People talk 7/25/02

Art imitates life as TV mom is expecting

MILWAUKEE -- No more hiding behind giant frying pans, chairs and refrigerator doors.

Jane Kaczmarek's third real-life pregnancy will be written into her Emmy-nominated role as Lois on TV's "Malcolm in the Middle."

"I've been told they're going to work the pregnancy into the show," Kaczmarek told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week. "The plan is to do some episodes with Lois not pregnant, and then some pregnant."

The last time the 46-year-old Greendale native was pregnant, she spent a lot of time on the show hiding her expanding middle.

The actress and husband Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing," a Madison, Wis., native, have a 4-year-old daughter, Frances, and a 2-year-old son, George. They married in 1992 after meeting in New York, years after both had left Wisconsin.

The couple knows the gender of the baby, which is due in November, but she wouldn't reveal it.

No shortage of fans for tough-talking singer

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Country singer Toby Keith performed his song that warns terrorists, "You'll be sorry you messed with the U.S. of A.," which has drawn criticism for its angry lyrics.

About 500 concertgoers aboard the battleship USS New Jersey, now berthed on the Camden waterfront as a museum and tourist attraction, cheered wildly Tuesday as Keith played his guitar and sang the tune, titled "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)."

The song includes this warning to the Sept. 11 attackers: "We'll put a boot in your ass." ABC deemed it too angry to lead off a July 4 primetime family television special.

Keith, Country Music Awards male vocalist of the year, said he discounts the recent criticism. He said he wrote the song for his late father, an Army veteran.

-- From wire reports