the jewellery — I have a few pieces. I wear a ring she gave me around my neck on a chain. She started that business all on her own, and I'm just glad to have a jeweller in the family.

I think I was as good a father as I could be. I was there for her, and am there for her, though there's often times where you think you could have done better here or there. What I tried to impress upon her was to love well. If you love well, everything falls into place in your life. In everything, if you have a feeling of love, things are good.

Courtney's mother loved her dearly. She was at a very young age when her mother left her, just seven. The loss of Natalie created a tremendous void for all of us. We all had to help each other, be together and try to get through the loss. We had a lot of wonderful people who helped, and we all hung onto each other. It brought us very, very close. And, thankfully, Courtney got on with Jill really well. She'd been around quite often and loved the girl — a lot of people love Courtney. She's a very special kid.

I think Courtney would be a wonderful mother. If she was happily involved in a relationship that was meaningful to her, I'd like to see her married. Though I think I might be scary to some of the boyfriends. Boyfriends are always a little on guard with the father, and there's been some I've disapproved of.

But I do absolutely nothing. There's nothing I can do. I don't think what I say would do any good, because it's not
my life — why should I get involved in her relationships? If she sees something in a guy, I might think he's an absolute asshole, but I can't say that. It's not my right to say that, unless I'm asked.

I've found that when your kids come to making choices, there's nothing you can do. I'm along for the ride — and I've been on the ride since she was a young woman. I'm just hanging on here.

LL

Real-life sweeties Robert Wagner and Jill St. John come to Colorado Springs at 7 p.m. Thursday to perform "Love Letters" at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center (719-634-5583).

Coffee-table books - naughty and nice this year

Coffee-table books are judged unfairly, by some, as mere collections of pretty pictures.

But many of the best new glossy books aren't just visually nice. Some are a little bit naughty as well.

In these, the photographs, artworks or texts reveal their subjects' complexity - showing, as the introduction to one notes, "There is always a darker side, if a story is complete."

With its dandy title, "The Bad and the Beautiful" (Abrams, 177 pages, $45) illustrates just that. Ellen Graham's black-and-white celebrity photos are not mere glamour shots. Robert Wagner frowns a bit at the camera while holding a beer and lying in a hammock. On the facing page, Natalie Wood nurses their baby, Courtney Wagner, in a shot taken the same year, 1974. Rock Hudson smiles happily in 1966, and on the next page his frequent co-star Doris Day, with the barest grin, poses in a T-shirt that says "BE KIND TO ANIMALS OR I'LL KILL YOU." The "Bad" in the title is rarely explicit: There are no extensive captions supplying details of Sharon Tate's death or Robert Blake's arrest.

Reminder: Hope and Faith and Pix

Robert Wagner appears on "Hope and Faith" tonight.

There are new pix of Robert Wagner at Getty Images.

http://tinyurl.com/3u27c

http://tinyurl.com/4oduf

Sharon Stone

HOLLYWOOD screen siren Sharon Stone was ordained as a minister so she could conduct a wedding for a couple of pals.

The 46-year-old Catwoman star got her clerical credentials from a mail-order firm. Stars who witnessed her religious debut included Jack Nicholson and Robert Wagner, according to the New York Post. The groom, US restaurant owner Michael Bourseau, who married stylist Brenda Swanson, said: 'No one will believe it when I hang my wedding certificate on the wall.'

We just hope Sharon didn't pull any Basic Instinct moves during the ceremony...

DEARLY BELOVED

THE Rev. Sharon Stone? The star became a mail-order minister and performed her first official wedding over the weekend, presiding over the union of restaurateur Michael Bourseau and sometime stylist Brenda Swanson at her Coldwater Canyon home. Jack Nicholson and Robert Wagner served as the witnesses. Bourseau, who owns Mix in West Hollywood, was heard by a PAGE SIX spy saying, "No one's going to believe it when I hang my wedding certificate up on the wall." Stone's reps did not return calls for comment.

Love Letters in Joliet

A performance of Love Letters is scheduled for February 12, 2005 at the Rialto Square Theatre, Joliet, Illinois.

Child Free TV Couples – Hart to Hart

When I was a kid, I remember sitting at my grandparents' house after school eating Pringles and watching Hart to Hart, starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers. Back then I wasn’t thinking about how their crime-fighting adventures would be drastically curtailed if they were dragging a kid around with them.

But now that I have proclaimed myself a member of the child free community, anytime I see a "role model" for those of us who don’t want kids, I take notice. And the Harts are one heck of a role model for child free couples!

