Resistance is futile– new “Trek” is coming
Get ready for another Star Trek spinoff to boldly go where, well, a lot of people have already been. The new show, titled “Star Trek: Enterprise,” is slated to begin production on Monday and is earmarked as a centerpiece for UPN’s upcoming fall season.
Scott Bakula, best known for the time-traveling sci-fi series “Quantum Leap,” will star as the newest captain of the Enterprise, joining a proud legacy that includes William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, and Kate Mulgrew. Bakula’s Jonathan Archer is described by Paramount Network Television as “physically and intensely curious with a bold personality,” having “a strong sense of duty” but is “a bit of a renegade.” How this differs from every other Enterprise captain is beyond us. Nothing against Bakula, but we would have preferred a more outside-the-box choice for a new captain, like, maybe a giant Tribble. But what do we know?
No debut date for the new Star Trek series was given.
I NEVER HAD A SUBSTANCE ABUSE PROBLEM DURING THAT PARTICULAR PHOTO SESSION: Model Kate Moss accepted libel damages Friday from a London tabloid that accused her of turning up for a photo shoot too plastered to pose.
The allegations published in the Daily Mail in July 1999 were “false and completely unfounded,” Moss’s lawyer, Gerrard Tyrrell, told London’s High Court. Moss did not even attend the photo shoot in question, he said.
The newspaper’s lawyer, Rebecca Jackson, said the Daily Mail accepted that the allegations were false and apologized unreservedly for any distress and injury caused to Moss. The financial end of the deal was not disclosed.
The 27-year-old model has long had a reputation for wild partying. Last year she was briefly hospitalized with a kidney infection. In 1999, she checked herself into prominent west London psychiatric hospital The Priory for six weeks, saying she was suffering from exhaustion.
POOR TOMMY LEE, MEANWHILE, WAITS QUIETLY BY THE PHONE, READING THE BIBLE: Pamela Anderson’s reconciliation with ex-hubby Tommy Lee has been derailed by her lust-fueled obsession with rap-metal maven Kid Rock, reports say. The New York Post quotes pals of Pammy’s as saying she dropped Tommy and pursued Rock “relentlessly,” even though he was dating Sheryl Crow.
“She wanted him and started a campaign to get him,” a source told the Post. “Pamela would call four or five times a day and constantly two-way page him. Kid Rock felt bad about Sheryl, but Pamela won out in the end.”
The two have spent every other weekend together, while Anderson’s kids by Lee, Brandon and Dylan, are with their father. Three weeks ago, Anderson partied with Kid Rock in Detroit over a weekend, then flew to the Hard Rock hotel in Las Vegas for the Tiger Jam IV charity event, where the pair were caught having sex in a bathroom.
But Anderson’s pals are concerned that Pammy’s strict regimen of partying and promiscuity are going overboard. She and her new beau reportedly went wild at a Kentucky Derby bash last weekend, during which, several accounts have it, Anderson was observed “crawling around on all fours,” and “licking a bald fan’s head,” and drinking booze straight out of the bottle as Kid Rock is also wont to do.
SHE’S COME FULL CIRCLE: Say it isn’t so, Jamie. Jamie Lee Curtis will once more go under the knife/chain saw/hatchet as Laurie Strode in the latest Halloween sequel. “The Homecoming,” which is No. 8, revolves around six teen-agers setting up a live Internet chat from Michael Myer’s home. Apparently, that really annoying modem boinging wakes up the undead and he starts chopping at them, screaming, “AOL is slop!”
Shooting on the $15 million movie begins Monday in Vancouver. Director Rick Rosenthal, who returns 20 years after helming part II, will be joined by Tyra Banks and Busta Rhymes in the crew.
Today’s People Column was compiled by Randy McMullen and Vera H-C Chan from staff and wire reports. Comments? Write to us c/o the Times, P.O. Box 8099, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-8099. Or call 925-943-8262, fax 925-943-8362, or e-mail spin@cctimes.com.
Birthdays: Actress Katharine Hepburn (94), journalist Howard K. Smith (87), critic John Simon (76), baseball Hall-of-Famer Yogi Berra (76), composer Burt Bacharach (72), talk-show host Tom Snyder (65), comedian George Carlin (64), actress Millie Perkins (63), former White House press secretary Ronald L. Ziegler (62), R&B singer Jayotis Washington of The Persuasions (60), country singer Billy Swan (59), actress Linda Dano (58), musician Ian McLagan (56), actress Lindsay Crouse (53), singer-musician Steve Winwood (53), actor Gabriel Byrne (51), actor Bruce Boxleitner (51), singer Billy Squier (51), country singer Kix Brooks (46), actress Kim Greist (43), actor Ving Rhames (40), rock musician Billy Duffy (40), actor Emilio Estevez (39), actress Vanessa Williams (38), country musician Eddie Kilgallon (36), actor Stephen Baldwin (35), actress Kim Fields Freeman (32), actress Samantha Mathis (31), actress Jamie Luner (30), actor Mackenzie Astin (28), singer Melanie Chisholm of Spice Girls (25), actor Jason Biggs (23), actors Sawyer and Sullivan Sweeten (6).