April:

WORRIED STARS
April 26, 2001 | As "The Practice" celebrated its 100th episode, the mood was tempered by the looming deadline for the writers' strike. The contract expires May 1, and series star LARA FLYNN BOYLE said she tries not to think about it. DYLAN McDERMOTT believes a strike would cause the loss of the series audience and hurt everyone. In addition to the pending WGA strike, the actors face a June 30 deadline to renegotiate the Screen Actors Guild contract. If both unions choose to walk out, the strikes would cripple the entertainment industry.

Camryn Manheim, "Kiss My Act," Interview

Watch Camryn Manheim talk about her new movie 

Lara Flynn Boyle - Naughty by nature

Dylan is scheduled to be on Jay Leno Tuesday 5/8

Missed Kelli Williams appearances on Rosie and Conan O'Brien's Late Show - Check the Message board, a transcript will be posted soon.

Camryn Manheim Loves Mommyhood

Manheim Produces 'Kiss My Act'

Manheim adds heft to romantic comedy

Manheim Likes the Power of Producing

Jack and Lara - is it over for good?

Hit the Road, Jack

Jack Nicholson has gotten the kiss-off from Lara Flynn Boyle. The 63-year-old ladies' man is said to be heartbroken now that the 30-year-old star of "The Practice" has told him she wants to see other people, after a year together.

"He was more into the relationship than she was," a friend tells us.

Boyle has been spotted around L.A. with Eric Dane, hunky star of "Gideon's Crossing." But our source says, "She definitely didn't dump Jack for Eric. She's been dating a number of guys. A lot of men want to see what Jack fell in love with."

New York guys can take their shot next month. Boyle is set to be the host of "Saturday Night Live" on May 12.

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. -- Camryn Manheim is kissing her baby boy, Milo.

"He knows that I have to kiss his face a thousand times a day and sometimes I'll only get to about 700. Then I'll have about 300 to do really fast in the middle of the night," the exuberant new mother exclaims.

Although Manheim is trying to keep her son, born March 6, out of the Hollywood spotlight, he's close by throughout her busy work schedule.

The Emmy-winning star is back on the set of ABC's Sunday-night series The Practice. She's also energetically promoting the network's movie Kiss My Act, airing Monday at 8 p.m. ET.

In this modern twist on the classic Cyrano de Bergerac tale, Manheim plays Samantha Berger, a bartender in a comedy club. Insecure about her own talent and appearance, she writes comedy for a cute airhead rather than perform it herself. When a handsome agent takes an interest in the act, Berger finds herself pumping true feelings into a romance she wishes were her own.

Manheim is cautious about the audience making the comparison to Edmond Rostand's play.

"It turns them off right away," she says. "It's French. It's old. It sounds like Shakespeare. This is contemporary, set in comedy clubs. . . . But the story is the story of Cyrano because it's a classic that moves through the ages. All of us feel we are Cyrano at some point in our lives: not good enough, not pretty enough, smart enough, anything enough, to get the people of our dreams."

During a lunch break on The Practice set at Manhattan Beach Studios, Manheim is dressed in sensible beige and black for her role as lawyer Ellenor Frutt. It's a very different style from Berger, who favours leopard-skin prints.

Kiss My Act also shows off Manheim's fondness for motorcycles and her skill with sign language as she communicates with her friend, Marlee Matlin, the Oscar-winning deaf actor who plays Berger's very pregnant best friend.

Manheim admits there's a practical reason she's strenuously promoting the movie: She's the producer.

"This is the first time in my life my name is above the title," she says. "I've never been a leading anything, so the whole package -- the sweet story, the producing, the starring -- it all means to me the power I need in Hollywood to continue doing what I am doing.

"It's not just a little movie of the week to me. This is a very, very important project and I need my fans to watch it so I can bring them more interesting story lines they may not otherwise get if there aren't women like me producing them."

A self-described workaholic, Manheim, 40, is also "just a hippie from Santa Cruz, Calif.," whose guitar case is covered with backstage passes from "when I was 14, hitching around the world, going to concerts and lying my way backstage!" There's also that Pegasus tattoo on her ankle, a souvenir from a visit to Rio de Janeiro during those wanderlust years.

Manheim didn't miss a beat while she was pregnant, continuing on The Practice as Frutt also became a single mom. She worked on one episode before giving birth and returned 14 days later in time for the last day of shooting on the following episode. Even in the latter days of her pregnancy, Manheim accepted other assignments, including a recent guest role on ABC's Gideon's Crossing.

"I have a kid to send to college now and I can't imagine what tuition is going to be like in 2019!" she says with a laugh.

Milo's arrival has opened up "feelings you never really understood you were capable of feeling," she explains. "They are just bigger and deeper and grander and more overwhelming."

"What is so lovely about Camryn is that she's so completely open, so immediate, so truthful," says Laurence Mark, who shares executive producer credit on Kiss My Act with Manheim and Ilene Amy Berg. "I've always thought she was smart and had good taste, but it was wonderful to discover someone with 100 per cent commitment to the material."

