People talk 11/18/02

'Seinfeld' star takes real-life role as teacher

LOS ANGELES -- Jason Alexander, best known as the underachieving George Costanza on "Seinfeld," has a new role -- he's a college professor.

Alexander, who dropped out of Boston University in his junior year to pursue acting, has been sharing his smarts this term with undergraduates at the University of Southern California as the School of Theatre's first George Burns Visiting professor.

Star-struck twentysomethings enrolled in the acting class will have the chance to audition their talent before an invited audience of agents, actors and directors later this semester.

Alexander, who was earning $600,000 per episode by the end of "Seinfeld," cautions his students to work hard and not to try to copy his success.

"I say, 'Look, if you are looking for my career, good luck, I can't tell you how to get it,"' Alexander told the Los Angeles Times. "I stepped in the right puddle. Nobody thought 'Seinfeld' would be 'Seinfeld'."

Alexander will be starring on stage soon as Max Bialystock in the Los Angeles production of "The Producers."

Ann Landers items up for auction inChicago

CHICAGO -- Fans of Ann Landers can bid for hundreds of items owned by the late columnist, including a typewriter, desk, Cadillac and autographed books.

Eppie Lederer, known as Ann Landers, died in June at the age of 83. Her 11-room Lake Shore Drive apartment was filled with possessions that an Elgin auction house will put up for bid Nov. 23-24.

Her electronic IBM typewriter and the desk it sat on will be on the block, along with more than 40 owl statues that people gave Lederer for her wise advice, said Kevin Bunte, president of Bunte Auction Services.

Her black 1992 Cadillac Brougham, with the license plate AL 55 -- for the year she started her column -- may fetch in the "upper teens," Bunte said.

The auction also offers dozens of books signed by famous authors and celebrities, from Erma Bombeck to Richard M. Nixon.

Bunte said he expects bidders to be "maybe somebody who got good advice from her in the past, or anybody interested in Chicago history or anybody who loved her column."

Other letters and memorabilia will be auctioned Nov. 24 in San Francisco.

Producer Andy Karsch loves the process

BOSTON -- Andy Karsch, producer of the upcoming Kevin Kline movie "The Emperor's Club," was back on familiar turf when the film premiered at the Boston Film Festival.

Karsch is a longtime friend of the Kennedy family, and managed Sen. Edward Kennedy's 1976 Senate campaign. He's also close with Sen. John Kerry, also a Massachusetts Democrat.

Karsch's production credits include "Town & Country" and the Oscar-nominated "Prince of Tides." He divides his time between New York and northern Vermont.

Like his new film, about a principled classics professor at a boys' prep school, Karsch says he's more at home in the world of ideas and ethics than with things like box-office grosses.

"The process is what's fun," he told The Boston Globe. "At the end of the day, you have to be happy with what you have done. It is so hard to get a film going, you've got to be with people you care about."

Crowell's new album ready to launch

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Country songwriter Rodney Crowell is set to release his new album, "Learning How to Fly," on the DMZ/Columbia label run by legendary producer T Bone Burnett.

The follow-up to his critically acclaimed and deeply personal album "The Houston Kid" is due out this spring.

"The 'Houston Kid' shone a light on the darkness," Crowell told The Tennessean newspaper, "but let's be honest: The Kid always gets the sympathy vote. It's what you do with those recognitions that writes the rest of the story."

Crowell will perform Tuesday with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash and John Hiatt at the Ryman Auditorium.

-- From wire reports