The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 13

TheGouner-News B-5 Landers B-6 Movie timetable B-8 HELP! B-10 Friday, September 9, 1988 IS Eton Johnson trying out new roles Contestants dress to win Wardrobe costs range from $50,000 for Texas to $3,000 for New Jersey 'Miami Vice' star has recorded an album ancl made two films i' i I f-; it A i-y1 I By CANDACE BURKE-BLOCK New York Times Syndication Don Johnson is late. He is still racing around the Hollywood Hills on his motorcycle with his 5 Vi -year-old son, Jesse. "I've been under a lot of pressure in the last week trying to finish my new record, so it has been hectic," he says when arriving at the interview. In fact, according to Johnson, the motorcycle ride with Jesse (whose mother is Patti D'Arbanville) marks the end of the first vacation Johnson has taken in several years. The following day he is due in New York City to complete his as-yet-untitled album, which he describes as "pop-rock with a rhythm-and-blues feel to it" (due out in late autumn on the EpicCBS label).

Then he is scheduled to do a publicity tour in Europe. "Up until two weeks ago I had not taken time off in four and a half years," he says. "So I took about two weeks and Jesse and I went to my ranch in Colorado, took the, horses and went on a three-day trip to decompress from all the phones and everything else. We hung out in the mountains and did a little fly-fishing." Shortly after their return to Los Angeles Johnson participated in one of his favorite sports, powerboat racing. "I took second place last week on Lake Michigan just outside Grand Rapids It is a 160-mile race and I would have won, but I ran out of gas in the last 4 miles," he says, laughing.

Indeed, Johnson puts his full energy into everything he does, whether it is racing boats and motorcycles or making movies and records. "I'm a guy who likes to get the most out of life. I got my first professional contract at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco at the age of 18," says the 38-year-old actor. "I've never made a living doing anything else, so I guess that qualifies me as an actor. "There is something noble about the art of acting.

Then there are times when I feel it is no job for a man at all and I should get a real job. But then I realize that I'm not qualified for anything else." What about politics? "Yeah, right! Not with my background. If they are after (Indiana Sen. Dan) Quayle with his background on the draft they would have a field day with mine. Being sober now is about all I have going for me in the history department," says Johnson, whose drug and alcohol abuse has been widely publicized.

"The truth is that I had one long party for about 10 years and one day I woke up and didn't like feeling as if I had been kicked in the head," he says. "I don't do anything now. I got to the point where I realized that if it didn't serve me, I didn't have time for it. That goes for cigarettes and caffeine. Not on a moral or religious level, but on a health level." Part of his healthy new lifestyle includes exercise.

"I do it with a vengeance. I run 4 or 5 miles a day and pedal a stationary bike at night. I pump a little iron and do anywhere from 150 to 300 sit-ups a day," he says. In his new movie, "Sweet Hearts Dance," which opens nationwide Sept. 23, Johnson plays Wiley Boon, a 35-year-old Vermont native who lives in the small town in which he was born and raised.

Boon is married to his high school sweetheart (Susan Sarandon), but she must compete for his affections with his high school buddy (Jeff Daniels). It is a small movie, but filled with romantic and sexual tensions as the couple battle to save their marriage. "I will tell you what this movie is not about," Johnson says. "It is not about car chases, somebody getting murdered or solving a crime. It is about the fact that we can fax a manuscript a few thousand miles in a matter of minutes, but we cannot sit across from each other and tell each other how we feel.

That is the most significant achievement we must make as a human race. It would be nice if it were done some time in this century, but time is running out." To play the role of Boon, Johnson gained between 15 and 20 pounds. "I didn't want Wiley to look slick or streetwise like Sonny Crockett (Johnson's character on By VALERIE HELMBRECK Gannett News Service The winner of the nation's first beauty pageant spent a sleepless night before being crowned "Miss United States the most beautiful unmarried woman in our nation." Myrtle Meriwether of Shinglehouse, winner of the Rehoboth Beach, Del, pageant, had spent most of her money on her evening gown. After entering the contest, she realized she was going to need the prize money to get home, and the day after being crowned, she reportedly sold her brocade dress for about half what she paid for it. In the 1980s, some contestants for the Miss America pageant will spend more than $100,000 on clothes, makeup, talent lessons and, sometimes, plastic surgery to get to the state finals of the pageant.

