Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 68

ASBURY PARK PRESS SATURDAY, OCT. 17, 1998. PAGE G2 Hill IT PL IT! "Back-up plan? Screw that, man. I'm not going to have a back-up plan." KKOVA LOCAL CELEB? Write: Pant Gallagher, Asbury Park Press, 3601 Highway 66, Neptune, NJ 01154. I oooooooooooooooooooooooo Mx SEsiifllbyz gE20 gooys tefl gao I'm a normal human being, and we all go up and down.

KateWinslet THE 23-YEAR-OLD STAR OF "TITANIC," ON A TV TALK SHOW IN LONDON THURSDAY AFTER BEING VOTED BODY OF THE YEAR IN A WOMEN'S POLL Lake. "I love driving along the beach in Belmar and Sea Girt," said Skuby. "The East Coast is a lot different. I miss the attitude of New Jersey. Everybody's got, like, this chip py thing on their shoulder.

In L.A., everyone's more laid back." CD-ROM video game before getting a bit part on CBS-TV's "Early Edition." WESTWARD HO: Since making the move to Hollywood earlier this year, Skuby got the role on "ER" which frequently films in Chicago and will play a hit man in the upcoming, "Payback," a movie starring Mel Gibson scheduled for release next year. UPCOMING: A trip home for Christmas to visit friends and family, including his dad, Bill, who lives in Spring III Hill' HUM Did singer dine and dash? Frankie Valli and his wife are accused of getting physical with the co-owner of an upscale restaurant. Sandra Sofsry, who owns the Secret Garden with her husband, Bob, told sheriffs deputies that Randy Valli, wife of the "Big Girls Don't Cry" singer, slapped her across the face on Oct. 7 as the Vallis dined with fellow '60s idol Frankie Avalon and his wife, Kay, at the Moorpark, restaurant Mrs. Sofsry, 43, said the couples left without paying their $178 tab.

Bob Sofsry said the foursome was rude. The following day, Avalon mailed Sofsry a check for $200 and an apology. Valli's agent didn't return a telephone message left Thursday. Gleasonkin sues NJ. firm The family of the late Jackie Gleason has sued a toy company, saying it is making poor-quality dolls fashioned after "The Honeymooners" TV characters.

The Gleason Family Partnership filed the $50,000 lawsuit against Exclusive Toy Products of Me-tuchen on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Telephone messages seeking comment from Exclusive Toy Products were not returned Playwright Arthur 2 Miller is 83. Actress Marsha Hunt is 81. Actress Beverly land is 72. Actress Julie Adams is 72.

Actor Tom Poston is-i 71. Newspaper nist Jimmy Breslin is. By ERIK IARSEN STAFF WRITER MONMOUTH COUNTY native Alex Skuby plays the recurring role of Re-nato, a Chicago paramedic on NBC-TV's top-rated drama "ER," a pushy reporter on last night's CBS-TV episode of "Buddy Faro" and will portray a crazed wife-beater on the NBC miniseries, "A Will of Their Own," starring Lea Thompson, Faye Dunaway and Ellen Burstyn tomorrow at 8 p.m. Skuby, a 1990 graduate of Wall High School and alumni of Brookdale Community College in Middletown, "never thought about acting in high school." But the slightly balding, Anthony Edwards-type now lives in Hollywood, and things are definitely looking up. EARLY REALITY CHECK: "You know what I was doing? I was waking up at 3:30 in the morning, going to Caldor near Seaview Square Mall and unloading trucks.

My mom (Jean Clayton, who lives in Manasquan with his brother Ian and sister Lisa) said to me, 'Alex, if you don't get some kind of grip, you're going to be doing this for the rest of your That was like smelling salts." TURNING POINT: In order to qualify as a full-time student at Brookdale, Skuby chose an acting class on a whim. He starred in the college's play "A Few Good Men," garnering favorable notices in the role Jack Nicholson made famous. Skuby was hooked. INFLUENCES: Besides Neptune native Nicholson, Skuby cites Robert DeNiro, Al Pa-cino and Bruce Willis as stars he looks up to. He says Hollywood tends to typecast actors into three categories: the chiseled-features, blue-eyed charmer a la Brad Pitt; the "I'll be back," Arnold Schwarzenegger persona and the one Skuby says he wants to be like, the obscure, break-the-mold type like Nicholson.

