THE INSIDER

BY MITCHELL FINK

POSTED ON JANUARY 11, 1993 AT 12:00PM EDT

YO, BULLITT HEAD!

When Lawrence Kasdan wrote the script for The Bodyguard in 1975, he had Steve McQueen in mind for the title role. Now that the movie has become the latest Kevin Costlier vehicle, we’re left wondering about the star’s uncharacteristically short haircut in the role of the ex—Secret Serviceman hired to protect Whitney Houston’s pop diva.

A Warner Bros, rep says Costner submitted to a bowl cut because “he felt it was right for the character.” But a source tells us he styled his hair “to look like McQueen.” In what—Tonsorial Inferno?

DEBRA SCISSORHANDS

And speaking of hair, Debra Winger didn’t appreciate; trimming hers for A Dangerous Woman, which just wrapped production. Naomi Foner’s script calls for Winger’s character—a woman haunted by her sexual past who winds up in an affair with a man who’s also involved with the woman’s aunt—to have a short do.

A source close to the project informs us that Winger balked, telling director Stephen Gyllenhaal, Foner’s husband, that she would let her locks be shorn “only if he allowed her to give him a haircut.” Gyllenhaal made a leap of faith and accepted. Bad move; our source says Winger’s clip job “was terrible.” No wonder directors want the final cut.

VERY FAR AND AWAY

We have no idea how regularly Nicole Kidman reads this page. But we know that an item we reported in our Nov. 30 issue—about Winona Ryder naming a star after her fiancé, Johnny Depp—led directly to a gift Kidman gave hubby Tom Cruise for Christmas.

Kidman contacted the International Star Registry in Ingleside, Ill., and paid $45 to christen a star for Cruise in the Hercules constellation. ISR representative Elaine Stolpe says Kidman named it Forever Tom. The moniker’s not recognized by scientists, but for you Cruise fans with (very big) telescopes, here are the coordinates: right ascension—16 hr., 55 min., 48 sec; declination—47°, 39 min.

HEY, BURT, WHERE’S ERNIE?

Rerun heaven is one thing, but you have to admit it was a little eerie seeing Michael Landon remain on the tube, hawking a $90 how-to-study guide called Where There’s a Will, There’s an ‘A,’ for 11 months after his death in July 1991.

Last month the guide’s new pitchman, Burt Reynolds, filmed a version set to begin airing this winter. According to his assistant, Reynolds agreed to do the infomercial “because he believes in the product. He did his research. It was not a quick buck thing.”

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