European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 9, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Fast track second career Choice working with wild cats Blair Underwood. Born aug. 25, 1964, in Tacoma Wash. Current Home los Angeles marital staus single. Working on playing Jonathan Rollins on . Law for the fourth season the last Good movie i saw was ghost. I stay Home 1o watch the Cosby show equal Justice and americans funniest Home videos. The books i be been recommending Are anything about Black cowboys in the old West. In a doing research for a script i m writing with my brother. Favorite performer Sidney Poitier he was the Jackie Robinson of Hollywood. Every new year s i resolve not to become comfortable. The one thing i can t stand in people is people who claim to know you when you be Only said two words to them. The Best time of my life College at Carnegie Kiefer Sutherland recognized the pain of his actor father in film role. Mellon in Pittsburgh. It was the first time i was on my own and my class became very close knit which we still Are. My major was musical theater. If i could t be an actor i d be a Marine biologist working with dolphins porpoises and killer whales or a zoologist working with wild cats. Major accomplishment becoming a working actor. I thank god every Day for  do they know Morgan Fairchild preaches her views on abortion. Paul Newman and Charlton Heston debate a nuclear freeze on nightlife. Celebrities Are becoming More and More involved in politics a phenomenon Len Sherman explores in Quot the Good the bad and the famous celebrities playing  q Why do celebrities want to play politics a several reasons they sincerely believe in the causes they re espousing it s Good for their careers. And after you re Rich and famous what s left Power and that a politics. Q does the Public really care what some actor thinks a the obvious answer is no. Hollywood was overwhelmingly for Michael Dukakis. The rest of the country Wasny to. At a pro Choice rally you had All these actresses making these impassioned speeches. But i was standing in the audience and women were saying Quot How do you think she does her hair Quot people like celebrities but that s not the same thing As listening to them. Q do most stars know what they re talking about a there Are people such As Robert Bedford and de Bettey jr., who Are involved say in environmental issues and who understand the issues Blair Underwood top left is delighted to be working. Michael Caine recalls being too easily swayed by a face. And live by what they say. But often an advocacy group will Brief a celebrity for half an hour shove them in front of a microphone then whisk them away before there Are any questions. Meryl Streep is a perfect example. She came out against alar in apples but she s no  feelings the main thing about Ordinary people was How Ordinary people could identify with the pain of Donald Sutherland dealing with the death of one son the guilt of another and the breakup of his marriage. Imagine then How moving his per formate must have been to his own son Kiefer Sutherland who had been through the divorce of his parents. In the october Issue of Playboy Kiefer recalls his reaction to the film a there i was watching a film starring my father dealing with is relationship to his son and a divorce. To see my father so Hurt and longing for everything to work out was incredibly moving. I wanted to phone him and say i know it was Only a film but you re aware that everything with us is All right and i love you More than anything Quot the Chain saw actors if you want big Box office you need a great  that s the theory expounded by Todd Gitlin in the new Book Quot seeing through  Quot the plot becomes a Hammock Slung from menace to menace. Action movies and real life cartoons a the rambo Star wars and Indiana Jonas serials a account for a disproportionate share of movie profits by taking bankable stars and plunking them Down in a great  Quot Gitlin blames to for getting audiences addicted to violence. Quot dramatic Structure was Bent to keep the audience hooked through the commercial Breaks. Like the clockwork violence of present Day children s to cartoons the Cliff Hanger moment becomes everything and nothing More vivid and necessary than character sprinkled into the action to paper Over vast holes in the  As evidence of his theory Gitlin Points to Quot the extraordinary careers of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger whose personae resemble Chain saws and whose on screen functions Are similar Quot a sculptors face done to judge a Book by its cover. Don t judge a Man by his face. Those Are rules we All learn at our Mother s knee but How Many of us follow them not Michael Caine who is As guilty As the rest of us of being influenced by a pretty package. He got his comeuppance one Day when he was having lunch in a restaurant in Paris. A i had just gotten great reviews for the i prese file Quot Caine recalls Quot and this terribly ugly Man walked in. My Friend said he was a Friend of hers would i mind if he had lunch with us i was t too keen on it but i said of. He was a sculptor and he asked me if id like to see his studio. I said 1 did t have time. Later 1 said to my Friend a i did no to get your Friend s name what was it and she said a Alberto Giacometti Quot the late great Swiss sculptor and  words Quot work is of two kinds first altering the position of matter at or near the Earth a surface relative to other matter second telling other people to do  a Bertrand Russel Quot you can t eat eight hours a Day nor drink for eight hours a Day nor make love for eight hours a All you can do for eight hours a Day is  a William Faulkner Page 12 c to plus sunday september 9,1990