Kevin Hench, whom Manheim first met at the Aspen Comedy Festival, wrote the script. She agrees he's sort of her Cyrano. "We collaborate on everything, so he makes me seem really smart. Then I screw it up in interviews like this," she says, insisting that she is suffering from "breast-feeding brain" and has no sense of what she is doing.

Hench helped write her popular 1999 autobiography, Wake Up, I'm Fat! based on her one-woman show, and she wants to get around to writing about what it's like to become famous.

Meanwhile, she enthuses generously about Hench and her Kiss My Act co-stars. The comedy agent, Michael True, is played by Scott Cohen, whose credits include alcoholic Det. Harry Denby in the ABC series NYPD Blue and Wolf in the NBC miniseries The 10th Kingdom, in which Manheim played Snow White.

Jennie, the sweet but clueless performer the agent believes he loves, is played by Alexondra Lee, who was Callie in Party of Five. Veteran star Dabney Coleman plays a washed-up comic who believes in Berger's talent. Veteran comedian Phyllis Diller has a cameo turn as herself.

Manheim credits Hench with setting this classic tale in the club circuit where "the trauma of doing comedy" creates such an intense emotional environment. As for the title, Kiss My Act, well, that was Manheim's pick.

"It's derived from an expression that I use all the time," she says with a laugh.Spade talks about his relationship with Lara (Source Canoe)

Spade has the distinction of having dated Lara Flynn Boyle before the actress started her on-again/off-again affair with Jack Nicholson. "I don't know if you can call it a relationship. Lara and I went to a few premiers together and ended up as a celebrity couple in the gossip mags. Let me tell you, when David Spade makes it into a supermarket publication it's a mighty slow news week."

Practice' star to signs 'Extra' deal

David E. Kelley and Michelle Pfeiffer are dinner chairpersons of Family of a fund-raiser Celebration.

John Larroquette plays himself in The Incurable Collector

David E. Kelley and Michelle Pfeiffer are dinner chairpersons Family of a fund-raiser Celebration 2001.  The television drama award went to the cast of "Ally McBeal".  

Dylan McDermott is supposed to be on the Blockbuster Awards airing in the U.S. on Wed. night, 4/11, on the FOX network

"The Practice's" Camryn Manheim has signed a deal to produce and star in a new film, based on her own idea.

Variety reports that Manheim has signed a deal potentially worth seven-figures to make "The Extra" for producer Bill Mechanic's company, Pandemonium.

The film, based on Manheim's experience on movie sets, is about an actress whose life is ruined by a malicious extra who sells stories about the star to the tabloids.

"I find her to be both a major talent and a great role model for women," Mechanic told Variety. "'The Extra' is an entertaining yet daring idea".

Manheim's movie credits include "The Road To Wellville" and "Happiness." 

Camryn Manheim pacts to star in her own movie

Monday, April 09, 2001

Reuters/Variety ^ REUTERS@

Copyright ©2001 Reuters Limited.

Camryn Manheim Pacts To Star In Her Own Movie

NEW YORK (Variety) - Actress Camryn Manheim, co-star of the ABC legal drama ``The Practice (news - Y! TV),'' has clinched a deal to produce and star in a feature film she is developing based on her own experiences on movie sets. The overall deal between Manheim and filmmaker Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium production company could yield the actress a seven-figure salary. The project, titled ''The Extra'' will mark the feature-producing debut for Manheim, who has won an Emmy and Golden Globe for her work on ``The Practice.''

REEL DEAL Camryn Manheim (''The Practice'') (from EW) has signed a deal to produce and star in a movie she is developing about her own experiences as a struggling movie actress. The deal between Manheim and filmmaker Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium production company could earn the Emmy winning actress a seven figure salary, Reuters reports. The project, titled ''The Extra'' marks Manheim's debut as a producer.

Camryn Manheim: From Practice to Pandemonium
By Joan Tarshis

 A co-star of ABC TV's The Practice will move to the big screen and into the producer's chair. Camryn Manheim sold her pitch The Extra to Bill Mechanic's Pandemonium production company. Her deal includes a commitment for the actress to star and produce the film with Mechanic. The project could generate a seven-figure payday for Manheim.

The Emmy Award-winning actress, who also garnered a Golden Globe for her work on The Practice, will make her feature producing debut with the film. The screenplay will be inked by Kevin Hench (TV's The Last Laugh) and Eli Roth (Cabin Fever).

The Extra details Manheim's personal experiences on film sets. It focuses on an extra who has delusions of grandeur and destroys the life of a movie star by feeding the tabloids false stories.

Manheim told Daily Variety, "I feel like I won the lottery to be producing my first feature film with Bill Mechanic and learn from the very best."

Mechanic added: "I think Camryn Manheim has more than proven herself as a force both as an actor and producer on television, and we are excited to be a part of her ever-expanding horizons. I find her to be both a major talent and a great role model for women. The Extra is an entertaining yet daring idea."

Manheim's feature credits include Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Eraser, The Road to Wellville, and Happiness. She also recently produced the original, made-for-television movie Kiss My Act. Written by Hench, Act will air April 23 on ABC.

Everclear Shoots 'Brown Eyed' Video, Adds Headlining Dates

The video is described by a spokesperson as a "concept piece" that stars television actress Marla Sokoloff