The Gazette du lieu suivant : Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 19

rvinnnrvi IT jJ LI JJ UWLi MONTREAL, MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1 988 uodiabl omage for atir Unto to 25 years later Stack is still identified with TV G-man i 5 '4 Thirtysomething's Patricia 1-4 I Emmy best-series awards swept by 2 baby-boomer shows Astern done The Untouchables on TV, either, if they had put a series clause in my contract. I figured I'd just do a couple of shows like a TV mini-scries. "In the early '60s, doing TV was tantamount to being sold into slavery and almost a guarantee that you would never work in the movies. And like a lot of other snotty actors at the time, I really wanted to work in the movies. I remember Holly-' wood friends who were skeptical of the show would tease me about what I was going to do when Ness finally got Al Capone." Stack is slated to re-enact Eliot Ness one more time on the tube.

CBS-TV is planning a made-for-TV movie next year. Stack says the show will focus more on the man than on his crime-busting feats. "It will be set in Cleveland in the late 1940s and will try to explain what became of Ness. Old matador "The show will be something like The Old Man and the Sea. I'll be playing Ness like an old matador, who has been gored once too often and who heads back one last time to face the bulls." Stack will be called upon to play a character 20 years younger than he is.

But the tall, tanned and trim Stack should have little difficulty convincing audiences he can play the part of a 50-year-old. "It doesn't matter what kind of shape you're in, how old you look or how many years you're going to live. The only thing that matters in getting work is whether or not the producer wants you." Stack who was last seen on the big screen in Caddyshack II says he has far more on his plate than he can possibly handle. "The problem is not opportunities it's time. I don't have any extra," says the actor, who lives in Bel Air with his wife of 32 years.

"I don't even have the time to do things people my age are supposed to do, like play golf and age gracefully. Or skeetshoot, for that matter." Skeetshoot? The man who made the history books for giving actress Deanna Durbin her first screen kiss in First Love in 1938 was also elected to the American Skeetshooting Hail of Fame in 1971. "Maybe I didn't have the brains not to become an actor, but I sure could shoot." More festival coverage on Page B-14. By BILL BROWNSTEIN of The Gazette r. Ness, Mr.

Ness can I have your autograph?" Twenty-five years after the last episode of The Untouchables hit the airwaves, fans like the two autograph-seeking 12-year-old girls in the lobby of the Meridien Hotel have a hard time separating crimebusting G-man Eliot Ness from the actor who pro-trayed him on the TV series. "Frankly, it doesn't matter who they remember Ness or me. Just as long they remember," says former Ness alter ego Robert Stack. Stack, who officially opened the 12th Montreal World Film Festival last Wednesday, is being feted with a film tribute this year. And though the 69-year-old actor has made 36 movies, he is still best remembered for his Emmy Award-winning work on The Untouchables.

Broke new ground "After all these years, TV is still a medium I can't figure out. Your popularity is contingent on where and when they release your show. "In France, where the show was a big hit, I still get stopped everywhere. If I didn't have my head screwed on properly, I'd think I was the greatest thing to have hit Paris since Napoleon," says Stack, who speaks fluent French. "But then I go across the channel to England where the show was never released and I'm a ghost.

Nobody knows me." Stack says it's no accident The Untouchables which was broadcast from 1959 to 1963 was such a huge hit. "We broke new ground. We brought motion picture technology to television. "And we also brought a coterie of young, extraordinarily talented New York actors whom TV audiences had never seen before to the forefront." Actors like Robert Duvall, Peter Falk and a young Robert Redford, who had just moved to New York. "No one could ever remember Red-ford's name then.

We just referred to him as 'that young surfer from Santa Gazette, Robert Lee Eliot Ness in a TV movie. the story of Pygmalion than anything else. Maybe they were right to go off in a whole new direction for the movie but they really made Eliot Ness look like a dumb-bell in the process." Stack is back on a TV series. But it's not a guns-blazing affair. He is host of Unsolved Mysteries, a series devoted to unusual phenomena.

"I still can't understand TV. Who would figure such a show would become so popular? It finished ninth in the ratings for TV specials last year and as a result was renewed." Stack was host of four episodes of the show last year and thought he had seen the end of it. "If they had put a clause in my contract last year about permanently hosting the series, I never would have done the show. But it proved to be a lot of fun. "Then again, I never would have 4 Robert Stack will return as "Unfortunately, I never got to work with him," Stack says.

"He got killed off after four pages of the script in his first episode. That's the price he had to pay for playing a nervous junkie." The success of Brian De Palma's adaptation of The Untouchables on the big screen last year has resulted in the re-release of the vintage TV series across North America and Europe. But while he is pleased about the series's return, Stack is skeptical about the movie treatment by De Palma, who is also in Montreal for the film-fest. "If you ask me what I think of the movie, I'd have to say it was a very effective motion picture. But if you ask me if it's anything like the real Eliot Ness or the book, I'd have to say no.

