'ER' STAR SLIMS DOWN THANKS TO HOME-GROWN PRODUCE

Published: August 22, 2003

By Barbara De Witt

Yvette Freeman, best-known as nurse Haleh Adams on the long-running TV drama "ER," is now promoting gardening as good medicine.

The actress, who shed more than 100 pounds after enrolling in a special UCLA weight-loss program, is keeping herself in shape with the help of a steady harvest of vegetables and herbs from her own back yard.

"When I was told by my doctor that I was on my way to Type II diabetes, I started planting fewer flowers and more vegetables," said Freeman as she gave a tour of some of her favorite plants, which grow at the foot of a gently sloping hill overlooking the swimming pool of her Glendale home.

Among them are budding eggplants, lilac peppers, collard greens, red onions, kale, tomatoes, zucchini and watermelons, which are still producing after a long, hot summer. Herbs, including rosemary, basil, oregano, mint and thyme, are grown in containers in a shady nook near her kitchen.

The backyard garden is at the heart of Freeman's weight-loss regimen, which includes regular walking, kick-boxing, light weight training, swimming and golfing. She also keeps track of the food and calories she consumes.

"Since I count calories and log in daily to a food diary, I knew that eating more vegetables was going to maintain my weight loss. And, knowing they are available right outside my door is a great incentive."

Freeman has dropped 120 pounds since enrolling in UCLA's Obesity Risk Factor Program, an intensive weight-loss program that uses a combination of diet, exercise, behavior modification and appetite suppressant drugs to achieve results. The 46-year-old actress now weighs a trim 140 pounds.

While Freeman's poor health spurred her interest in gardening, she is far from alone in her passion for growing her own food. She is among a growing number of Americans who are not only getting back in touch with nature but rediscovering the joys of fresh-from-the-earth carrots and collard greens, said Ellen Kirby, president of the New York-based American Community Gardening Association.

"Even in upscale neighborhoods like the Hamptons in New York, people are renting plots to raise vegetables," said Kirby, who estimates there are now more than 10,000 community gardens across the country.

Nurseryman Emilio Telles of Armstrong Garden Center in Sherman Oaks is also tracking the trend, citing a steady increase in vegetable seed and plant sales during the past 14 years.

"The most popular are tomatoes sold in 4-inch pots, but bell peppers and carrots also are popular with beginners," he said.

Freeman's own green thumb grew gradually, starting with childhood forays into her grandmother's vegetable garden to pick collard greens. She was also influenced by her husband, jazz pianist and arranger Lanny Hartley, who has always grown his own vegetables.

When Freeman decided to start growing vegetables, she began with collard greens and tomatoes. She soon added peppers, green beans, squash and watermelon.

"Most of them were easy to plant," she said. "It's the waiting for the product that is hard, and finding ways to keep bugs off."

And while mature herbs were easy to find in abundance at local nurseries, Freeman found they are sensitive to their environment.

"The hard part is finding a location where they are the happiest as far as sun, wind, shade and so on," she said.

Since adopting her healthy lifestyle, Freeman has discovered new ways to incorporate favorite vegetables into home-cooked meals. She uses collard greens, for example, in her own version of Greek roll-ups.

"I use collard greens instead of grape leaves and stuff them with mushrooms and rice instead of meat," she said, adding she's also learned to propagate them by planting a leaf in the ground and watering it.

Now she dreams of having "collard trees," she said, chuckling.

The actress also has learned to substitute fruit in place of sugary foods.

"In addition to eating vegetables, I now eat fruits, especially watermelon, since it has hardly any calories; it was never a favorite before, but now I love it."

In fact, she's become a connoisseur of the native African fruit. Her favorite is Star, a seedless watermelon heirloom variety dating back to 1910.

"Heirloom gardening" involves planting seeds with a history, allowing gardeners to see, taste and smell food as previous generations did. In fact, Freeman said she finds heirloom melons and tomatoes have a richer taste.

When she's not tending her garden or working on the set of "ER" (which starts its new season Sept. 25), she works on other projects. Freeman recently wrote and directed "Remember," a short film on Alzheimer's disease that stars "ER" co-star Ellen Crawford.

But she remains focused on maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

"While I'm not eating everything I'd like, I'm now able to do physical things I like but couldn't because of my weight."

U-Redlands Daily Facts

GEORGE IS TOP OF THE BOTTOMS

Published: August 20, 2003

THE best of George Clooney's acting career is behind him - according to cheeky female fans.