But most of the girls who show up in Atlantic City these days have a return ticket home and their wardrobe is paid for. Clothes may not make the woman, but they're a big part of packaging Miss America. The glittery gowns that spectators see on the runway in Atlantic City don't usually come off the rack of the local department store. Many are custom-designed and made by dressmakers who specialize in "special occasion" clothes and charge "special" prices. The gowns can cost up to about 115,000.

Southern contestants spend far and away the most money on pageant clothes. The wardrobe budget for a Miss Texas is said to be close to $50,000. Compare that to the $5,000 wardrobe budget for Miss Delaware or the paltry award for Miss New Jersey. How much Is spent on a state winner's clothes depends on the wealth of the state pageant organization. Groups with strong support from the local business community have more money to spend on their contestant's wardrobe.

The national pageant organization gives each state $1,000 toward competition clothes. The contestants themselves never see the money. While they may have a say in what they wear, each state's pageant board of directors supervises most of the purchases. Serious contestants the pros are turned over to a special occasions fashion consultant for outfitting. One of the South's premier pageant designers is Stevens "S.E." Moore of Hattiesburg, Miss.

Moore was responsible for the clothes for Miss America 1986, Susan Akin of Mississippi. His claim to fame last year was outfitting the second runner-up, Staci James, Miss Nevada. While he will do gowns for preliminary contestants, Moore says he prefers to work with state winners. "When a girl wins, the pageant people change everything she's doing anyway," he says. The designer says he likes to have the girls come to Hattiesburg to be fitted and likes to see how they walk and carry themselves.

"I usually ask to see a tape of their talent," he says. "I like to see how they move around on stage before I design the talent gown." Moore even considers which song a girl will sing before deciding on the concept: "You never put 'Stormy Weather' in a yellow dress," he says. The price of this special attention is steep: Moore's gowns start at about $900 for a simple dress and go up to about $2,500 for his elaborate, hand-beaded evening gowns. Even so, Moore doesn't charge nearly as much as designers like Stephen Yearlck of Greenville, C. See DRESS on Page B-10 It.

PageUp photo Don Johnson will discuss his movies, his TV role, his new album. But his personal life Is strictly "Miami I wanted Wiley to be every normal guy. He has reached a point in his life where he wants to shake things up because he senses a loss of passion and enthusiasm in his marriage," he says. Boon is very different from Jerry Beck, a character based on a real-life homicide detective in Los Angeles, who Johnson recently finished playing in the John Fran-kenheimer fijm "Dead Bang," to be released next summer. "We wrapped it up a month ago," he says.

"Beck, who is on the trail of a killer, uncovers a well-organized, amply funded network of white supremacists. I was not sure if it was the kind of material I wanted to get involved in. But the more I talked to John, who came to Miami three times last year to talk to me about it, and the more enthusiasm John showed toward me, the more wrapped up I got in the script." When Johnson returns from Europe he will go to Miami to start filming the fifth season of the NBC-TV series "Miami Vice." "It is a wonderful show and millions of Americans watch it every week," he says. "We do the best we can, given the contrivances and budgetary considerations, but, let's face it, you're still making 22 episodes in the time it takes people to make two films." How would Johnson describe Sonny Crockett? "He is a study in despair," Johnson says. "I joke with the producers and writers, saying this is the undoing of a man.

