People talk 10/18/01

Emmy winner applies test to each script

When deciding on a new project, actress Alfre Woodard uses her "page 50" test.

"If I can get to that point in a script and still be intrigued by the character, I start to get my hopes up," she tells MORE magazine in its October issue.

"There's a part of me saying to the writer: 'This is good, don't make the character do something stupid. Don't bail on me now!"'

The Emmy-winning actress stars with Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey in the new film "K-Pax," a drama about a mental patient who claims he's from a distant planet.

Woodard, 47, says finding good roles can be a challenge.

"Being in a film or a TV show is such a rigorous process that you have to believe in what you're doing," she says.

Turner has cameo in Civil War film

Ted Turner will have a cameo role in the Civil War film "Gods and Generals," which he is financing, a spokesman said.

Turner will reprise his role from the 1993 film "Gettysburg," publicist Vic Heutschy said Monday. He will play Col. Waller T. Patton, the great uncle of World War II Gen. George S. Patton.

"Gods and Generals," directed by Ronald Maxwell, is a prequel to "Gettysburg," which Maxwell also directed.

Turner visited "Gods and Generals" to observe shooting of a scene in Hagerstown earlier this month. Heutschy said he didn't know exactly when Turner will return for his cameo scene.

The film is being shot in and around Washington County.

Singer's husband accused of impropriety

The husband of country singer Sara Evans announced he's running for Congress. But Democrats sounded a sour note, accusing him of improperly raising campaign money.

Craig Schelske said on Monday that he'll seek the Republican nomination for the Oregon House seat held by Democratic Rep. Darlene Hooley, who's expected to seek a fourth term next year.

The state Democratic Party sent a complaint on Monday to the Federal Elections Commission, accusing Schelske of violating federal law by using Evans' performances to raise funds without registering as a candidate with the FEC.

Schelske said he was allowed to raise money through an exploratory committee he formed while deciding whether to run and didn't have to register because he hasn't been an official candidate.

McGovern: This is a different kind of war

Military action alone will not win the war against terrorism, former U.S. Sen. George McGovern said.

"This is a very different kind of war than we have ever seen," said McGovern, most recently the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.

McGovern said he supports the appropriation of $40 billion for the war against terrorism, but wants President Bush and Congress to spend at least $5 billion of that on feeding and educating needy mothers and children worldwide.

That could be in the form of good, nutritious school lunches for every child in the world, ensuring nutritional supplements for needy mothers and infants through age 5, and providing better teachers and more desks and books for schools everywhere.

"Whatever we can do to nurture healthy minds and bodies may also reduce the desperation and some of the searing anger of terrorism," McGovern told the opening session of the University of Montana's 2001 Mansfield Conference on Monday.

Payments for Bing's music sought in court

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- A lawsuit accusing Universal Music Group of underpaying royalties on Bing Crosby's recordings is scheduled for a Nov. 5 state court hearing.

The heirs of Crosby, who died in 1977 at age 73, filed the lawsuit seeking $16 million. It alleges that the singer, who did most of his recording for Decca Records from the 1930s through the 1960s, negotiated a deal calling for royalties on all songs recorded before 1949 to be paid at 15 percent of their wholesale price, with royalties for recordings made after then to be paid at 7 percent of their retail price.

According to the lawsuit, an audit showed royalties of 7 percent on all Crosby recordings.

--From wire reports