Did Chevy Chase really turn down ‘American Gigolo’ role?
Q AYou have questions. I have some answers.
Q: I was doing a puzzle where a clue was an actor turned down the lead in the movie “American Gigolo” because of its content — and the answer was Chevy Chase. Is that really true?
A: . Vulture.com in 2011 indeed said Chase turned down the role because “he was uncomfortable with the sexual content of the film.” In an interview with HuffPost the following year, Chase said he turned down a lot of movies: “I turned down ‘Forrest Gump,’ I turned down ‘American Gigolo.’ There are many films — like ‘Ghostbusters’ — that I turned down ... the first one I did was ‘Foul Play’ with Goldie Hawn, but I turned down ‘Animal House.’ I turned that down.” He regretted the rejections because the movies “made huge amounts of money and I would be very wealthy, but I don’t regret working with Goldie.”
By the way, Chase was in one film before “Foul Play”: the sketch comedy “The Groove Tube.” And “American Gigolo” inspired a TV series which ran on Showtime for one season in 2022.
Speaking of inspirations …
Q: What happened to the “Lethal Weapon” TV show? I liked the action.
A: Fox carried a show derived from the Mel Gibson/Danny Glover movies for three seasons in 2016-2019. Its ratings were respectable at the end, says Deadline.com, but off-camera drama “sealed the show’s fate.” The drama included the firing of Clayne Crawford, in the Gibson role, in the second season amid conflicts with co-star Damon Wayans (in the Glover role) and accusations of bad behavior on the set. (Crawford reportedly had a different view.) Seann William Scott joined the show as a new character after Crawford’s departure, but then in the third season Wayans announced he was going to leave when the ordered episodes were done, leading to more scrambling behind the scenes. The show did not get a fourth season.
Q: A season ago on “The Good Doctor,” Lea and Shaun were married and had a baby. What happened?
A: The long romance between Shaun (Freddie Highmore) and Lea (Paige Spara) led to their wedding in the fifth season. After earlier troubles during pregnancy on the show, Paige had their child in the sixth-season finale in May. He was named Steven Aaron Murphy, after Shaun’s late brother and Shaun’s mentor Aaron Glassman. As for what happens next, we’ll have to see in the seventh season (delayed, like most screen entertainment, by the Hollywood strikes).
Q: I have been trying, with no luck, to find director Robert Altman’s movie “HealtH,” starring James Garner and Carol Burnett. I’ve heard Prime Video is streaming it, but I can’t find it there. Nor have I had any success at local libraries. Was this ever released on DVD? Does any other streaming service have it?
A: The 1980 movie (also known simply as “Health”) has not, to my knowledge, found its way to any form of home video and was only occasionally on TV. (I did see it on cable many years ago.) A satire set at a health food convention, it boasted a cast that besides Garner and Burnett included Lauren Bacall, Glenda Jackson and Dick Cavett. But Altman told Roger Ebert the film “got caught between regimes at the studio. The previous regime apparently didn’t like it. The new regime has just let it sit there.” And so it has sat. It doesn’t help that while Altman had his share of fine productions (“M*A*S*H,” “The Player,” “Gosford Park” and “Nashville” among them), this was not considered one of his best works by those who had a chance to see it; more commonly it is listed among his worst.