DETOUR ON WAY TO THE BIG TIME: Skuby got the boot from DePaul University's School of Acting in Chicago in 1994, in part because an instructor there told him he would never amount to anything. But he liked the Windy City enough to call it home for the next four years. He worked in Chicago theater for a time and appeared in a 68. Daredevil Evel Knievel is 60. Singer Jim Seals (Seals v.syy Crofts) is 57.

Singer Gary Puckett is 56. Actor Michael McKean is 51. Actress Margot Kidder is 50.k Actor George Wendt is 50. Actor Bill son is 49. Actor Sam Bottoms is 43.

Astro naut Mae Jemison is 42. Country singer Alan Jackson is 40. Animator Mike Judge of the is 36. Reggae singer ZiggyV Marleyis30. BE Hollywood was Hollywood, no question," he said.

Other stars came to film in Asbury Park Mickey Rourke in "Homeboy," Diane Keaton in "The Lemon Sisters" but redevelopment stalled and McLaughlin left to go into politics. He served as chief of protocol for Gov. James Florio's inaugural and spent two years as deputy assistant secretary of state. But then on July 4th, 1992, at a beachfront fireworks party at Danny DeVito's Malibu, home, McLaughlin had a vision. "I was sitting under a palm tree with a pina colada, and I said to myself, 'No way am I going back to Trenton, New he said.

He faxed in his resignation, moved onto a houseboat in Marina del Ray and within a few months got the phone call that launched his new career. The Jackson family had business interests in New Jersey and were looking for someone to help them navigate the state's politics. Henry Vaccaro recommended McLaughlin, who told Jermaine how much he liked their song "One Bad Apple." 'That's the Osmonds, Jermaine told me," he said. Before long, McLaughlin was traveling to Switzerland with the Jacksons, visiting Elizabeth Taylor's chalet in Gstaad, peeking at an Oscar in the vault of Charlie Chaplin's home. (Michael and Janet, the two superstars who broke out of the family of nine children, each have their own army of managers and publicists.

McLaughlin represents them only when they join the rest of the family in a joint project, such as the recent documentary.) Then, three days before a 1994 press conference McLaughlin organized to announce "The Jackson Family Honors" TV show, Michael Jackson was accused of molesting From Page Gl ties. He ran a red carpet across the street, built a balloon tunnel in the hotel ballroom and set up klieg lights to rake the night sky. "Four of them," he remembered. "I don't do anything small." Driving over from his Ocean Grove apartment that December night, he pulled over on Lake Avenue and stood in his tuxedo, breathlessly surveying the spectacle. "It Jacksons occupy the bulk of hisk time.

Next year marks the 30th an niversary of Motown's signing 'of, the Jackson 5, and several projects are in the works. "My days in Trenton prepared, me for Hollywood," he said "There's nothing I've seen in Hollyj. wood I didn't see in Trenton firsty. Politics and entertainment are two of a kind you've got money you've got egos and you've go! power." When McLaughlin is in Asbury1 Park, he often retreats for lunch to" the Adriatic Restaurant on Kings-V ley Street. On his way there cently, he strolled through promenade behind the woman walking over from Ocekh Grove stopped and, as visitors whq haven't seen the city for a young children.

A camera crew from "Hard Copy" banged on the door of McLaughlin's Hollywood apartment one morning, catching him in his bathrobe. "I slammed that door so fast they didn't have time to get a shot," he said. He helped draft the family's response to the charges saying they believed Michael was innocent and that they stood behind him and then took half a Valium to face 500 print and broadcast media at a Los Angeles press conference. And when LaToya Jackson broke from the family and started lobbing her own charges of abuse, he orchestrated another response sent around the world via CNN. "I'm happy to report that she's very much back with her family," McLaughlin said of LaToya now.

His one-man, two-coast operation has other clients recently he has worked to promote a Bob Hope TV special and the annual New Jersey-based Tour for the Cure PGA women's golf tournament to benefit breast cancer research but the DEUOHT des-ftincattlon Pair Haven! oiten ao, caugnt ner Dream in surv, prise at the faded remnants of the, once-grand resort. McLaughlirt couldn't help but try to cheer her. 1 i(' 'It'll be back," he said. only so much oceanfront left in the1' world. It's just a matter of time." 1 nfnpTnnn HEAD FOOT RAISED COMPLETELY HEAD FOOT RAISED INTERMEDIATELY A "Wrx-.

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