Flashes: April 19, 1991

MOVIES: From Cowboy to Cowgirls. Drugstore Cowboy director Gus Van Sant is set to direct another feature about a '70s drifter. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, based on the 1976 Tom Robbins cult novel, will follow the adventures of a poor but beautiful Virginia woman whose balloon-shaped thumbs turn her into an eroto-spiritual hitchhiking legend. ''It's in the second draft,'' says Robbins, ''and we want Uma Thurman to star.'' Thurman and spouse Gary Oldman may not be the only ones on board. Though her publicists won't confirm it, Hollywood sources say Madonna is also set to sign... Which reminds us that Truth or Dare, the documentary of Madonna's Blond Ambition tour, doesn't open until May 10 but is already stirring controversy. Because of its barely bleeped expletives, the MPAA has restricted the trailer for the film (which is not yet rated) to theaters showing movies rated R or NC-17. Distributor Miramax is appealing...
TV: ABC chat show host Rick Dees may be walking Into the Night $3.1 million lighter after losing a suit to an ex-partner, former KIIS-FM/AM exec Cos Cappellino. Cappellino charged that Dees and business manager Walter Clark skimmed profits from the L.A. station's Rick Dees' Weekly Top Forty, then made an $11 million distribution deal — without cutting Cappellino in. Dees, who will appeal, has another litigious ex-KIIS-FM pal, Liz Fulton, who slapped him and the station's owner, Gannett Co. Inc., with a suit last year (still unresolved) claiming, among other things, sex discrimination...
VIDEO: Camcorders are turning out to be as much of a hassle for robbers as they are for cops. Court papers filed last month allege that a gang of five in Washington, D.C., videotaped themselves in the act of beating and robbing a victim. Afterward, say prosecutors, the thugs interviewed each other on camera about their crime. Police aren't saying how they got the tape, but the case goes to trial April 26. — Melina Gerosa, Margot Dougherty, Benjamin Svetkey