Celebrity Tidbits
Never before published...
By Helen A. Lee
These quotes are (mostly) appearing
for the first time right here
(November 4, 2003). I have them,
so I might as
well use them.
For photos of some of these celebrities, please go to the gallery.
Robin Givens
on writing and life...
"I've written all my life probably. I've written short stories, I've done some articles and now I'm in the process of writing a book about my life. I think I have to deal with some things that I went through to really get over it. I'm up for doing that now."
on not going to med school...
"Let me tell you, I was in my house the other day and my mom left a package from Columbia University. How could I still go? It's not too late. So have I had regrets? Yeah, absolutely. But who knows? Life is long."
on struggling to keep a normal life...
"What I went through is a little out of the ordinary, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. But for me, having a good successful life--not a successful career, is important."
on being married to Mike Tyson...
"Maybe love is blind. But I think I had to look at how I got into the situation and really deal with that. Thank God I had the courage to get out of it."
Debbie Allen
on Amistad...
"We were happy, but we were surprised not to get as many Oscar nominations as we thought we would get. I thought Steven Spielberg's work on that movie was extraordinary. Sometimes, you know, it takes time. This is the kind of movie that, in its time, will get its due."
James Gandolfini
on his mom...
"My mother was a little softie, believe me. My mother was like Olivia Newton-John. She was a very strong woman, very regal."
on getting cast for The Sopranos...
"I auditioned a few times. I met David (Chase) in the morning and that went well. I mean, we are both from Jersey, we both have very similar families, we both understood--well, obviously he understood the humor of the piece. But I understood it too, which I think was important. I read a lot of scenes for him. I said, this is so good they're not going to let me do it. They're going to hire some pretty boy to do it. I said, they're going to get some big name that's not Italian from New Jersey or something. That's what I thought."
Sarah Jessica Parker
on the lack of white women in Sex and the City...
"I think it's a really interesting and difficult subject because the women that we're talking about unfortunately don't surround themselves with women of color. It's a real issue for this particular socioeconomic group in New York. I think to address that, the first thing is to talk about why they don't have friends who are of diverse ethnicity in the group. That's probably the best way to address it because it's the most honest way. To just sort of pretend that this integration exists in this particular group is a lie."
on staying fit...
"I live in a city where I walk all the time. I don't concentrate on it much and I don't like to talk about it much, because I think it places an importance on (being thin) that I don't think is right. I think women's bodies are all beautiful in all different sizes and shapes. It's just genetics. Someday I'll be bigger and that'll be the way it is. I hope people still like me, you know what I mean? I don't want people to think it's important to be skinny."
Kathy Bates
on auditioning...
"As a director I really sympathize with the actors coming in. I hated auditioning; I was terrible at it. It's a tough process for everybody, I think."
Noah Wyle
on George Clooney's famous penchant for practical jokes...
"He never got me. That's not a challenge, George, that's just a fact. No, I knew better than to mess with the master. I made sure that I was never the first to leave his dinner table--always in on the joke, never the butt of it. I laughed harder than anyone else, told him he was great--you know, all the right moves."
Ron Perlman
on Beauty and the Beast...
"There's now a famous story about how I used to have to get in the makeup chair at 4 a.m. to be ready to shoot at 8. One day they called me in--I didn't have to be ready until after lunch, so they called me in at 9. I stopped off at the bagel table to get myself a bagel and a cup of coffee and a couple of crew members were talking about me. They didn't even know I was standing next to them, because they'd only seen me in the makeup. By the time they arrived to work every day, I was Vincent. It was clear they didn't know I was standing right next to them. What a hoot that was!"
Danica McKellar
on college...
"The first year I got a lot of fans being somewhat obnoxious, yelling 'Hey Winnie'--being a little rude. I didn't live on campus for security reasons. But after the first year--I don't know if sophomores told people in the dorms as they came in, 'Oh, Winnie Cooper goes to school here, leave her alone,' but people were nice. It was like a respect thing--I was already here, so it was hands off. And the people who had already been at school I guess were used to it. So after that, it was very pleasant. People were nice, and especially in the math department I become so well known as a math student who really cared about math. You know, I was a tutor in the department--and that's who I was."
on her first kiss...
"The first episode was the first kiss--and that was really my first kiss in real life, and it was really Fred's (Savage) first kiss. At the time, we both kinda had a crush on each other and it was one of the most nerve-wracking, exciting, romantic moments you can imagine. I mean, here it was--I knew exactly when my first kiss was going to happen and I was dying of anticipation. And we're sitting up there on this rock waiting for them to say action. In the scene my brother has just died. I was a pretty good little actress back them but that kiss was coming up and I'm supposed to be all sad. I broke into a smile before we kissed because I couldn't stand it. I just couldn't stand it!"
Patrick Duffy
on staying fit...
"How do I stay fit? An equal amount of eating and drinking. I exercise enough to balance out the fact that I love to drink--and I don't mean water--and I love to eat good food. And I think, rather than being a rabid health freak, we'll see who lives longest. Like Willie Nelson--he's seen more old drunks than he has old doctors, so I just feel you have to have common sense about it. The weeds are strong so you've got to give yourself a something to wrestle with."