The 42-year-old actor's rear view, as seen in the recent sci-fi chiller Solaris, has been voted the sexiest male bottom in Hollywood history.

Second and third spots went to Scots actor Ewan McGregor and Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt.

Latina lovely Jennifer Lopez's much-discussed derriere took number one spot in the women's Top 10 - ahead of Oscar- winner Halle Berry and Charlie's Angels stars Cameron Diaz and Demi Moore.

J-Lo's husband-to-be Ben Affleck made it a double for the couple - his behind made it to number five in the boys' bums.

A total of 2000 men and women took part in the survey for an internet DVD sales company.

A spokesman for the company said: "Solaris has proved to a really big seller - much bigger than we'd expected for what is really an art-house movie.

"But what really interested us was that the majority of buyers were women.

"Let's face it - if it means you can get a better quality view of George Clooney's bottom, there are going to be even more women flocking to buy the film."

Daily Record

SAUNDERS:  'ER' IN HEALTHY COMPETITION

Published: August 20, 2003

By Dusty Saunders

There's more than a trace of competition for ER this fall.

For eight of nine seasons, the NBC hospital series has been the most-watched network drama on TV, based on total viewers. However, CBS' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation took that honor last season.

Still ER has reigned supreme in the 9 p.m. Thursday time period, destroying a series of CBS sacrificial lambs, including Chicago Hope, Diagnosis Murder, The Agency and The Big Apple, none of which was able to take even a small bite out of ER's audience ratings.

Even the loss of marquee names like George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Eriq LaSalle and Julianna Margulies didn't have a heavy impact until last season. That's when CBS inserted Without a Trace, another hourlong production from Jerry Bruckheimer's fiction factory about a New York FBI crew's often frantic searches for missing persons. While ER still ruled the time period, its margin of victory was the smallest in the series' history.

So CBS, smelling ratings blood, has aired summer reruns of Without a Trace seemingly in every time period but Dan Rather's Evening News, while also keeping it in its regular 9 p.m. Thursday slot. Trace stars Anthony LaPagliaand Poppy Montgomery have been on TV as often as Jake Jabs and John Elway.

The result has been a spectacular summer audience ratings run, during which Without a Trace has finished second in the past two weeks in Nielsen's overall ratings, behind the popular CSI, which precedes it in the Thursday schedule.

And while the real battle will begin next month when both series unveil new product, CBS and NBC have been involved in a summerlong nasty war of words. As CBS shouts its summer audience success in total viewers and the much coveted 18-to-49 demographic crowd, NBC has pretty much pooh-poohed the figures, saying publicly: "Interesting, but not even close to reality."

I'm left with the feeling that CBS boss Leslie Moonves and NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker are staying up late at night preparing one-upmanship commentary.

But don't look for the Without a Trace cast to join in this heated verbal battle. For one thing, LaPaglia and Montgomery are "trailer pals" with ER cast members, since the series are produced on sets next to each other on the Warner Bros. lot.

"I have friends who work on ER," La Paglia told critics recently during a Hollywood interview. "I have a cup of coffee with them in the morning."

Notes Montgomery: "Our trailers are, like, literally across the way from each other. I don't think about it (the competition) that much. I think both shows are good and that ultimately is what matters."

LaPaglia says he puts such competition into perspective, especially in light of ER's long run.

"You have to respect a show that's able to maintain the quality and integrity that ER has been able to maintain over nine years. So you don't expect to walk in and suddenly crush that. I didn't, certainly. And I don't think anyone else here did. We just want to get our own audience."

With an attitude like that, Denver-born John Wells and his fellow ER producers probably wish LaPaglia and Montgomery could make guest appearances.

Wells and his crew are trying to counter the Without a Trace audience surge by adding Parminder Nagra, the actress who has won praise for her role as a soccer star in the surprise independent film hit Bend It Like Beckham. She'll portray a third-year medical resident named Neela Rasgota, a native of India.

And to ensure star power, ER producers signed Noah Wyle to another season (2004-05) after hearing rumbles he was weary of hanging out in the Chicago emergency ward.

The on-air battle begins Sept. 25, when Montgomery's character, shot in the season finale, is fighting what she calls "post-traumatic stress syndrome . . . She's trying to pretend that she's OK and everything is all right. But everyone can see that it's not. It sort of leads her down an interesting path."

