Archive for John Travolta

R.I.P. Robert Hegyes, A.K.A. Juan Epstein: An Unlikely Hero Of Immigrant Kids

Actor Robert Hegyes died after an apparent heart attack in his native New Jersey yesterday, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. The 60-year-old, who acted on Broadway, co-starred in Cagney and Lacey and guest-starred in everything from the Drew Carey Show to Diagnosis Murder, will forever be remembered as high school student Juan Luis Pedro Filipo De Huevos Epstein, his role on Welcome Back, Kotter, from 1975-1979.

Most people think of Kotter as the show that made John Travolta’s career. Not me. Though of Italian descent himself, the Jewish Puerto Rican Hegyes played has always been a kind of icon for mixed-up products of immigration. As the daughter of a Dominican and a Hungarian Israeli, I basically grew up hearing “Juan Epstein” jokes all my life, and I can’t say I minded it. If people associated my crazy background with a wise-cracking kid on TV reruns, that seemed pretty cool to me. Even in a sitcom setting, Juan’s exchange with Gabe Kaplan’s Mr. Kotter in the first episode sounds mighty familiar.

Kotter: Your mother’s Puerto Rican?
Epstein: No, my father. My mother’s name is Bibberman.
Kotter: I didn’t know there were Epsteins in Puerto Rico.
Epstein: Oh, there weren’t. Until the winter of ’38, when a boat carrying a shivering Lou Epstein from Odessa to the Bronx stopped in San Juan.

Check out this video of the Kotter cast’s reunion at last year’s TV Land Awards.
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It’s John Travolta …. From The 1860′s!

In one of the more eerie stories we’ve heard in awhile, a man from Canada has posted a photograph of who he believes to be John Travolta from around 1860, on Ebay. We’re not talking about a movie, or any gimmick here. The dealer really does think that the “Original 1860′s Ambrotype” is John! Because the actor is a Scientologist, see? The dealer explains, “For those of you who don’t know, John Travolta is a Scientologist and many Scientologists can Time travel. The belief is that time travel is possible and may have even happened before to them in the past. Some events may not be remembered by the person….” He’s also asking for $250,000 for it! Time travel means big money.

All we know is that really is the spitting image of John. It’s totally bizarre that it was taken a 151 years ago because that could be a young Travolta. Considering Scientology also believe in reincarnation — let’s not throw that out of the window either! What do you guys think? The similarities are astounding, right?

[Photo via Ebay]

Rest In Peace Cha-Cha: The Best Dancer At St. Bernadette’s

This is truly a rough day for classic movie lovers. First we heard that Police Academy‘s Bubba Smith was found dead in his apartment, and now we have even more upsetting news to pass along to you. Annette Charles, the actress best known for playing Cha-Cha DiGregorio in Grease, has succumbed to cancer at the age of 63. Certainly y’all know Cha-Cha, the best dancer at St. Bernadette’s (although admittedly with the worst reputation). Her show-stopping dance sequence with Danny Zuko (a.k.a. John Travolta) was one of the highlights of the 1978 film.

“Annette had recently started having difficulty breathing, a family member told TMZ, “and when she went to the doctor she learned that she had a cancerous tumor in one of her lungs.” Apparently doctor’s caught the disease too late to prevent it from spreading. You and your insane dancing shoes will be missed, Annette. Let’s hoping she’s tearin’ it up at the big malt shop in the sky.

[Photo: WENN Images]

Al Pacino Joins, Adds Instant Credibility To Gotti Biopic

We hope this doesn’t earn us a severed horse head in our bed (we just got new sheets from Ikea) but up until today we thought Linday Lohan’s Gotti: Three Generations movie was sort of…not going to happen. No offense to Lilo! It’s just that after months of hearing about how she was going to play Deep Throat‘s Linda Lovelace or Sharon Tate, we’ve learn not to get our hopes up that any film Lindsay is attached to will every actually get to see the light of day. Now that Al Pacino’s Gotti biopic role is confirmed, however, we’re going to have to reconsider our assumption that Lindsay’s involvement is the kiss of death.

Pacino will play Gambino crime boss Neil Dellacroce, joining Lohan, John Travolta, Joe Pesci and Kelly Preston in the gangster flick. The movie is set to starting filming in early 2012, and we can only hope it’ll be less of a mess than Lohan’s more recent projects such as I Know Who Killed Me. Unless Lindsay drops out, then the movie will immediately win Best Picture in 2013.

[Photo: Getty Images/ Splash News Online]

Is Lindsay Lohan Becoming A Scientologist?

The good news: a successful adult with no financial stake in Lindsay Lohan has taken an interest in her well-being. The questionable news…it’s John Travolta. According to the National Enquirer, John is trying to get his on-and-off Gotti: Three Generations co-star to join the Church Of Scientology. “Even though producers were hesitant to hire Lindsay because of her troubled past. Travolta assured them he’d take her under his wing,” says their source. “He feels confident he’ll be able to keep her on the straight and narrow—now and forever.” Not ominous enough, pal—how about “keep her on the straight and narrow…permanently…with extreme prejudice.”

“John introduced Lindsay to one of the church’s top counselors and even though she’s been cast in a new role and won’t play the star’s daughter in the flick, she’s assured him she’ll still attend the series of induction classes that will make her a Scientologist.” This is quite the pickle for us nosy bystanders who refuse to mind our own business: while any viewer of South Park has their qualms about the Church, currently Lindsay’s adult role models are her parents Michael and Dina…say what you want about Xenu, but John, Tom Cruise and the other celebs blessed with healing hands are at least gainfully employed. Stevie Nicks, are you sure you won’t reconsider helping LiLo out?

