Danson talks about 'Fathers,' 'Moguls'

By ARMY ARCHERD

Danson

GOOD MORNING: While child molestation by members of the Boston Archdiocese is the theme of Showtime's "Our Fathers," Ted Danson, who stars as Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, tells me he has a larger theme to pursue when plugging the film. "It is important to reveal that this country is riddle with child and sex abuse. I hope people don't just think it was there in the Catholic church. Twenty years ago when I did 'Something About Amelia,' about incest, 70% of those in jails had been sexually or physically abused." And the number is probably just as high today. In "Our Fathers," plaintiffs sued Cardinal Bernard Law (played by Christopher Plummer) rather than the Boston Archdiocese -- because there were no limitations on the individual in that suit and because attorney Garabedian was able to get the press in the courtroom and documents unsealed. The pic, directed by Dan Curtis, also stars Brian Dennehy as Father Domenic Spagnolia. The pic was lensed in Toronto -- for Boston ... Meanwhile, Danson also wound filming indie feature "The Moguls" in L.A. It's a comedy in which Danson plays a closeted homosexual in a small community that tries to achieve recognition by filming an amateur porn pic. And Danson admits he has a nude scene in the pic -- in a scene with Valerie Perrine. "Only my buttocks are seen," he laughs, "and Valerie is tastefully camouflaged." How, or why, you may ask, did Danson get this role? "My wife (Mary Steenburgen) made the producers sign me!" (P.S.: They were only too happy to get him to co-star in the film with Jeff Bridges) ... Returning to serious business with Danson and wife Mary, they plan to help in the Kerry-Edwards Demos' campaign -- much as they did for close friends Bill and Hillary Clinton. They hope to head to the swing states of Arizona and Arkansas this weekend -- when she's not in front of the "Joan of Arcadia" cameras. Earlier this summer, Mary Steenburgen also starred in the bigscreen "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School," in which she has some incredible dance sequences with Donnie Wahlberg. Also starring are Danny DeVito, John Goodman, Marisa Tomei, Sean Astin, Camryn Manheim, Robert Carlyle and Ernie Hudson.

GLENN SCHAEFFER, WHO RECENTLY made an $8 billion deal to sell the Mandalay Resort Group to Kirk Kerkorian, will be working as an actor this week in TV's "Las Vegas," which shoots at -- the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Schaeffer says he agreed to allow the series to film inside the hotel's casinos, etc., when producer Scott Steindorff informed him James Caan would be a star of the show. But don't get Schaeffer wrong -- he doesn't plan a future career as an actor. He has more important plans already in the works. He is founder of the Institute of Modern Letters and has been assembling an awesome group of supporters to aid persecuted writers globally. Board members already include Paul Newman, Norman Lear, Salman Rushdie, Sting, Gore Vidal and James Ellroy. Schaeffer says he's already spoken to members of Congress "on both sides of the aisle" and will seek funding for the institute next spring. The amazing 50-year-old Schaeffer, an alum of the U. of Iowa Writers' Workshop, decided not to pursue a career as a writer. "I knew something I could write that would never be rejected -- and that's a check." Instead, he segued to the financial world in Las Vegas and now puts that experience ($) to work. His Mandalay stock, which was $1.90 when issued in l983, closed at $71 when sold to Kerkorian. Schaeffer will leave his empire of 16 casinos and 21,000 rooms, probably by March, to pursue the institute's program of providing a future for victims of censorship. "Literature is a more important tool than military intervention. The first thing a tyrant tries to do is to kill literary independence," he says. The institute currently has a writer from Colombia, who has a price on his head from the drug cartel there, ensconced in Santa Fe. A Chinese poet, who defied the government and was imprisoned, now is safe and writing in Las Vegas, with Schaeffer promising to translate and publish his works. "I'm a poetry smuggler," he says. He and Scott Steindorff are readying a docu feature on writers in exile. He, Steindorff and Joel Gottler's ITG Management have set up the Intellectual Property Co. to manage authors. "We love writers: We have the souls of artists and the experience of businessmen," he says. Steindorff's Stone Village Pictures is making films of social significance, as per recent announcements of "Tortilla Curtain" by T.C. Boyle, "Love in the Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the already completed "The Human Stain" and "Empire Falls."

SYLVESTER STALLONE IS COOL about news Fox has wrapped production on its series "The Next Great Champ" featuring Oscar De La Hoya. It's skedded to start airing a month (months?) before the November air date of Sly's (NBC's) "The Contender," which goes before the cameras Monday in the elaborate (secret) studio sets built in Culver City. "The Contender" -- a Mark Burnett, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jeff Wald and Stallone project with Sugar Ray Leonard -- has gotten clearance from the California Boxing Commission for the weight span of 147-157 pounds, Stallone tells me. The 16 fighters have been chosen and are all in training in "private and secret" locales overseen by supervisors. "I drop around to oversee and Sugar Ray Leonard is involved in the training." Stallone says he hopes to be able to get the contenders to reveal themselves to him. "I will try to get into what makes them tick. I'll be there to peel away some of the levels -- meet their families, what it takes to pursue that lifestyle. And I can totally relate to that." He promises a "huge finale with a twist" at Caesar Palace with a million-dollar purse at the finale. As for the Fox show, he says, "It's unfortunate -- but this is a very competitive business and I have the greatest confidence in NBC and DreamWorks. All you can do is try hard. And let's remember, it's not about boxing -- it's about people's souls. I'm satisfied." He's also confident there will be a "Rocky 6" feature with Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. And he's busy launching his "Stallone Instone" nutritional supplements and vitamins in 3,000 General Nutrition Centers ... George Clooney wrapped "Ocean's Twelve" and winged to his villa at Lake Como, where he'll enjoy the luxury of adding 25 pounds for his next role as a CIAgent in "Syriana" with Matt Damon and Amanda Peet. Shouldn't be too difficult to add the poundage in pasta-land.