'Desperate' move pays off; Canseco turns on juice
HOUSE HUSBAND He's one of the busiest actors on TV, with recurring roles on "The West Wing," "ER," "JAG," and "Enterprise," but that doesn't mean Brandeis grad Steven Culp isn't picky about the parts he reads for. When the role of Rex Van De Kamp on "Desperate Housewives" came along, for instance, he hesitated. "It was a women's show, and I knew the male characters would be subsidiary," said Culp, whose film credits include a turn as Robert F. Kennedy in "Thirteen Days." "But the writing was just terrific. You don't read scripts like that very often." So he took the job, and he's glad he did. Not only is "Desperate Housewives" the hottest show on TV, but Culp is surrounded by a bevy of lovely and talented actresses, including Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Nicollette Sheridan, and Marlborough native Marcia Cross, who plays Culp's TV wife. "Really, I thought it'd be like 'Arrested Development,' a cult hit that was too weird for broadcast TV and not edgy enough for cable," he said. Boy, was he wrong.
GANG RELATED Look for the influential British band Gang of Four to play a few US dates after wrapping its highly anticipated British tour. Drummer Hugo Burnham, who lives in Gloucester and teaches at the New England Institute of Art, said yesterday that the band is likely to play Boston in the spring "unless we throttle each other before the end of the UK dates." The quartet of Burnham, singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, and bassist Dave Allen hasn't worked together since 1981. But as the Pixies proved with their enormously successful reunion tour, old is in. "We're encouraged by the Pixies," said Burnham, "not least because Frank Black is a lot fatter than I am."
BATTING CHUMP It was originally scheduled to hit stores in time for spring training, but with the revelations about Barry Bonds and steroids, the publication of the juicy tell-all by former Bosox slugger Jose Canseco suddenly has been moved up to January. (Yes, there'll also be the requisite appearance on "60 Minutes" with Mike Wallace.) In "Juiced," the former Bash Brother, who's been out of baseball since 2001, reportedly IDs several big-name players who used illegal growth hormones. Luckily, no big names played for Boston, when Canseco was here in '95 and '96, so the Sox may not be smeared in the book. (OK, Mo Vaughn was on the team, but his body was definitely not the result of 'roids.)
YOU'RE HIRED, FOR NOW The second season of "The Apprentice" only just ended, but the cast for the third season is already assembled, and it looks like local guy Dan Kastner made the cut. In a photo on NBC's website, the POPstick founder shows up as one of the 18 contestants. (He isn't identified, but that's definitely his nerdy self serenading Donald Trump's right-hand woman Carolyn Kepcher in a video promo for the show.) An MIT Media Lab alum, Kastner founded Boston-based POPstick in 1996. Its technology allows companies to conduct interactive marketing campaigns through "Popgrams," which are short, action-oriented, animated presentations. Kastner did not return a phone call yesterday.
SUPER STARS Capitalizing on the success of "American Idol" and the local POPSearch contest, an entity called Indy Productions is holding a musical talent search next month at Babson College. The press release identifies 15 finalists, but it's not clear how they were chosen. It's probably just coincidental that four of the singers -- Chuck Walsh of Salem, N.H., Tracy Nygard of Newton, Nancy Kimble of Sudbury, and Shonna McEachern of Billerica -- had roles in Indy Productions' staging of "Jesus Christ Superstar" this year. (Walsh played Jesus, and, really, what's the chance Jesus is going to lose?) The highlight of the Jan. 15 finals will be a performance by Tracy Silva, the van driver for special-needs children who won the POPSearch contest.
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