In the mid-'80s, Eddie Murphy ruled, but this is the '90s, and his movies (Beverly Hills Cop III) just don't play. With discouraging buzz on his Vampire in Brooklyn, he'll need a Travolta-esque comeback via the shticky remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor, due next year. Somehow, we're not optimistic.
Carolco Pictures' Mario Kassar, who produces such big-budget movies as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Cliffhanger, may have the next Waterworld on his hands with the $75 million, problem-plagued Cutthroat Island; after unloading Showgirls on MGM, he may walk the bankruptcy plank if the pirate romp isn't a box office treasure.
It's official: Connie Chung's year sucked. After being criticized for her manipulative interview with Newt's mom and mishandling Oklahoma City coverage, she was further dissed when CBS canceled Eye to Eye With Connie Chung and dropped her as Dan Rather's coanchor on the CBS Evening News.
With flops The Perez Family, Wigstock: The Movie, and The Mystery of Rampo, indie film company founder Samuel Goldwyn Jr. tried to compete with rival Miramax but instead saw his stock fall, and the proposed merger with Time Warner has most likely nixed any chance of a Turner buyout.
What with Twentieth Century Fox's disappointing returns for last summer's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie, and merchandise profits dipping, it seems like it finally is Go, go, Power Rangers!
Rumors of Mob ties and a complaint of sexual harassment (which was dismissed) are the least of the problems Steven Seagal (below) has faced. After the tepid $39 million box office for 1994's On Deadly Ground came the disappointing $48 million for Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, which paled next to the 1992 original's $84 million take. Call it a one-two pinch.
In showbiz terms, The Verdict was the worst thing to happen to O.J. Simpson. Behind bars, the Juice was an entertainment colossus: TV's most-watched star, the talk-radio topic, a one-man publishing maelstrom. Now that he's free, O.J. finds himself trapped in a not-so-lucrative limbo of...news shows. Sure, he might land a few million by writing another book, but a tasteless pay-per-view plan collapsed, his career as pitchman and Z-grade thespian is probably kaput, his longtime agency, ICM, no longer represents him, and amid boycotts he aborted a live TV interview at the last minute. These days, O.J. can't get arrested.
— Dan Snierson and Jeff Gordinier
Add your comment
The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk * indicates a required field.