[Photo: Getty Images]

Lindsay Lohan Dropped From Gotti Biopic

Don’t they usually hold press conferences after signing contracts? Gotti: Three Generations producer Mark Fiore says that Lindsay Lohan will not be playing Victoria Gotti in the upcoming biopic, despite posing with Victoria, John Gotti Jr. and attached star John Travolta at an event earlier this month. “We are not talking any further about Lindsay playing Victoria,” Fiore told People. “She is no longer being considered. The talks have stopped. We are going to meet with other people.”

Though Fiore says Lindsay’s legal woes “have nothing to do with it,” he hasn’t explained what did force him to drop her from the running (TMZ says that money and Lindsay’s managers were an issue). He shouldn’t blame folks for assuming otherwise, though—with Gotti losing director Nick Cassavettes due to scheduling conflicts and Lindsay headed to court after Easter, it sounds like this movie will have a hard enough time getting made without attaching to a drama magnet like LiLo.

[Photo: Getty Images]

Victoria Gotti And Lindsay Lohan Are Basically The Same Person

Now we know why Lindsay Lohan will play Victoria Gotti in the movie Gotti: Three Generations. Look at them — two peas in a pod! Lindsay and Victoria posed at a press conference with John Travolta (who is playing John Gotti Sr.) and John Gotti Jr. to announce the film. Do you see why Li.Lo is Vicky G.’s first choice to play the younger version of her? They’re basically the same person a couple of decades apart, right down to the re-fried blond hair! Victoria does beat her on the volume though, but that’s nothing a couple of cans of hairspray can’t fix. But the real question here is: does Lindsay’s presence at the press conference mean that she’s bagged the role?

[Photo: Splash News Online]

Lindsay Lohan In Talks To Star In Gotti Movie, Defies All Common Sense

Lindsay Lohan can never just star in a regular old rom-com, can she? Whether it’s appearing in a Deep Throat biopic or as Manson victim Sharon Tate, LiLo is always trying to get cast as part of the underbelly of human experience. Only this time, John Travolta and Kim Kardashian might be joining her there! Rumors are swirling that Lindsay Lohan’s Gotti movie role is almost official; Lindsay is allegedly in “final talks” to portray Victoria Gotti, daughter of Travolta’s John Gotti and sister-in-law to Kardashian’s Kim Gotti in Gotti: Three Generations. Let’s just go ahead and cast Paz De La Huerta as Angel Gotti and, oh let’s say, Smeagol from Lord Of The Rings as Carmine Gotti. There we have it: the biggest trainwreck in cinematic history!

Unfortunately, Lindsay would miss out on the opportunity to sleaze it up in what producer Marc Fiore claims is “going to be the new Godfather” if Lohan serves jail time; she won’t know her fate until after her court date on April 22. Being in prison would, of course, also impact Lohan’s Superman casting, if that is still on the table. Hey, if the Gotti thing doesn’t pan out, Lindsay, there’s always Human Centipede: The Musical. No, we were just joking. Lindsay! No!

John Travolta Turns Down Glee

Of all the dozens of celebrities who have been beating down Ryan Murphy‘s door to land a guest role on Glee, it turns out John Travolta is not one of them. Travolta says he turned down a role on the Fox show, citing the fact that he needs months, not a week, to prepare for his musical theater roles. He told Entertainment Tonight “They’ve asked but when I do musicals I train for six to nine months…and a show like that is an on-demand thing. I really have a criteria or a pride that I would wanna knock ‘em dead,” he continued. “I don’t think I’d knock ‘em dead in a week.”

We can’t fault the guy for being a perfectionist, but we know there are a lot of people who would kill for the opportunity (Elton John, for one, still hasn’t gotten his invite to be on the show). Maybe Travolta’s Grease co-star Olivia Newton-John, who has appeared on the show, will talk some sense in to him and convince him to take the role. The pair, seen here at the G’Day USA Black Tie Gala this week, are longtime friends ever since they engaged in some sweet summer lovin’ as 35-year-old high school students back in the day. Check out some shots of them through the years in our gallery below and let us know what you think, should Travolta be so picky about singing with the Gleeks?

[Photo: Getty Images]

Kelly Preston Discusses Her Crazy-Sounding Silent Birth Process

Kelly Preston went on The Today Show this morning to discuss her new son Benjamin, who was born last November, and she certainly sounds like a blissed-out new mom. It’s great to hear that Benjamin is helping Preston and husband John Travolta heal over the tragic death of their eldest son Jett, who passed away after having a seizure in 2009. What’s a little more bizarre are the details of Preston’s “silent birth,” the Scientology-approved method where women are completely non-verbal and stay as quiet as possible during their labor. You might recall that Katie Holmes reportedly went through silent birth with Suri in 2005.

Preston explains “Silent birth is basically just no words as much as possible. If you need to moan, if you need to cry out…of course that’s normal. But, it’s just bringing them in, in as peaceful and gentle a way as possible.” Well, we can appreciate the motives behind this, but it still sounds a little wackadoo to us. It gets even more wackadoo when she continues “L. Ron Hubbard found that the single source of aberration, of psychosomatic illnesses, stress, fears, worry, things like that, have to do with the reactive mind, and in that part of the mind is different words and commands that can come back to affect you later in your life.” When we read that part, all we could imagine was the sound that the grown-ups make in Peanuts cartoons when they talk. We just don’t buy it. But the important thing is that she believes it, and she’ll be the one who’s saved when the aliens come back to earth to kill us/save us/whatever the Scientology aliens do.