Kirstie Alley. Back on TV tonight. Her new show’s creative title? “Kirstie.”
“I play a Broadway star. Selfish. Spoiled. Into night life. My unfortunate staff puts up with me. I don’t know about being a mother. I gave my son away for adoption. I wanted to shoot in New York except it’s cheaper in LA — but right now I’m in Kansas, which is where I’m from.
“I love this half-hour show because it’s not hard work. Not same as an hour sitcom, which, like a never-ending movie, is the worst. This is banker’s hours. Writers work hard. Me, it’s five days a week. Table read, checking the new script, is an hour. Next day, blocking. The best actor’s job that exists. We have a go for 13 episodes.
“I created it. I love movies about entertainers. I wanted a Broadway star’s setting and patterned my character as one with a dysfunctional family, which we then throw a wrench into. And I had a hand in casting. It’s familiar faces. After ‘Cheers,’ Rhea Perlman and I always wanted to do something together.”
How about the old dieting problem?
“Always have to watch weight. Be vigilant. Can’t eat huge quantities of steak. There’s no free ride. I still eat a good amount, but I exercise. I have a routine. I love cha-cha, so I hired a Latin ballroom dancer and go to dance class. Makes me forget I’m working out. Thanksgiving, I cooked a traditional dinner, dressing and homemade noodles for 15.
“I had a garage sale with some of my old things. People who worked for me came by. Listen, right now I look thin.”
Tidbits
After recently dredging up “The Great Gatsby,” Hollywood is now enlisting the “Captain Phillips” writer Billy Ray to adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Last Tycoon” . . . Will Ferrell: “Hiding in a ladies room, you’ll hear the best female dating advice ever heard.” . . . A Northern European country, known for cold climate and citizens to match, hunting a new East Side townhouse embassy.
Siberia-bound
Could Moscow discover Snowden was dredging up stuff around them for years? I’m hearing he could get apprehended if they discover borscht stains in his shorts.
Odds & ends
People in the news: Lawyers to Laura Maioglio, whose Barbetta’s closed after a kitchen grease fire: “Get a contractor, file plans, then go for your permits.” . . . Those familiar with the Trayvon Martin case’s George Zimmerman say things like “he’s difficult . . . bears watching . . . might cause problem after problem” . . . Cheyenne Jackson on his acrid same-sex divorce: “Listen, marriage is marriage. You try to make it work. Dolly Parton once said: ‘Gays should be allowed to be as miserable as the rest of us.’ ”
Purely medicinal
NYC top MD: “A health insurance program can’t force a doctor to participate. I’m healthy. I can work. Nobody can force you to stop making a living. That’s an infringement on our civil rights. This is not a state where you can affect a person’s ability to earn a livelihood.
“It took my Canadian patient three months for an MRI and six months to get surgery. He said to me: ‘We’re finding private doctors who we can pay privately just so we can be seen! Now you’re about to mess it up and do exactly what I’m running from.’ ”
Here, there, everywhere
Into whales? Some profits to WildAid? Grammy-winning fotog Kristian Schmidt’s “Whale Shark Series” starts in Art Basel Miami today . . . Into celebrations? It’s Ray and Veronica Kelly’s 50th wedding anniversary this week . . . Also John Catsimatidis threw his wife’s birthday party in a private Russian Tea Room suite. Champagne, chicken Kiev and cookies frosted with the name “Margo.”
From Brooklyn Murray: “My question: Are people less likely to wash after using a public restroom if no one else is in that restroom?”
Only in New York, kids, only in New York.