"They should have called the movie My Fair Eliot instead. It's more EYE ON ENTERTAINMENT Freiwald and Bailey said they didn't believe Raphael, Winfrey or Rivera suspected they were being duped. Dobie Gillis creator Shulman dies at 69 New York Times LOS ANGELES Max Shulman, novelist, playwright and humorist who created the Dobie Gillis character and steered him through four seasons on prime-time television, died of bone cancer yesterday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 69. Shulman also wrote the novel Rally Round the Flag, Boys and co-wrote the Broadway play The Tender Trap, which was later made into a humming Thomas Schnurmacher at the Film Festival Ralph Macchio, who co-stars with John Lithgow in the film Distant Thunder, is turning his upcoming visit to Montreal into a mini-vacation.

Macchio, who starred in The Karate Kid and its sequel, will devote one day to meeting the media at the film-fest, with a few days added just to have fun. Distant Thunder will be screened Friday at the festival Actor Hugh Grant, who starred in the movie Maurice, chose Mont jv is Talk-show guests admit they made up sex stories Reuter Wettig with Emmy last night. young mother with a rocky marriage on thirtysomething, won as best supporting actress in a drama. Jane Seymour's portrayal of Maria Callas on Onassis: The Pi-chest Man in the World, won her an Emmy for best supporting actress in a mini-series or special, and John Shea won the supporting actor award in that category for his role as Bill Stern in ABC's Baby M. Writing awards went to ABC's Frank's Place and thirtysomething, and Jackie Mason on Broadway on the Home Box Office pay-TV network, in the first year cable networks were eligible for Emmys.

Directing Emmys went to NBC's now-cancelled drama St. Elsewhere, ABC's comedy Hooperman, the CBS mini-series The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank, General Foods Golden Showcase and the public-TV special Celebrating Gershwin: Great Performances. Robin Williams won an Emmy for ABC Presents a Royal Gala. "Now I am officially overwhelmed!" the bearded Larroquette said as he picked up his fourth statuette. 1 He jokingly thanked the Emmy voters for their "magnanimous generosity and their keen eye for talent." CBS grabbed an early lead for prime-time awards with 17 statuettes, including three for Beauty and the Beast, in a non-televised presentation Saturday of Emmys in technical and non-competitive categories.

ABC picked up 15 early Emmys, while NBC captured 1 List of winners The major winners at the 40th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards presented last night were: Drama Series: thirtysomething, ABC. Comedy Series: The Worder Years, ABC. Miniseries: The Murder of Mary Phagan, NBC. Lead Actor in a Drama series: Richard Kiley, A Year in the Life, NBC. Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Michael J.

Fox, Family Ties, NBC. Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Tyne Daly, Cagney and Lacey, CBS. Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Beatrice Arthur, The Golden Girls, NBC. Variety, Music or Comedy Program: Irving Berlin's 100th Birthday Celebration, CBS. nights during his stay in Montreal The Saturday-night crowd in Old Montreal included actor Victor Garber, who plays Liberace, and Oscar-winning actress Maureen Stapleton, who plays his mother, in the Liberace TV feature now being filmed in Montreal.

After a full day on the set, Garber and Stapleton went to Les Serres in Old Montreal for a late-night nosh with the film's Emmy award-winning director David Greene, producer Murray Shos- tak and exec producer Nancy I Bein. i Not the film-fest: Singer Sade, who performed a seamless, if somewhat brief, set at the Forum on Saturday night, dined at the Sa-1 vini Italian eatery on Lincoln Ave. PASADENA, Calif. (AP) ABC's baby-boomer shows thirty-something, the drama about people in their 30s struggling in the 1980s, and The Wonder Years, a 1960s nostalgia comedy, won as best drama and comedy series respectively at the Emmy Awards last night. But LA.

Law, the series with the" most Emmy nominations 19 failed to deliver on its promise. The series earned only one award, for best supporting actor Larry Drake. Edmonton-born, Burnaby, B.C.-raised Michael J. Fox of Family Ties won his third as lead actor in a comedy series. The newlywed Fox, who won three years in a row for playing the upwardly mobile Alex Keaton on Family Ties, said: "I can't be any happier than to say I thank my wife, Tracy." Tyne Daly won her fourth Emmy for lead actress in the police drama Cagney and Lacey.

