Chatter

WHAT THERAPY CAN’T DO

Happily, Daphne Zuniga’s romantic life no longer parallels that of her moody Melrose Place character, Jo Reynolds, a single mom-to-be looking for a mate. “I used to have bad luck with men, but I changed that,” says Zuniga, 30, who boasts a steady beau. “I wish Jo would find a decent guy. They write me as a very smart, independent woman, but they hook me up with real losers. Jake [played by Grant Show] is a cool guy, but we know he’s screwed up. He’s not going to be loyal just because he lives in Melrose Place.” How did Zuniga change her luck? “Therapy,” she says. “But I don’t think that would be an interesting Melrose Place theme.”

ROOM WITH A VIEW

Eddie Murphy’s New Jersey mansion, Bubble Hill (street slang for party), still attracts a comely crowd, but the cast of characters has changed since the Beverly Hills Cop III star wed Nicole Mitchell last year. “My idea of a party is my son’s birthday,” says Murphy, 33, whose two children, Bria, 4, and Myles, 19 months, will have a sibling this fall. “It’s not loud music at Bubble Hill anymore, but the high-pitched squeal of my kids teasing each other. My house is filled with Big Wheels.” But no Murphy videos documenting the birth of his children. “I was in the delivery room with Bria,” Murphy says. “I didn’t want to watch Myles being born. I’m not sure about the delivery room for Baby No. 3. It’s a scary place.”

FIRST LADY OF SOLE

Patti LaBelle’s career has legs. The flamboyant belle of R&B hit it big in 1962 and recently kicked off her umpteenth tour in L.A. for Gems, her latest album. But La-Belle, 50, needs some arch support since a winter snowstorm flooded the Philadelphia warehouse where she stores her costumes. “Everything was totally destroyed,” says LaBelle. “All of my fierce, five-inch, vintage pumps that you can’t buy anymore—destroyed! Must have been about a thousand pairs of shoes in the warehouse that are totally gone. I said to myself, ‘Don’t let it bother you. It was only a material thing.’ But my pumps are like my babies. I’ll just blow up pictures of them and put them onstage and pretend that I have them on.”

NO MORE MR. NICE GUY

After 11 years on M*A*S*H wearing Army-issue T-shirts and telling bold truths, Alan Alda prefers to don a suit and lie through his teeth. His hissable characters have included a pompous TV producer in Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors and the credit-stealing AIDS researcher in And the Band Played On. “It’s more fun to play a s—t,” says Alda, 58. “I can be a bastard all day long.” He’ll play another egomaniac in Canadian Bacon, his next film, due out this fall, about a U.S. President who foments a war against Canada. “This guy decides if he only had a war, he’d do really well in the polls,” says Alda. “I loved the part. I could get up every morning, put on a suit and have people killed.”