People talk 2/28/02

'Survivor' show returns to tropical setting

NEW YORK -- Maybe it was the return to a tropical setting, but "Survivor" host Jeff Probst says the CBS show's fourth edition was more fun than its third, set in a dusty African game reserve.

The fourth "Survivor," which premieres on Thursday, is set on the South Pacific island of Marquesas.

"All I know is from day one I was laughing," Probst said Tuesday.

And Probst offers one piece of advice to potential "Survivor" contestants who are doing their own auditioning: Be authentic.

"You can't will us into taking you," he said. "Embrace who you are and it will either work or it won't."

Taylor turns 70, says she feels 45

LOS ANGELES -- Elizabeth Taylor, who became a 12-year-old star in "National Velvet," is 70.

"I had a party last night," Taylor, who turned 70 on Wednesday, said Tuesday night.

"I'm having one tomorrow. And I think I'll have one over the weekend."

Taylor has gone through eight marriages and seven divorces, one widowhood and several life-threatening illnesses.

"I feel like 45," she said. "I don't look too bad for someone my age, with my history of illnesses and operations and all those anesthetics. When they knock you out, it gives you time to catch up on your beauty sleep."

Being 70 is "no different from being 69," said Taylor, who won best-actress Oscars for "Butterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

"It's a round number, and there's something about roundness that has always appealed to me."

As for future plans, she'll continue raising money to fight AIDS.

"AIDS is challenge enough until they find a cure," she said. "It's the challenge of a lifetime for anyone. And I'm not going to give up until there is a cure."

Taylor is also willing to do another movie, but added, "When you're 70, they figure you should be out to pasture."

The actress, who was born in London on Feb. 27, 1932, is happy to accept honors like the one bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II two years ago.

"You can call me Dame Elizabeth," she quipped. "I've been a broad all my life. Now I'm a dame."

Director says mistakes sometimes pay off

NEW YORK -- He's nominated for an Oscar for best director, but Robert Altman says some of the best moments in his films happened by accident.

"The best six, seven moments in any film that I've ever done have come from left field, or someplace that I had nothing to do with them," the 77-year-old director said.

"Suddenly it was just, 'Wow, what was that?"'

Altman is nominated for "Gosford Park." The other best-director contenders are Ron Howard, "A Beautiful Mind"; Ridley Scott, "Black Hawk Down"; Peter Jackson, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"; and David Lynch, "Mulholland Drive."

If he gives actors tips on how to play a scene, it ruins the spontaneity, Altman told reporters.

"That's why I don't talk to actors very much. I don't give direction. What I'm looking for is something I've never seen before, so how can I tell them what that is? So I just lay back and wait for the accidents to happen," he stated.

Altman, whose films include "M.A.S.H.," "Nashville" and "The Player," added, "If an actor comes to me and says, 'How do you want me to play this scene?' I'll say, 'Oh, are you comfortable in those shoes?' I'll do anything to avoid answering that question."

Actress seeks increase in NYC school funding

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Cynthia Nixon, who plays cynical lawyer Miranda on HBO's "Sex and the City," lobbied the state Legislature and Gov. George Pataki for more funds for New York City schools.

"If Miranda were real, I would try to persuade her to send her son to a public school because I believe in them," Nixon said in Albany during a day of lobbying Tuesday.

-- From wire reports