Jonathan and Jennifer have it all: a gorgeous mansion, a steamy relationship, and the freedom to skip town and head to a tropical isle or to Paris "on business" at a moment’s notice. They live in high style, are hopelessly in love with each other and enjoy every minute of their lives.

The decision not to give the characters any children was deliberate and helped to create a super couple that proved you don’t have to have kids to be fulfilled in life.

Robert Wagner believed that fans wouldn’t accept the danger-laden lives the Harts led if they had kids. “I mean (viewers) got crazy when we'd go away without the dog,” he said.

In an another interview, Stefanie Powers said that it “just didn’t seem practical” to give them a family.

Indeed, it isn’t practical to introduce a baby into a relationship that is thriving just the way it is. Face it, the Harts could have afforded a whole slew of children. Even though they never talked about it on the show, they must have *chosen* not to have a family. And they are more than content without one.

Sounds like a lot of us, doesn’t it? (minus the Rolls Royce and private jet, of course).

CIA Needs A Few Good Agents, And Hollywood's Got Plenty

"There's a man who leads a life of danger. To everyone he meets he stays a stranger. With every move he makes, Another chance he takes. Odds are he won't live to see tomorrow.

Secret Agent Man.

Secret Agent Man.

They've given you a number.

And taken away your name."

There's been a shake-up in the CIA's clandestine service, and it looks as though CIA director Porter Goss should start looking for other spy operatives. Java thinks he should look to some of the great spies of the past for inspiration, such as:

# James Coburn as Derick Flint. How can you resist a guy spy who in the movie "In Like Flint" investigates women who brainwash other women through their beauty salon hair dryers? But one nagging question remains: "Would his Nehru jacket and bell bottoms work today?"

# Dean Martin as Matt Helm in movies like "The Ambushers." When he could take his hands off women and put his drink down, he was unstoppable. Plus, then you could go home and watch Martin's roasts on DVD.

# Don Adams as Maxwell Smart. He bumbled and fumbled, but he got the job done. He just had to get the chief to dust off the Cone of Silence.

# Robert Culp and Bill Cosby in "I Spy." When their tennis rackets cooled off, they took care of business.

# Robert Conrad as Jim West and Ross Martin as Artemus Gordon in "The Wild, Wild West." Agents of President Grant, they could do no worse under the leadership of Director Goss.

# Robert Vaughn as Napoleon Solo and David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin in "Man From U.N.C.L.E." were agents of the United Network Command for Law Enforcement, which explains why people preferred to call it "UNCLE." They would be great CIA agents, as long as Goss let them open Channel D when they talked into their pens.

# Robert Wagner as Alexander Mundy in "It Takes a Thief." He's a smooth, suave jewel thief who joins an American espionage agency called the SIA, precariously close to our group. He's just too cool for words, and then Fred Astaire plays his father, Alistair Mundy. The ultimate.

# Peter Mark Richman plays wimpy secret agent Adam Chance in the movie "Agent for H.A.R.M." (Human Aetiological Relations Machine, which I'm sure you know what that means) who helps protect a scientist who has developed "a gun that shoots boogers" (the plot summary's words exactly) at people from evil forces.

# Patrick McGoohan played John Drake, special security agent, in the movie "Danger Man," precursor to "Secret Agent Man" (jaunty lyrics above). He got exotic assignments from Her Majesty's Secret Service, which introduced such Bond-like gadgets as exploding tie-pins and tape-recording shavers. Goss, pay attention.

# Jennifer Garner portrayed CIA/Alliance double agent Sydney Bristow in "Alias" against terrorists too numerous to mention, but not the one we invaded Iraq to find.

# Halle Berry as agent Jinx Johnson in "Die Another Day." Goss need not worry about threats to our borders once Berry is spotted coming out of the surf in that swimsuit with a knife on the side.

# Pierce Brosnan as Bond, James Bond. Sean Connery was our favorite, but if we can't have him, please don't deliver us Colin Farrell.

# Mike Myers as Austin Powers as "The Spy Who Shagged Me." In those wacky threads and with his mojo, the British spy would do our CIA proud.

Heroes

In addition, Shatner will return in the Miss Congeniality sequel; he continues to write books; and he may make a movie for ABC. In Heroes, Shatner, Lee Majors and Robert Wagner are slated to play over-the-hill TV detectives pressed into a real investigation.

NY Daily News: Rush & Molloy's Column

Robert Wagner and Jill St. John have been to Nello's to sample the $275-a-plate white-truffle tagliolini.

