Q. With the rush of sequels, when will Christopher Reeve spring forth as "Superman V"?
A. Most likely never. Reeve, 37, talks as if he'd like to put Superman, who made him an overnight star at age 26, behind him. "I think it's kind of a bore at this point. I'd be lying through my teeth if I said I wasn't tired of it," he admits. Reeve is frustrated because his image is locked in the character, while he yearns for more diverse roles. "I don't think that to become a star from playing Superman is an incredibly noteworthy achievement," he adds. "It's hardly worth a Nobel Prize or equal to finding a cure for cancer." Besides, says Reeve, who recently starred in the TNT cable movie "The Rose and the Jackal," "I'm getting too old for this job. You can't have a Superman with love handles sticking out of his yellow belt."Q. The actor who played Casey Jones, one of the few humans in the movie "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," where'd he come from?
A. Definitely not the sewer. Elias Koteas, 28, is the child of a hatmaker and Canadian National Railways mechanic. He stumbled into acting in college and has appeared in several films, such as "Tucker: The Man and His Dream," "Gardens of Stone" and "The Desperate Hours." He's working on "Almost an Angel," in which he co-stars with director Paul Hogan.
Q. Is Johnny Depp's so-called rebellious attitude genuine or just another of those contrived Hollywood personas?
A. He's one tough dude, dude. Depp - the star of Fox Television's "21 Jump Street" and the recent John Waters film "Cry-Baby" - hated school, and by his own account didn't get along with his teachers. Ironically, the teen star was asked recently by network executives to do a "Don't Drop Out" commercial. "They wanted me to do a public-service announcement that said ... `Stay in school and graduate because it means the world to me and to you.' ... I've been working for these people for four years. Don't they know I'm a dropout? ... They said, `Oh, yes, we forgot."'
Q. Are Jane Fonda and Ted Turner really having a passionate affair?
A. Fonda and Turner have been seen together frequently about town, including at the Oscars and the taping of the People's Choice Awards. Observers go so far as to call them "inseparable." But, hey, there's always some show biz involved in these appearances. Stay tuned.
Q. Can it possibly be true that Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon are trying for a comeback with their beach-blanket act?
A. Despite their mature ages, Funicello, 47, and Avalon, 50, are planning to team for a followup to their 1987 movie, "Back to the Beach." They already have put together a touring stage show that recalls their true youthful era of the late '50s and early '60s. It seems that adult success has been rather time-warpish for Funicello. The former Mousketeer was a guest on the Disney Channel's "Mickey Mouse Club" anniversary special last month.
Q. Michael York's face has been evident more at art gallery openings than on screen or stage lately - what's doing with his career?
A. York and his wife, renowned photographer Pat McCallum York, who recently sold a number of her photographs of celebs such as Andy Warhol and Liza Minnelli through Sotheby's in New York, are genuine arts patrons and on the A-list for gallery parties, particularly in Los Angeles, Manhattan and Washington. But Michael's screen face will be seen again when he stars this month in the four-hour miniseries "For Those I Loved," which debuts on cable's TBS. The miniseries is adapted from the autobiography of Nazi concentration camp survivor Martin Gray. As for stardom, the British-born York describes it as "something that should be judged at the end of one's career, not while it's happening."
Q. Is astrologer Joan Quigley still guiding Nancy Reagan, now in her glamorous retirement?
A. Nancy dumped Joan like a political liability after former White House Chief of Staff Don Regan's embarrassing revelations that then-first lady Nancy relied on her astrologer to set much of President Reagan's schedule. Then Nancy reprimanded Quigley for defending herself in news interviews. "She didn't want me to speak to the press at all," says Quigley, who has subsequently penned "What Does Joan Say? My Seven Years as White House Astrologer to Nancy and Ronald Reagan" (Carol Publishing). Quigley says she'd never take the Reagans back. Nancy Reagan, her client of 17 years, "could chew someone up and swallow and spit out the bones and never feel a thing."
Q. What happened to Fatty Arbuckle? - P.W., Las Vegas.
A. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, one of Hollywood's most popular early comedians, was ruined by scandal in 1921. At a drunken party, Arbuckle was accused of assaulting a woman who later died. He was tried three times, twice with hung juries, and then acquitted. The publicity aroused the public which saw Hollywood as a sin capital and resulted in the formation of the Hayes Office to regulate movies and enforce censorship. Arbuckle's movies were banned and withdrawn from circulation. Friends helped him return to movies as a director under the name William Goodrich. He tried to return to acting in Europe in 1932 but it was a fiasco and he returned to the U.S., where he died in 1933 at 46.
Q. Tell me how to find out all of the movies and videos of a certain star. For example, Janet Blair of "The Exorcist." She is a favorite of mine and I want to collect her films. - A.C.F., Mooretown, N.J.
A. You must mean Linda Blair. (Janet Blair was a popular musical comedy actress of the 1940s and '50s.) Check the library or book stores for movie guides. One that cross-indexes by actors' name but lists only those movies that are available on videocassette, not all credits, is "Video Movie Guide" by Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, published by Ballantine Books. Unfortunately, Blair's career post-"Exorcist" has gone downhill into horror and exploitation movies but many of them are on tape.
Q. I'm an avid fan of "The Young and the Restless" and I'm quite sure the man who plays Victor is the same man who played the German officer in "The Rat Patrol," now in reruns. - C.P., Novi, Mich.
A. Eric Braeden, who has played Victor Newman on "Y and R" since the character was introduced in 1980, played Hauptman Hans Dietrich in "The Rat Patrol," 1966-68, under his real name Hans Gudegast. An American since his college days, he made the name switch to avoid type casting.
Q. Why is it that Tom Berenger's mug only rarely shows up in photos of Hollywood parties?
A. First of all, he lives far away, in Beaufort, S.C., where he married Lisa Williams, a real estate agent, after filming "The Big Chill" there in 1983. Besides that, he doesn't play the celebrity game. Despite his popularity from commercial hits like "Platoon," Berenger has opted lately for off-beat movies.