The Insider

HOME, SWEET HOME

With all this talk lately about prenuptial deals and whether Ivana Trump should suddenly be forced to scrape by on a measly $25 million and a house in Greenwich, Conn., it is almost refreshing to hear about a younger celebrity couple starting out with a slightly different set of values. Actors Johnny (21 Jump Street) Depp and Winona (Great Balls of Fire) Ryder, who are engaged to be married, reportedly just purchased a $I million-plus home in Malibu, Calif.

While Ryder’s representatives deny that Winona, 18, and Johnny, 26, have bought a place of their own, our sources say that the two have indeed acquired a house and have agreed that Ryder would be listed as the sole owner of the place. Depp’s spokesman says the actor and his fiancée were just renting the Malibu place but don’t plan on buying it.

LOOK WHO’LL BE TALKING

The payoff at the end of last year’s blockbuster movie Look Who’s Talking was the birth of John Travolta and Kirstie Alley’s child, a daughter, and hearing Joan Rivers, 56, speaking the infant’s thoughts. A sequel to Look Who’s Talking is in development, and the new project may not include Joan. Look for Travolta, 36, and Alley, 35, to sign on for the next one, but our sources say Tri-Star would prefer Roseanne Barr, 37, as the new voice of the daughter.

It’s expected that Bruce Willis, 35, who was the voice of the baby boy in the original, will want to be involved in the sequel. And why not? In choosing a percentage of the gross as opposed to a straight salary for the 1989 movie, Willis has thus far reportedly earned upwards of $10 million.

Still, because his character might now be old enough to speak for himself, Willis may end up without a part in the new movie. If that’s the case, the sequel’s producers are considering adding a new character, a black neighbor’s baby. Right now, Arsenio Hall, 32, is the leading candidate for the voice of the neighbor’s kid.

LOOK WHO’S NOT TALKING

It will be most ironic if Barr and Hall end up together in Look Who’s Talking II. In real life, don’t expect these two TV giants to talk to each other anytime in the near future. They have been feuding since last year, when Hall began making fat jokes about Barr on his late-night television show.

Barr has struck back, most recently at the March 10 taping of the American Comedy Awards, when she jokingly impugned Arsenio’s hetero-sexuality. According to George Schlatter, 57, the executive producer of the show, Roseanne’s comments about Arsenio were edited out of the version of the awards show that will air on ABC this Monday (March 19).

HARLEM, OHIO-STYLE

In Hollywood, Harlem is but a state of mind. Last year, Eddie Murphy’s movie Harlem Nights was filmed not in Harlem but on Paramount’s back lots in Hollywood, a relocation that drew protests from civic boosters in the real Harlem in New York City. Now Palace Productions has scheduled April 23 as the start date for shooting on A Rage in Harlem, a comedy thriller starring Forest (Bird) Whitaker, Gregory (Tap) Wines and Danny (Lethal Weapon 2) Glover. Where will it shoot? Try Cincinnati.

“The movie is set in 1956, and Harlem doesn’t look like 1956 anymore,” reasons co-producer Kerry Boyle, who said various locations in the Cincinnati area were chosen because they were “aesthetically right for what we are doing, and that’s why we’re going there.”

Actually, no one’s going to take the A train anywhere until the role of Whitaker’s love interest is cast. A Rage in Harlem is based on the Chester Himes novel originally titled For Love of Immabelle. As to possible contenders for the Immabelle part, all Boyle would say was, “It’s still wide open.”