R.J.'s Broken Finger

I just heard that R.J. broke his finger in September. The story is that he was doing a stunt where he was supposed to fall onto an inflatable mattress, but he fell badly and broke his finger. Apparently, the injury is taking a long time to heal.

RJ in Pilot on Wealth TV

RJ is currently filming an interview with Charlie Jones. He is a famous sports personality with a talk show. His show is supposed to be on Wealth TV, which is a cable channel. RJ is part of the pilot for this show.

Hope and Faith Tonight

9:00-9:30PM
Hope & Faith (ABC, TV-PG-DL) Wait until tomorrow morning to watch this sitcom, when its cartoonish rhythm can be enjoyed with a big bowl of sugary cereal. Tonight the gals try to stop Dad (Robert Wagner) from marrying his new girlfriend, Mandi (Jenny McCarthy). That means you can expect lunacy and pratfalls, courtesy of Kelly Ripa, who steals the show with astounding physical energy and a Patricia Field wardrobe that — hey, come to think of it, totally matches my Froot Loops!

Thanksgiving Hope and Faith

HOPE & FAITH - "9021-UH-OH" - FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26 (9:00-9:30 p.m., ET)

The family flashes back to Thanksgiving Day a decade ago, with Faith hosting a frenetic and hilarious holiday dinner in her fabulous Hollywood pad. She goes to great lengths to impress her parents (Cheryl Ladd and Robert Wagner), including posing as the girlfriend of "Beverly Hills: 90210" hunk Brian Austin Green, who has left Charley star struck. All hell breaks loose when family secrets are exposed.

Robert Wagner reveals Stanwyck affair

Robert Wagner revealed that he and legendary actress Barbara Stanwyck had a secret affair, World Entertainment News Network reported.

Wagner, 74, said he was just 22 while Stanwyck was 45 when they started their five-year romance.

"At that time, it could never have been (revealed)," Wagner said. "It was not public, it was hidden. It just couldn't come out. Today, it wouldn't have made any difference ... There's a book being written about her, and they came to me, and it was going to come out. She was an absolutely wonderful, wonderful woman, and it was so great for me. I loved her very much."

Stanwyck died in 1990 at the age of 82.

November Sweeps - RJ on Hope & Faith

HOPE & FAITH -- "NATAL ATTRACTION" -- FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5 (9:00-9:30 p.m., ET)

Hope and Faith play matchmakers between their dad (Robert Wagner) and their gynecologist, Anne (Jaclyn Smith). But the budding relationship is in jeopardy when they discover Mandi (Jenny McCarthy), Faith's former friend, Anne's patient and Jack's one-time fling, is pregnant with Jack's child.

HOPE & FAITH - "STAND BY YOUR MANDI" - FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 12 (9:00-9:30 p.m., ET)

Hope and Faith upset their dad, Jack (Robert Wagner), when they try to prevent him from marrying Mandi (Jenny McCarthy) when he truly loves Anne (Jaclyn Smith). But Jack insists on wedding the mother of his expected baby, unaware that Mandi has a little problem telling truth from fiction.

HOPE & FAITH - "9021-UH-OH" - FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26 (9:00-9:30 p.m., ET)

The family flashes back to Thanksgiving Day a decade ago, with Faith hosting a
frenetic and hilarious holiday dinner in her fabulous Hollywood pad. She goes to great lengths to impress her parents (Cheryl Ladd and Robert Wagner), including
posing as the girlfriend of "Beverly Hills: 90210" hunk Brian Austin Green, who has left Charley star struck. All hell breaks loose when family secrets are exposed. Thanksgiving-themed episode.

Amazon.com: Books: Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3D!

Editorial Review

In Hollywood Nudes in 3D! a dazzling array of Hollywood starlets, including Marilyn Monroe, Bettie Page, Dixie Evans, and Tura Satana, come to life in all of their enticing loveliness.

Harold Lloyd, star of such classic silent films as Safety Last and The Freshman, shot more than 300,000 photographs with a stereoscopic (3D) camera. Many of the photos were of young women who dreamed of making it big in Hollywood. Here--for the first time ever in book form--are 200 of Lloyd's most lavish, luscious, and ludicrous pictures of Hollywood nudes posed against some of the most dramatic and creative backgrounds imaginable. Approximately 75 are reproduced in tantalizing 3D, and can be viewed with the aid of the special "Harold Lloyd-style" glasses included with the book.

The book was assembled by his granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd and Robert Wagner. Wagner also wrote the intro.