Last year's winner Richard Kiley was picked as best lead actor in a drama for the cancelled but highly acclaimed series A Year in the Life, and he chastised NBC for the "corporate myopia that killed a fine show." John Larroquette won his fourth straight Emmy as best supporting actor in the comedy Night Court. Beatrice Arthur joined her two Golden Girls co-stars, previous winners Rue McClanahan and Betty White, in picking up the Emmy for best actress in a comedy series. Es-telle Getty, who plays the feisty matriarch on the NBC series, won as best supporting actress. Larry Drake picked up an award for best supporting actor in a drama series for his sensitive portrayal of a mentally retarded office boy on L.A. Law.

That was the only award won by L.A. Law, last year's big winner at the Emmys during the televised presentation last night. No one show dominated the awards. The Emmy show was expected to heap more awards on L.A. Law, NBC's flashy serial about the bad and the beautiful in the legal profession.

The Steven Bochco production was by far the biggest winner in this year's nominations 19 compared with 12 apiece for Beauty and the Beast and The Golden Girls and 11 for Cheers. Like Hill Street Blues, it was widely expected to open an era of Emmy domination last night. Patricia Wettig, the struggling he was the groom. Although Lee didn't get to sleep until 6 a.m. yesterday, he showed up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, for his 10 a.m.

appointment yesterday morning to photograph Robert Stack. His photo appears above. Movie elite meet to eat: Film critic Roger Ebert, director Brian De Palma, Grant and Hurley were among a group of festival-goers who gathered for an informal dinner party last night at the Chrysanthemum restaurant on Crescent Robert Stack dropped by the Mi-los seafood eatery on Park Ave. on Thursday night Stack must have liked the place, because as he left he made reservations to return on two subsequent film with Debbie Reynolds. He wrote a best-seller, Barefoot Boy With Cheek, when he was a college student and later completed other novels, including The Feather Merchants and The Zebra Derby.

Rivers pens Part 2 of autobiography NEW YORK (AP) Joan Rivers, who's rarely at a loss for words, is writing another book about herself. Rivers's new book will cover her career climb, including her stint as a late-night talk-show host, and her husband Edgar's suicide, New York Magazine reports in its Aug. 29 issue. The magazine said Random House paid $400,000 for the book, which it plans to publish in 1990. "It will be the tale of an astonishing actress and comedienne who is slowly building her life," said Random House editor Susan Kamil.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) An actor and actress said they duped viewers of three U.S. televised talk shows and their hosts, Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael and Geraldo Rivera. In an interview from Chicago with the Omaha World-Herald newspaper, Wes Bailey, 33, and Tani Freiwald, 37, said they wore disguises and made up stories as they took on roles that fit into the talk shows' frank discussions of personal problems. Bailey pretended to be both an unmarried virgin and an impotent married man on different shows.

Freiwald pretended to be a sex-hating wife and a sexual helpmate. Spokesmen for the Oprah Winfrey and Sally Jessy Raphael shows said they had no reason to disbelieve the actors. Christine Tardio, a spokesman for Winfrey, explaining how guests' stories would be difficult to check in advance said: "We don't stake out someone's bedroom." Party line Long-distance phone lines at the festival are buzzing in an effort to extend invitations to the stars of such films as The Manchurian Candidate, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Fixer and French Connection II. All these films, you see, were directed by John Frankenheimer, who will be the subject of a Montreal World Film Festival tribute Saturday. Frankenheimer's classic film The Manchurian Candidate, which will be screened Saturday, stars Frank Sinatra, Janet Leigh and Angela Lansbury.

There's a chance Leigh or Lansbury may attend the party, but it's highly unlikely ol' Blue Eyes will show up. On the other hand, he may send an appropriately gushing a v' JOAN RIVERS Book release next year On Saturday morning, local lens-man Robert Lee, who's been photographing the celebs at the film festival, took a couple of hours off for personal reasons. He got married. If you think you've had a hectic weekend, you should have seen this man's schedule. On Saturday morning, the 29-year-old photographer went to the courthouse.

There he married 25-year-old Montrealer Lucie Riel, who is descended from the famous Louis Riel. Following the brief ceremony, Lee rushed back to the film festival to photograph actress Maruschka Detmers, who stars in the American film Hanna's War. The next items on Lee's agenda were two wedding receptions, one in Chinatown and one in Longueuil. He had to go, of course. After all, ft as festival organizes tribute to director real's film festival over another he might have attended because he had such a good time here a couple of months ago playing Charles Heidsieck in the TV mini-series, Champagne Charlie.

The usual hubbub at film festival headquarters at the Meridien Hotel diminished by a decibel or two when Grant arrived with his gal pal, stunning British actress Elizabeth Hurley. Hurley was an absolute knockout in the mini-est of black leather mini-skirts. Grant is one of the stars of The Dawning, which will be screened today at 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. and tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m.

Grant also appears in the latest Ken Russell film, Lair of the White Worm, which will be screened today at 5:20 p.m. and tomorrow at 5 p.m..