Meanwhile, ER will be resolving the May cliffhanger in which Dr. John Carter (Wyle) is part of a medical team in the Congo attempting to aid victims of a civil war. Wyle directs this episode and the following week as well.

And that's when the war of words between network executives will end and the Nielsen ratings machines will speak.

Rocky Mountain News

HOWERTON LANDS 'ER' INTERNSHIP

Published: August 19, 2003

Zap2it.com - Glenn Howerton will be the latest new face in the Chicago's busiest fictional television emergency room.
Howerton will join the cast of the medical drama "ER" in a recurring role this fall. The young actor will play a new medical intern and his contract with NBC and Warner Brothers contains an option to become a cast regular, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
"ER" followed the same path with Sharif Atkins, who began as a recurring character two seasons ago and is now a regular.
Howerton was one of the stars of FOX's comedy dud "That 80s Show" and played Dick Ebersol in the TNT original movie "Monday Night Mayhem." He and "Bend it Like Beckham" star Parminder Nagra are the two major additions to John Wells' long-running and Emmy-winning series.

Glenn Howerton Online

CARDELLINI EARNS HER 'ER' SCRUBS

Published: August 19, 2003

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Jikes. Velma Dinkley please report to the emergency room.

Usually when young actors star in blockbuster movies, they try to avoid returning to their television roots, but Linda Cardellini will probably be happy to have people recognize her from NBC's medical drama "ER" rather than from her work in the flatulence-heavy live action "Scooby-Doo" movies.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cardellini will join the cast of "ER" as a regular this fall, joining the show in its fifth episode. She'll play Nurse Samantha Taggart, a free-spirited single mother. Taggart may be a possible love interest for Goran Visnjic's Dr. Luka Kovac.

"We're pleased to have an actress of Linda's caliber joining the show," says "ER" executive producer John Wells.

Before she became well known for starring opposite a talking dog, Cardellini was a regular on the late lamented NBC cult dramedy "Freaks and Geeks." She has also appeared on several episodes of "Boy Meets World" and in the feature "Legally Blonde."

Zap2it.com

WYLE SIGNS ON TO STAY IN 'ER'

Published: August 15, 2003

By Nellie Andreeva

ER" has renewed its top doc through the 2004-05 season. Noah Wyle, who has played Dr. John Carter since the Warner Bros. TV series was launched in 1994, has inked a one-year extension to his deal with the studio that will take him through the show's 11th season in 2004-05. He also will make his directorial debut that season, with two episodes of the fast-paced medical drama.

Meanwhile, Wyle, the only "ER" cast member who has been with the show since its premiere, will be absent from the series for a few episodes in the fall.

"One of my greatest joys on `ER' has been writing for Noah Wyle," said John Wells, the show's executive producer along with its creator Michael Crichton and Christopher Chulack. "He's an exceptionally talented actor and collaborator, a consummate professional, and a good friend."

The new deal with Wyle, who has become the center of the Emmy-winning series following the departure of Anthony Edwards in 2002, ensures that the actor will stay on the show till the end of its current pact with NBC. The network picked up the veteran series for two more seasons in the spring.

Sources said Wyle's "ER" hiatus this season stems from the actor's commitment to star opposite Illeana Douglas in the indie feature "The Californians," based on Henry James's classic "The Bostonians," as well as his request for time off to be with his 9-month-old son, Owen.

Wyle's leave will be written into the story line of the upcoming 10th season. He will appear in the show's first two episodes, which were filmed in the spring, after which he will be off for what is said to be three episodes.

Boston.com

WYLE CONTINUES RESIDENCY IN 'ER'

Published: August 14, 2003

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - A long-in-the-works contract extension between Noah Wyle and the producers of "ER" is finished.

The deal will keep Wyle in the NBC drama through the 2004-05 season, when the network's license agreement with producer Warner Bros. expires, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He'll also get to direct two episodes of the show in 2004-05.

Wyle is the only member of "ER's" original cast who's stayed with the show for its entire nine-season run. Wyle said this spring that his commitment to the show is "as strong as ever," although he won't be appearing in every episode this season.

Wyle is planning to take about three episodes off during the season, both for work and personal reasons. He's committed to an independent film called "The Californians," which co-stars Illeana Douglas, and also wants to spend more time with wife and infant son.

"ER" begins its 10th season on NBC Thursday, Sept. 25.

Zap2it.com

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