Sitcom star/tap dancer Gregory Hines will be here Sunday to entertain at the Auditorium Theatre during its “Home for the Holidays” series, but he’ll also do research for his set-in-Chicago CBS show.
“Next season we want to shoot some exterior shots here,” Hines told us, during a break from filming a coming episode with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. “Maybe a Bulls game or a Bears game. I love football. I’m the kind of fan who supports them even when they’re losing.” Which means he has picked the perfect team.
He also has a film with Polly Draper, “Tic Code,” coming out this spring, but his forthcoming Chicago business is all about dance. “I haven’t danced a lot since (the TV) show and I miss it,” he said. And expect dance to soon figure into his new TV sitcom.
P.S.: In all deference to Hines, we’re especially intrigued by the Flying Karamazov Brothers’ date in the Auditorium’s holiday programming. They’ve juggled everything (livers, computers, ice cream, etc.) and Saturday they tackle a 500-pound replica of Chicago’s budget–and right when Mayor Richard Daley is looking for a budget director.
Taxi! Taxi! No sooner did Yellow Cab Co. issue a challenge to politicians to ride with drivers to learn more about their conditions than congressman Bobby Rush, who knows a hot-button subject when he sees it, answered the call. Rush noted that his father drove a cab. He also said he agrees with the theory that City Hall is using the issue to draw attention away from cuts in CTA service.
Rosty watch 1: Dan Rostenkowski, who’ll be 70 on Jan. 2, gets cover treatment in the latest National Journal. Rostenkowski refers to the federal penitentiary in Oxford, Wis., where he was incarcerated, as “the university.” His daily chore was reading the boiler gauges.
Rosty watch 2: The article’s author, Richard Cohen, is doing a Rostenkowski book and was one of the few to visit him in prison. Cohen notes Rosty has yet to visit Washington, D.C., but he added that the ex-congressman objected to the pre-Christmas timing of the National Journal piece because most legislators would be away from their offices and wouldn’t read it.
INC.spot: File this in the life-imitates-art department: Basketball motormouth Dick Vitale, holding court at Tuscany restaurant the other day while in town to promote his book, “Holding Court.”
Reel news: CBS’ “Nash Bridges” cast member and Steppenwolf co-founder Jeff Perry tells us that while Steppenwolf had been “exploring some stuff” in the film production end of things–“We were looking to create a kind of first-look arrangement with a studio so that the stuff we produce theatrically would have the potential to be placed at a studio for film development”–all that is on hold to focus on theatrical development.
Passages: Friday birthdays: Steve Allen, 76; Carlton Fisk, 50; Alan King, 70; Ismail Merchant, 61; Donald Moffat, 67; Marc Robin, 36; Klea Scott, 29; John Walsh, 52; Richard Widmark, 83. Saturday birthdays: John Amos, 55; Karla Bonoff, 45; Gerard Depardieu, 49; Tovah Feldshuh, 45; Eva LaRue, 31.
Let George do it: George Koehler’s birthday party at Drink the other night drew lots of notables: Dennis Rodman, Frank Thomas, Ron Harper and even Duran Duran’s sound guys. Why is Koehler so popular? He’s Michael Jordan’s personal, right-hand man. He’s been with MJ, who wasn’t at the party, since Day One in Chicago. In other words, George is the guy who should write the definitive Jordan book.
EAVESDROPPING
“James Bond almost becomes part of your personality. There’s no getting away from him, I live with him constantly.”
Pierce Brosnan to “Access Hollywood” on portraying the super spy
