Take One

Not every scene in 2010 (the upcoming film sequel to 2001) will be based on Arthur C. Clarke’s novel. One addition involves John Lithgow, as a nervous American engineer, and Russian-born actor Elya Baskin, as a cosmonaut, spacewalking between U.S.S.R. and U.S. spacecraft. To ease Lithgow’s jitters, Baskin gives him a Russian lesson. The scene, says Baskin, “began as an accident. On the set John asked me to teach him Russian. ‘How do you say cow? How do you say chicken?’ [Director] Peter Hyams walked by and said, ‘Wonderful!’ and wrote the bit into the screenplay.”

British actress Susan George’s latest movie, Jigsaw Man, has done poorly at the box office, but she hopes her next project will have a longer run. On December 22, George, 34, and actor Simon MacCorkindale, 32, who plays Greg Reardon on Falcon Crest, will marry for the second time. They first tied the knot seven weeks ago in Fiji with no family or friends present. Says George, “When I rang my parents to tell them, my mother cried, ‘Without Mummy and Daddy?’ ” Mummy can rest easy now. This time around the pair are planning a “very old-worldie” London wedding, that will feature young bridesmaids, pageboys and a horse-drawn carriage. Says Susan, who wants to have an exceptionally white wedding: “All we could pray for now is snow.”

Husband-wife team Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell, who appeared together on CBS’ comedy series WKRP In Cincinnati, may become lovers this season on Simon & Simon. “A romance would be great, as long as we don’t get married,” says Daphne. “Married life on TV is so boring.” She’s quick to add, however, that it’s still “wonderful in real life.”

Actor Sam Waterston has long had a cult following, but 1985 may finally be his year of living famously. The actor is a possible Oscar nominee for his role as New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg in The Killing Fields. Waterston feels lucky to have landed the role, which focuses on the relationship between Schanberg and his interpreter, Dith Pran, during the fall of Cambodia. Says Waterston, “I thought it was a story that was going to require a hugely bankable name, like Robert Red-ford, because of the subject matter.” But, says producer David (Chariots of Fire) Puttnam, Waterston’s low profile actually helped: “Sam did not bring the baggage of other roles with him. Because we were recreating real life, it would have been difficult if he had been seen in a different film three weeks earlier.”

Actor Rob Lowe attended four of Bruce Springsteen’s L.A. concerts, but not only because he’s a fanatic. Lowe, who will play a struggling sax player in St. Elmo’s Fire, was schooling himself in the performance stylings of Springsteen’s saxophonist, Clarence Clemmons. At a party afterward, Lowe asked for some instrumental advice. Clemmons told him to buy a Selmer tenor sax. Aspiring musicians, take note.