"Beauty and the Beast" executive producer Paul Witt has dismissed industry buzz that "Beauty" Linda Hamilton could meet an early demise when the show returns to CBS next season - in short, written out of the series. Witt admitted that Hamilton has not been involved in the show's current planning but insisted she intends to stay with the series after the birth of her child in September or October (her representatives are referring questions about Hamilton to the producers).
The actress is "unavailable to us because of her pregnancy," Witt said. "Her objective is to be the best mother she can be, and that is what she's thinking about."He added that her motherhood "may alter the number of episodes she'll appear in, but that doesn't mean she's leaving."
The show has no time slot, but is expected back as a mid-season replacement series.
"We're not talking about any of our plans yet," Witt said, "but I can tell you we will remain true to the show as it's been."
Talking TV, sources close to "Roseanne" are saying that Roseanne Barr is pushing for designer clothes and a spiffier house for herself and her blue-collar TV family this fall. Supervising producer Danny Jacobson denies it: "At this time, there's really nothing to it. Roseanne (her character) lost her job at the end of last season; I really don't see her making any trips to Neiman-Marcus in the near future.
"Our show is going to look like it did last year. Otherwise, it wouldn't be our show." - STACY JENEL SMITH
-PREPPY KILER:
HOLLYWOOD - So-called "Preppy Killer" Robert E. Chambers Jr. - who pleaded guilty last year in the strangulation death of Jennifer Levin in New York's Central Park in 1986 - is the subject of dueling docudramas: "The Preppy Murder," a two-hour TV movie for ABC, is currently casting, with filming to begin in New York in August. Meanwhile, a script for a (yet untitled) four-hour CBS miniseries has been approved, though production has yet to be given the green light.
Acknowledging that his ABC project will be the first out of the gate, executive producer Jack Grossbart said that rights were bought from some of the police detectives involved in the case, and "a great many of Robert and Jennifer's friends." Investigative reporter Sydell Albert, who brought the rights to Grossbart, is co-producing. Court transcripts are also being used to tell the story "of kids who live a life without margin," Grossbart said.
Director John Herzfeld said that he has spoken with "many of the key players involved" and stressed that this project "will definitely not" glamorize the handsome and media-savvy Chambers, who is serving five to 15 years ("To say he was glamorized by the media is a major understatement," scoffed Herzfeld).
As for the CBS miniseries, from MGM-TV and producers Diane and Mel Sokolow: "Our project will examine the sociological implications of kids that have it so good and go so bad . . . rich kids who are fast, loose and floundering," Sokolow said.
Scripted by JP Miller ("Helter Skelter"), it is based on Linda Wolfe's upcoming hard-cover book, "Wasted: The Story of Robert and Jennifer" (due in August from Simon & Shuster). Sokolow called the book "the definitive Chambers-Levin study - which would make ours the definitive TV project." - PAT H. BROESKE
-Accidental Courier:
HOLLYWOOD - Pat Polinger, co-owner of Vidiots, a video store in Santa Monica, Calif., joined an arts-oriented tour of the Soviet Union earlier this month, looking for two weeks of "fun and merriment." She got an unexpected bonus - political intrigue. She helped smuggle out video footage - possibly the first to reach the United States - of the brutal suppression by Russian soldiers of a peaceful demonstration in Soviet Georgia April 9.
The incident at Tbilisi, the capitol of Soviet Georgia, continues to rock Kremlin politics, according to recent news reports, with President Mikhail S. Gorbachev promising a full investigation. The number of dead has officially been put at 20. Dissidents - supporters of an autonomous Georgian state - and humanitarian groups claim many more were killed, many allegedly through the use of toxic gas.
Polinger, who returned to Santa Monica June 17, said that the 40 minutes of video footage, shot with two cameras from different vantage points, shows soldiers and tanks closing in on thousands of protesters outside a government building, firing canisters of gas and beating demonstrators with shovels as they sing.
A Georgian activist gave the videotape to members of the tour group, pleading that it be offered to U.S. TV news agencies. Carrying video equipment for tourist purposes, they mixed the videotape with their own and smuggled it out.
Polinger said the footage is "grainy but watchable" and restorable. At this writing, she was planning to submit the videotape for possible TV broadcast. - JOHN M. WILSON
-Uncaped Crusaders:
Remember how Clayton Moore was prohibited from wearing his mask when the movie "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" came out? Now Adam West and Burt Ward have been ordered to hang up their Batman and Robin TV costumes too. The Dynamic Duo sometimes slip into their capes and tights for fan conventions and promos for their old "Batman" TV series. Now Warner Bros., having spent a bundle to persuade moviegoers that Michael Keaton is Batman, has defrocked the erstwhile Crusaders.
In new promos for the old "Batman" series - currently getting a big syndicated sales push from Fox TV - West and Ward appear in regular clothes, rather than Batwear. - PAT H. BROESKE