Q. I have a couple of questions: My sister says Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen are half-brothers. Did Joan Crawford have two daughters or a daughter and a son? Are they in the movies? - A.F., Sapulpa, Okla.
A. Estevez and Sheen are full brothers, both sons of actor Martin Sheen. Emilio uses his father's real surname. Charlie opted for his stage name. Crawford had four adopted children: Christina, Christopher and twins Cathy and Cindy. Christina, who is best known as the author of "Mommie Dearest," her scathing account of Crawford as a cruel, unfeeling mother, acted for a time. Her best-known role was in the soap opera "The Secret Storm."Q. How many of Bing Crosby's sons committed suicide?
A. Two of the four sons shot themselves - Dennis, 56, in May, and Lindsay, 51, a year and a half earlier. Both were alcoholics. Bing was named "Hollywood's Most Typical Father for 1937," but son Gary, 58, a recovering alcoholic, disclosed in his memoir that his father was a cold, aloof, disapproving man who beat his children for the slightest infractions. Eventually, the brothers became estranged (Phillip did not attend the memorial service for his twin, Lindsay).
Q. What's there to say about the off-screen life of Jay Thomas, that actor who plays one of (Murphy Brown's) sometime boyfriends?
A. The 40-year-old actor has been married for three years to Sally Michelson, and they have an infant child. He confesses he was married once before, but only for an hour. "We literally broke up on the way home from church," Thomas recalls. Also a radio DJ in Los Angeles, Thomas now knows, "when something falls through, something else will come along." He's scheduled to make a movie this fall with Dolly Parton.
Q. What's next for Kathy Bates, the Oscar winner for Stephen King's "Misery?"
A. Bates will play Shirley Mac-Laine's daughter in "Used People," which is scheduled to start shooting next month. She recently finished "Prelude to a Kiss" with Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan and has been working on "Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" with Jessica Tandy. Both projects she had contracted to do before this year's Oscars. "A lot of pressure gets put on you to take the `right' film as a follow-up to an Academy Award," Bates says. "There's a lot of clack around town about what you should and shouldn't do."
Q. Are wedding bells ringing for pop singer David Bowie and supermodel Iman?
A. It's too soon to pin them down. "We're just in love for now," Iman says. It was just February of last year that Bowie, then 43, was pledging his love for fiancee Melissa Hurley, 22, a dancer on his 1987 Glass Spider tour. Iman and Bowie are looking for a film project together after his current concert tour ends. He recently finished the movie "The Linguini Incident," and Iman, a native of Somalia, appeared in "Star Trek VI," "House Party II" and the USA cable movie "Lies of Twins" without a break.
Q. I'd like information on Crystal Chappel, Dr. Carly Manning on "Days of Our Lives." What was her previous work and how I can write her? - Carlos Frederick, Round Rock, Texas.
A. Chappel, a native of Silver Spring, Md., and a graduate of the University of Maryland, has done regional theater in Maryland, at Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center, and was in two other soaps, "Santa Barbara" and "All My Children." Write: NBC-TV, 3000 W. Alameda Ave., Burbank, CA 91523.
Q. Is Crystal Bernard, who's in the syndicated show "It's a Living," the same girl who played Terry on "General Hospital' and was on "Wings" as the watiress? - P. Hanks, Wayne, Mich.
A. Barnard's sister Robin was Terry Brock on "GH." Crystal did "Living," 1984-89, and is currently Helen in the NBC sitcom "Wings," which has been renewed for fall.
Q. Back in 1939, my grandmother built our summer home to resemble a home in a movie "Love in a Bungalow." What can you tell me about this movie? Who starred in it, when was it made, where can I get the tape? - Dennis O'Barra, Buffalo, N.Y.
A. Sorry, references list "Love in Bloom," "Love in Exile," "Love in Quarentine," "Love in Stunt Flying," "Love in the Army" and "Love in Waltz Time," all released in the late 1930s, but no "Love in a Bungalow."
Q. A few nights ago, I saw a movie in which Lanny Ross sang. I remember him from "Your Hit Parade" on radio in the 1930s and '40s. Can you give some information on him? - Leon McGriff, Macon, Ga.
A. Lancelot Patrick Ross was born Jan. 19, 1906, in Seattle, Wash., and started singing in churches. He sang to finance law studies at Yale University but after graduation in 1931 he was signed by NBC, where he started out as a member of the cast of "Show Boat." In a year, he was one of the stars of the show. Ross also starred on radio in "Your Hit Parade" and "The Lanny Ross Show," the last ending in 1949 when it was also on TV as "The Swift Show." He did several movies, "Melody in Spring," "College Rhythm," "The Lady Objects" and "Gulliver's Travels." Ross was a disc jockey in the 1950s and, later, worked for performers unions. He died in 1988.
Q. I'm 14 and a big fan of Victoria Tennant. What can you tell me about her? - Richard Jasper, Drexel Hill, Pa.
A. Tennant, 41, was born in London, daughter of a Russian ballerina and an English actors' agent. (He managed Laurence Olivier, who was Tennant's godfather.) She started out to be a ballerina but switched to acting. After drama school, she made her movie debut in 1972 in "The Ragman's Daughter." She retired for several years during her first marriage, then returned to movie-making in Europe. Her first major American work was in the mini-series "The Winds of War." She's married to Steve Martin.
Q. Several years ago on cable, I watched a movie called "Praise the Lord" with Marty Feldman and Mel Brooks. It was a parody of TV evangelism, long before the fall of Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert. It was hilarious but I've never seen it again, not even in a video store, and it isn't listed in catalogs of movies. How can I find it? - David. L. Reineman, San Clemente, Calif.
A. By checking out "In God We Tru$t (or Gimme That Prime Time Religion)." But you won't find it listed among the movies on video partly because the critics had one word for it: BOMB. Incidentally, Brooks wasn't in it. Peter Boyle, Louise Lasser, Richard Pryor and Andy Kaufman were. Feldman directed and co-wrote, as well as starred in it.
Q. Tell me about movie actress Ann Sheridan. When did she die and did she ever do a TV series? - C.T.K, Philadelphia.
A. Sheridan did a lot of TV, from the early dramatic anthologies to a soap opera, "Another World." She was in the first season of a western TV series, "Pistols 'n' Petticoats," when she died in 1967.
Q. Has actor Brad Pitt found a convenient off-screen persona from his character J.D. in the movie "Thelma and Louise?"
A. The twentysomething Pitt scoffs at the "James Dean" comparisons, even though he physically resembles the late rebel actor. "That's crap," insists Pitt, who left college just two credits shy of a journalism degree, went to Los Angeles to study art, and quickly discovered acting. "It amazes me all these actors that try to impersonate James Dean instead of finding out who they are. They ride around on their Harleys trying to be Mickey Rourke and they won't bathe. They're just trying to live this dream. Why would you want to pattern your life after someone who wasn't a survivor?" A hot property these days, Pitt will appear next in the films "Johnny Suede," "The Favor" and "Cool World."
- Send your questions to Celebrity Questions, Detroit Free Press, Detroit, MI 48231.