In the fifth season we are toying with the idea of what happens to this guy and I've managed to organize some things. "We left Crockett an outlaw at the end of last season and he is going to remain that way for a while. I can't tell you for how long, but it is going to start with a bang and the season will culminate in a two-hour special about what happens to this guy." One last question, although I know he will be reluctant to discuss it at length, despite the fact that his relationship with Barbra Streisand has been front-page news on most of the tabloids recently. I plunge ahead. "You've been seeing Barbra Streisand for a while," I say.

"This interview is over," he says angrily. "That has nothing to do with me. And I hope you appreciate my preference for not discussing my private life!" TED DANSON STIVE nmmnRG SHI LO School gives some Moms a vacation How film-makers keep us posted 1 JU rX PAUL FRANKLIN Courier-News Columnist Clock alarms and school bells started ringing again this week. Sounds of silence for some people. For mothers of many Central Jersey week rang in the return of a routine.

While early morning became more hectic three kids elbowing for one bathroom the rest of the day was all theirs. Finally. "I've been looking forward to this day for 19 years, to have the house quiet," Linda Hahn of Ringoes said Wednesday after sending off 7-year-old Ryan to first grade and 14-year-old Jennifer to high school. "This is enjoyable. No television, no music, no nothing." Hahn, who works part time at a local library, also has a 19-year-old son.

"I've waited a long time for this," she added with a smile. "I deserve this day." Elaine Smith of North Pla infield was getting closer to such a day. She sent four kids off to school Wednesday, leaving only 3-year-old Jenny at home. "This is the first summer I can remember being relieved that they're gone," she said. Melanie is in 10th grade, Todd in eighth, Brent in fifth and Joe in afternoon kindergarten.

Summer usually started at 8:30 a.m. for the Smith children. A 8:30 a.m. alarm sent a chill through the Since commercial cinema was first introduced in 1895, posters (known as one-sheets, which referred to a standard-size poster that fit into a display case) were used to familiarize the public with the new medium, according to Steve Schapiro and David Chierichetti, authors of "The Movie Poster Book" (E.P. Dutton, 1979).

The ads depicted audiences (rendered in full color) watching black-and-white Images on-screen. Film titles were not mentioned in early posters, which instead advertised the company providing the program (i.e., Edison in the United States) and the name of the hall where it was being shown. By the 1920s posters featured beautiful portraits of film stars, such as Mabel Normand, whose faces were laced against simple backgrounds, he only written words were the title and the names of stars at the bottom of the poster, and occasionally a brief slogan, With few exceptions the posters See POSTERS on Page B-6 By MONICA McCABE New York Times Syndication During the run of "Three Men and a Baby," which opened in November 1987, the film celebrated four holidays, one Super Bowl and Valentine's Day. In case audiences hadn't noticed, the film's distributor, Touchstone Pictures, reminded them by incorporating the events into newspaper advertisements. Expanding on its movie poster, which depicts Tom Selleck holding a baby with Ted Danson at his left side and Steve Guttenberg at his right, Touchstone outfitted all four characters in head wear that corresponded with a special day, including a Santa Claus cap for Christmas, a football helmet for Super Bowl Sunday and a cocked hat for George Washington's birthday.

The strategy worked. "Three Men and a Baby" is Walt Disney Pictures Touchstone's biggest box-office hit. And part of that success is because of the studio's movie poster. i I .1 'i I I 1 1 1 kids Wednesday. By 7:15, Melanie was downstairs and ready for breakfast, complete with makeup.

"The boys staggered down, with their hair standing on end from being washed the night before," the mother said. "They slumped down in their chairs and said, 'Is this real? Does school really start "And I said, 'Yes, Smith, a craft maker who works at home, told her children to mark the calendar. Although she made lunch for all of them Wednesday, they are on their own the rest of the school See SCHOOL on Page B-10 PAGEANT TIDBITS: Newsy notes about Miss America contestants. Coming up tomorrow HOME GYMS: Stationary exercise bikes are the big winners. TO CALL THE EDITOR LifeStyle Editor Connie Ballard can be reached by calling 707-3150..