Miguel Ferrer Didn't Quit 'Crossing Jordan,' Changes on 'ER'

Andy Dick admits, "it kind of was emotional" directing himself in his forthcoming semi-autobiographical feature, "Danny Roane: First Time Director." "At times it was difficult, funny, cathartic and also very easy to make because, you know, I just know the subject matter really well."
 
The project -- featuring a bunch of his industry pals, including Jack Black -- has Dick's character being blackballed from TV. To break back in, "He decides to make a serious movie about alcoholism, which was the reason he was blackballed," says Dick, whose past substance abuse problems have been highly chronicled. But then the character falls off the wagon and turns his film into a musical.
 
"It's being edited as we speak. I think it might come out in the winter," says Andy, who's also busy hosting MTV's new "Reality Show," in which contestants are vying to get their own reality series.
 
Andy tells us his desire to direct was fueled by his jealous feelings toward his creative partner, Marshall Cook, who directed their short film, "AdCorp, Inc." -- a 12-minute comedy that takes us behind the scenes in advertising. It debuts online (www.moviefone.com/shorts) on AOL's Moviefone Short Film Festival today (9/22).
 
"We were driving by a Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Andy was wondering, 'What is the deal with that name?'" Cook recalls. Inspired, they came up with a story that Andy says "shows the lameness of the advertising world, how overly important every little decision is."

Dick knows of what he makes fun, having acted in and directed commercials, including a break-with-tradition 17-minute ad for Chevy's new HHR car that premieres on tonight's (9/22) "Tonight Show With Jay Leno." It will be spaced throughout the show.
 
ALL OVER BUT THE SCHADENFREUDE:

Miguel Ferrer's "Crossing Jordan" character, Dr. Garret Macy, got fired at the end of last season -- and Miguel hasn't heard the end of it. "On the hiatus, people were coming up to me wherever I went saying, 'I can't believe you quit the show!' And I'd have to say, 'I didn't quit the show,'" he tells us. "The best one was after we'd started production again. I was on a weekend trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, and missed a connection in Salt Lake City, and I was supposed to be back in L.A. to shoot the next morning." Told there was a flight he could take but the first-class section was full, "I said, 'I'll fly on the wing if I have to.' So, the plane is packed. I come in, and this guy yells out, 'Oh, sure! You get fired off your TV show, and now you're riding in back with the rest of us!'" Ferrer says he thought of explaining, realized, "I couldn't win this one," and finally just told the guy, "Life is strange, isn't it?"
 
Macy's cliffhanger will be resolved "fairly quickly" into the new season -- which launches Sunday (9/25), but other trouble looms. The character's daughter (Alex McKenna) and ex-wife (Lindsay Frost) are returning, and the producers "just told me to be prepared to 'go dark.'"
 
THE VIDEOLAND VIEW:

Linda Cardellini says to expect some big changes for her character, Sam, this season on 'ER," which premieres tonight (9/22). "I think Sam and Kovac will go their separate ways," she admits of her on-screen relationship with Goran Visnjic. "Whether they get back together, I have no idea. We'll see where that leads their lives. If we do end up breaking up for good, I think it will be interesting for the both of us. Sam didn't really get a chance to be on her own" (on the show), she notes. "I think it's going to get back to Sam struggling to raise a child and making ends meet at the same time."
 
COACH THYSELF:

"Starting Over" is back this week with an intensive three-week "relationship boot camp" involving four couples. Ironically, it reminds life coach Rhonda Britten of the one thing missing in her own life -- love. "I want to get married. I want to find my mate," admits Britten, who spends her time helping others. Although the show has brought her admirers, "they're all scared of me. The challenge is that people see me on TV or read my books, and they think I'll coach them all the time. I don't coach in my personal relationships, but they don't know that."
 
It certainly hasn't kept everyone away, though. 'I get e-mails from people begging me to help them. People hand me tapes on the fly. I've even had people tell me they'll commit suicide in 24 hours if I don't call them," says Britten. "But most of the time people stop me just to say thank you. I get letters on a regular basis from people who said they changed their lives just from watching 'Starting Over.'"

(With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster)

The Beck/Smith syndicated newspaper column includes exclusive in-depth, behind-the-scenes reports on the stars, on the business of television and movie-making, and on the recording, publishing and media beats.

©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.