Chatter

MOTHER LOAD

“My life has changed much more because of my son than it has because of 60 Minutes,” says CBS correspondent MEREDITH VIEIRA, 36, about her 15-month-old son, BEN COHEN. Vieira, who is married to free-lance journalist RICHARD COHEN, 41, adds, “I’m constantly juggling the priorities and trying to figure out where I should be at any given time. Sometimes that means taking Ben on the road and struggling through a story, and other times it means leaving him at home and worrying about him. A lot of people think I’m going to bring the baby everywhere and are shocked when I don’t bring him to interviews, which I don’t do. It’s like, who cares about you, where’s the kid? [Perhaps] they thought I was going to be like a ventriloquist with a dummy—that this is an act I should be taking out on the road.”

DUKE OF HAZZARD

Despite being both an experienced actor and director, BILL DUKE says race sometimes still keeps him from getting through the door in Hollywood. Duke, 47, who has directed Dallas, Miami Vice and Brewster Place and who stars as one of the villains in Bird on a Wire, says, “There are certain people that aren’t used to being told what to do by a 6’4″, 220-lb. black man who is a director. I’m supposed to be either robbing their car or opening their door. I was the first black I director of one show, and when I came to the studio in my Mercedes the first day of shooting, the guard says to me, ‘Who are you delivering for?’ I told him I was directing the show, and he said, ‘No, you’re not,’ and kept me waiting 15 minutes until he verified it. He finally let me through with no apology. Stupid people bother me.”

NO PEAKING

STEVEN WEBER is pleased that the fledgling NBC sitcom in which he stars, Wings, has been picked up for next season. The show, about two brothers running a small commuter airline, managed to take off despite having its spring try-out scheduled opposite ABC’s much-ballyhooed Twin Peaks. “Every day before we aired,” says Weber, 29, “people would give me a consolation pat on the back and say, ‘Don’t worry, Steven, maybe [Twin Peaks creator] DAVID LYNCH will have a stroke.’ And I would sort of dig my toe into the ground and say, ‘Yeah, maybe.’ The thing is, I like David Lynch. I wanted to watch Twin Peaks but couldn’t because I had to watch myself.” Weber will be able to do both next year, since NBC will air Wings on Fridays at 9:30 P.M. and ABC has moved the late Laura Palmer and crew to Saturday nights at 10.

• CHAIN REACTION
• Royal rapper QUEEN LATIFAH says she considers the ropes and ropes of gold chains that have been worn by many of her fellow rap artists to be fool’s gold. “I always thought it was the ugliest way gold could be used, “says Latifah, 20, who sings with DAVID BOWIE on a new jazzed-up version of his classic hit “Fame.” “I never liked them when they were becoming popular after RUN-D.M.C. and LL COOL J wore them. I thought they were ugly. A lot of people use them as a status symbol, but they never meant that to me. Besides, some people get killed over their chains, which is really maddening.”

GEORGIA ON HER MIND

Roseanne’s SARA GILBERT recently spent five weeks in Atlanta shooting Sudie and Simpson, a TV movie that will air on the Lifetime cable network in September. “In Georgia, they knew who I was so much more compared with here,” says Gilbert, 15, referring to her native Los Angeles. “Here, people’s attitude is, ‘Yeah, I brush elbows with celebrities all the time.’ In Georgia, people were coming up to me and saying, ‘Wow, you’re the first famous person I’ve ever seen.’ They were always saying, ‘Say hi to ROSEANNE [BARR].’ Yeah, like I’m going to go back to Roseanne with a list of 300 people who say ‘Hi.’ I just smile and say, ‘Okay, I’ll tell