People talk 10/27/03

Crowe looks forward to next role: Dad-iator

LOS ANGELES -- Oscar-winner Russell Crowe can't wait to take on his next role -- as a father.

"Like, whoa, this is gonna be fun," Crowe told Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart on Saturday.

Crowe, 39, and his wife, Danielle Spencer, are expecting their first child in January.

Crowe, who won an Academy Award for "Gladiator," said he doesn't expect fatherhood will crimp his career, at least not in the beginning.

"He's gonna travel with me," said Crowe, who also was nominated for an Oscar in "A Beautiful Mind."

"I mean that's the plan at this point in time. I think prior to him going to school I think the best thing to do is to make sure that he is wherever I am," Crowe said.

"Once he goes to school things are really going to have to change at supposedly that point. 'Cause I don't think I'd like to do anything, you know, more than pick him up from the school gate every day."

This fall, Crowe appears as a Napoleonic-era naval captain in the film "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."

Writer Hedges hedged away from acting

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" author Peter Hedges says he struggled as an acting student at the North Carolina School of the Arts.

But instructors of the novelist and playwright recognized his potential.

"They saw that I was a writer before I did," said Hedges, who visited the Winston-Salem college recently. He graduated in 1984.

Hedges, 41, is making his directing debut with "Pieces of April," a Sundance Film Festival favorite that stars Katie Holmes and Patricia Clarkson.

The comic drama opened nationally Oct. 17. Hedges showed the film Friday at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and spoke with drama and film-making students.

Earlier this year, Hedges received an Oscar nomination for his movie "About A Boy."

Jessica Lynch wants to help soldiers' children

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Former POW Jessica Lynch is working to establish a foundation that will be intended to help children of active-duty soldiers, her lawyer says.

Lynch, 20, is still recovering from injuries suffered in Iraq when her convoy was ambushed on March 23.

Her lawyer, Stephen Goodwin, said Lynch wants to set up the foundation in memory of her best friend, Spc. Lori Piestewa, of Tuba City, Ariz., who was killed in the attack. Piestewa left behind two children, Brandon, 5, and Carla, 3.

"This is because of Lori more than anything," Goodwin said Friday. "Jessi loves little kids and wanted to give something back."

Details of eligibility for aid are still being discussed, a spokesman for Lynch, Aly Goodwin Gregg, said Sunday.

The foundation will be partially funded with proceeds from Lynch's upcoming book, Goodwin said. "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story" is scheduled for released on Veterans Day.

-- From wire reports