WITHOUT HIS MEDICINE, WELL, MARTIN SO CRAZY

Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence was arrested Tuesday after he was found screaming obscenities in the middle of a busy Los Angeles area intersection during the noon rush.

His doctor said Lawrence, 30-year-old star of television ("Martin") and movies ("A Thin Line Between Love & Hate," "Bad Boys," "You So Crazy"), had not taken his prescribed medication for an unnamed condition and suffered a seizure.

According to one witness, Lawrence "was just like a madman," struggling with police, shouting obscenities and yelling, "`Fight, don't give up, fight the power,' something like that."

Officers found a handgun in Lawrence's pocket and are considering seeking concealed weapon charges. Following a hospital examination, he was released to his physician's custody.

Loose talk

Notorious Heidi Fleiss client Charlie Sheen, on his guest appearance on tonight's "Friends" (on "Entertainment Tonight"): "I thought it might be interesting to reach 40 to 50 million people in half an hour and it not be about some dubious scandal."

From here on out, it's a sprint to the finish line

Candice Bergen turns 50 today.

Guess his heart just wasn't in it anymore

George C. Scott, suffering from an aortic aneurysm, doesn't plan to return to the Broadway show "Inherit the Wind," for which he received a Tony nomination. The heart condition also has held up a $3.1 million sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the 68-year-old Oscar winner ("Patton") by his former personal assistant.

Both Victor and Victoria should've gotten one

Julie Andrews says she may refuse her Tony nomination for Broadway's "Victor/Victoria" to protest the fact that the show, written by her husband, Blake Edwards, received no other nominations. "She was devastated for her fellow cast members," a spokesman told the New York Post. "For her, it's a hollow victory."

We thought Jerry Mathers shot him in 'Nam

Reports of former TV child star Adam Rich's death in the San Francisco magazine Might were greatly exaggerated. The pop-culture rag reported the 27-year-old Rich, who played Nicholas Bradford on "Eight is Enough," was killed in a robbery attempt, but it was all a hoax - one Rich went along with, for a while, to "make fun of the media." However, he said: "I think we were a little too subtle. People were not getting the joke ... I don't want to be dead."

Dysfunctional families say the darndest things

Former Emmy-winning TV host Art Linkletter ("People are Funny") says he enjoys some of today's sitcoms, such as "Seinfeld" and "Frasier," but daytime talk shows are too focused on "trashing dysfunctional families." Complains the 84-year-old Linkletter: "It lowers and coarsens the whole cultural attitude."

Copyright 1996 Cowles Publishing Company
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.