CRAZY JIM STRIVES HARD TO ALWAYS BE MR. HAPPY

In a (mostly) serious interview with Movieline magazine, comedy king Jim Carrey shares his thoughts on Hollywood, his career, the actors he admires (Nicolas Cage) and the reason why comics seem to score with the babes (it has to do with physical dimensions).

When speaking of his reading habits, he stresses that he's constantly trying to improve himself - even if he is making $20 million a movie now.

"I have three books going at any one time," he told writer Stephen Rebello. "... and I can never get enough self-help, so I'm also reading `Wherever You Go, There You Are."' The point, he says, is to stay in the present.

"If you spend all your time worrying about yesterday or tomorrow, you don't really live," he said. "It's like `Our Town,' man."

Loose talk

Marlo Thomas, 57, on the difference between her 1966-71 sitcom "That Girl" and today's "Friends" (as reported by KnightRidder): "We never necked in my apartment. Our show reflected the mores of the time, but not necessarily the truth."

Say, doesn't he have a brother who lives around here?

George Brett turns 43 today.

Whereas a study of suburban mallrats might be OK

Here's our nomination for critical slam of the day: In a review of "Pretty Poison: The Tuesday Weld Story" by Floyd Conner, Movieline critic Joe Queenan charges that the book is "indifferently written, entirely lacking in insight and absolutely devoid of original material - but it's not a complete waste. A book about Shannen Doherty would have been."

And then he began humming, `I'm My Own Grandpa'

When asked whether he's planning to have children with his young lover Nicoletta Mantovani, 26, opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti, 60, said, "I am a dreamer. Let's keep them locked there."

Yes, things in Hollywood are controlled by cheesy types

So what has the partnership between corporate America and the media done for the film industry? Not much, says director Francis Ford Coppola. "Wall Street got interested in film and communications, and these are the people who brought you the Big Mac," he said Friday at the Cannes Film Festival.

With names like these, they're ready to rock. . .

The most shocking news out of the impending divorce of Irish rocker Bob Geldof, 41, and wife of 18 years Paula Yates, 35, is the names of their three daughters - Fifi Trixiebelle, 12, Peaches, 6, and Pixie, 4.

. . .yet they have to learn to roll with life's punches

The other shocking aspect, of course, is that Yates is accusing Geldof of adultery when she's the one who's pregnant by way of INXS singer Michael Hutchence. Their daughter, who is due sometime this summer, already has a name: Heavenly Herani.

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
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