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May 2, 2000
Web posted at: 3:11 p.m. EST (1911 GMT)

From staff and wire reports

Today's buzz stories:

• Pitched battle: Big-name actors rail against advertisers
• Biographer sues Neil Young
• Brockovich laments limelight
• Moreno raises osteoporosis awareness

Pitched battle: Big-name actors rail against advertisers

"Law & Order" star Jerry Orbach is among actors putting their weight behind actors unions currently on strike

NEW YORK -- A few Hollywood heavyweights are putting their heft behind two actors unions on strike against advertisers and producers of radio and television commercials.

Richard Dreyfus, William Baldwin, Jerry Stiller, Tony Roberts and Jerry Orbach attended a rally in New York Monday to lend support to fellow thespians on their first day of a nationwide walkout.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are demanding to be paid each time a commercial runs, but advertisers would rather make lump-sum payments.

"Hang in there," Orbach, who plays Det. Lennie Briscoe on NBC's "Law & Order," told demonstrators. "If it wasn't for commercials and residuals that kept most of us alive during the down times, we'd have nothing. This is probably the most important strike in the history of this union."

Biographer sues Neil Young

Young

LOS ANGELES -- A writer is suing Neil Young, saying the "Harvest Moon" artist rejected the authorized biography he spent almost eight years writing for Young.

Jimmy McDonough, a freelance writer living in Amboy, Washington, says Young owes in him $1.8 million in compensation and lost profits, according to a complaint filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

McDonough's attorney, Henry Gradstein, says Young hired the writer as his authorized biographer in 1991. When McDonough, 40, finished the manuscript in late 1998, Young "apparently had a change of heart" that he never explained, Gradstein says.

Gradstein says "Shakey: The Biography of Neil Young" was not unflattering. "It's comprehensive," Gradstein said. "One of the themes is the elusive Neil Young."

Young's attorney declined to comment, saying he hadn't seen the lawsuit.

Brockovich laments limelight

The real Erin Brockovich, who's scheduled to say her piece on "Dateline NBC"

LOS ANGELES -- Erin Brockovich says her "15 minutes of fame" weren't worth it.

All that notoriety had a price, says Brockovich, a self-taught legal aide whose exploits in the $333 million settlement of a toxic-waste case inspired a hit movie starring Julia Roberts.

In a "Dateline NBC" interview to air Tuesday night, Brockovich says her ex-husband and ex-boyfriend were arrested along with their lawyer last week for allegedly trying to extort $310,000 from her and her boss, Ed Masry. Authorities say they allegedly threatened to tell tabloids that Brockovich was a bad mother, and that she Masry had a sexual relationship. Brockovich and Masry deny any romantic involvement.

"As God is my witness, those two men, when they go to bed at night, they in their soul know what the truth is, and they know what kind of mother I have been," she says. "I am disgusted and I am very mad."

Moreno raises osteoporosis awareness

LOS ANGELES -- Rita Moreno gets right to the point:

"Osteoporosis is a very serious disease and women are unaware that they have it or are at risk," says Moreno, who recently learned she was at risk for the disease that causes bones to become porous and weak. "My message to all women is that we may be getting older, but we don't have to get old. Take care of your health, including your bones, because osteoporosis can affect us all."

Moreno, 68, won an Oscar for best supporting actress for "West Side Story" (1961) and currently stars in the HBO drama "Oz."