TV Guide readers reward their faves

Philadelphia Daily News - February 26, 2001

By Luaine Lee
Scripps Howard News Service

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood celebrities braved blustery weather and an unaccustomed downpour to vie for TV Guide awards voted by the public from ballots in the magazine and via the Internet.

Though audiences will have to wait until March 7 to view the two-hour show on Fox, part of the secret is already out.

Debra Messing of "Will & Grace" was named comedic actress of the year and her co-star, Sean Hayes, earned best supporting comic actor kudos.

Noah Wyle, named best supporting actor in a drama series for "ER," said backstage that he wishes he could work more with co-star Eriq LaSalle.

"When we started I was young and hadn't had that much experience and Eriq had much more experience. We decided the clearer we defined our characters, we'd have more road to travel together. So the more militant his character became, the more stubborn mine became. The first two seasons we worked almost exclusively together."

Anthony Edwards is planning to leave the show after next season, and Wyle said they haven't planned his going-away party yet. "I don't know if we could give Anthony a party that would do justice to his contribution. It'll be interesting to see the reverberations of his departure."

Wyle says he still sees former co-star George Clooney. "I still play basketball with George and he tells me what being a movie star is like and I remind him what being on TV is like."

It was finally Ray Romano's turn to be lauded for his work on "Everybody Loves Raymond."

"To win any award that's voted on by viewers is very cool. This is my first award, period," he said.

The best new series, according to TV Guide readers, is "CSI," a cop drama that involves forensic investigations. That can be very strange, said the series' star, William Petersen.

"One of the weirdest things to happen was when we had to cover a girl with meal worms and maggots and beetles. The people who play our guest-star dead bodies are amazing. She had to lie in the dirt, beetles in her ears, maggots in her nose - unbelievable."

"Then they have to go to autopsy," said Petersen's co-star, Marg Helgenberger, "and wear flesh-colored underwear and not breathe!"

Amy Brenneman, best actress in a drama series for "Judging Amy" is about nine months pregnant, and she said trying to cover up her pregnancy for the show has been an interesting challenge.

"We've discovered if I'm head-on, you can't tell, but if I do profile you, can see," she said. "That's been a trick. Sometimes I seem robotic because I have to face forward and can't turn."

David E. Kelley creator and executive producer of "Ally McBeal," "The Practice" and "Boston Public," was awarded the Brandon Tartikoff Award for his extraordinary contributions to the tube.

Orchestrating three shows is difficult, he admitted. "I was sufficiently daunted last year so we got very organized and I've got a lot of help this year, so it's been smoother than maybe we anticipated," he said. "But I wouldn't go so far as to say it's easy. I delegate most everything except the writing."

Even in that department, Kelley has plenty of help.

"I have nine writers on 'The Practice,' five on 'Boston Public' and two more on 'Ally.' Even when those writers aren't actually writing, they're researching, generating story ideas," he said. "The fatigue is finding new stories. That's where you can get bogged down, and this year we've had pretty good bank of stories primarily because of the writers. We've just made it work."


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