A newly discovered novel by the late Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck is to be released this fall.Two Hollywood unions are scrutinizing worker safety and welfare on Lindsay Lohan’s TV movie “Liz & Dick” after the actress tweeted that she was exhausted because of long production days.
Larry A. Thompson, producer of the Lifetime movie starring Lohan as Elizabeth Taylor, said Wednesday that no violations were found in one union’s review.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists confirmed its representatives visited the production. IATSE, the stage employees union, said it’s keeping a watchful eye on the production’s working conditions.
Broadway-bound
•Laurie Metcalf will be heading back to Broadway in the thriller “The Other Place.”
Manhattan Theatre Club announced Thursday that it will produce Sharr White’s play, which had its world premiere off-Broadway last year at MCC Theater. Previews will begin Dec. 11 at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and opening night is set for Jan. 10.
•Al Pacino is getting some help in “Glengarry Glen Ross” on Broadway this fall – from Bobby Cannevale.
Producers of the David Mamet revival said that Cannavale will play Richard “Ricky” Roma, the part Pacino played in a 1992 film version of the same play.
Previews will start Oct. 16 at Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre and opening night has been set for Nov. 11.
CBS digs at ABC
After failing in court last week to stop the debut of ABC’s “The Glass House,” arguing it is a copy of “Big Brother,” CBS is trying another tactic against its competitor: sarcasm.
CBS issued a tongue-in-cheek news release Wednesday claiming it’s developing a reality series called “Dancing on the Stars” – a jab at ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars.”
CBS says the mock series will air from Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles and feature “moderately famous and sort of well-known people” who will compete by dancing on stars’ graves.
Happy birthday
Among celebrity birthdays today: Actor Ralph Waite is 84. Singer-actor Kris Kristofferson is 76. Actress Meryl Streep is 63. Actress Lindsay Wagner is 63. Singer Cyndi Lauper is 59. Singer Steven Page is 42. Talk-show host Carson Daly is 39. Actor Donald Faison is 38.
