Andy's acting stays on set, not in the bars

Andy's acting stayson set, not in the bars
CHICAGO -- If you spot Andy Richter at a bar, think twice about asking him over to share a beer.
"I think people think I'm more of an outgoing kind of Norm from 'Cheers' guy than I actually am," he told the Chicago Sun-Times in Sunday's editions.
"I'm polite and I'm friendly, but I don't like being the center of attention. And I certainly don't wanna drink with just anybody." More than 11 years since joining NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" -- first as a writer, then as a sidekick -- Richter is enjoying his second career as an actor.
Upon quitting "Conan" in May 2000, he starred in the short-lived "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" and now leads "Quintuplets," his current gig on Fox.
"I went to Los Angeles, and having been a comedic actor and feeling like everyone realized that, the first sort of reaction I got from most of the network and studio people who were paying me was, 'Wow, you can act!' And it's like, 'Well, yeah, that was sort of the point of all this.' But people see you doing one thing, and that's what they think you can do."
Topher's revenge:Too late now, girls
BOSTON -- If you're one of the girls who rejected Topher Grace in high school, he has two words for you: Boo hoo.
"I think about it and I really hope it's happening," the star of Fox's "That '70s Show" tells the Boston Sunday Globe. "I could even name names." Grace, 26, said he looked so young as an adolescent that most girls wouldn't consider him as boyfriend material.
"I'm not trying to say 'poor me' -- not like the way supermodels say, 'I had a terrible childhood, everyone made fun of me' -- but I was very small in high school and nobody wanted to date me," he said.
Grace left college after his freshman year for TV fame.
"I had a growth spurt right before college. Unfortunately, I'll never know if I would have done better in college as I grew into myself or if I became popular because I got a TV show." Grace also has had movie roles in Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic" and starred in "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!"
He next stars in "P.S." opposite Laura Linney and in December will appear with Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson in "In Good Company." Despite the awkwardness of high school, Grace won't brag about his private life now.
"I've started to realize my personal life is the most valuable thing I have," he said. "It actually makes your public life possible because you draw on it so much as an actor."
Sinbad won't swear to it,but they cussed for cause
SAN ANTONIO -- Actor and stand-up comic Sinbad hardly ever swears onstage, but he can appreciate those who have. "This is the thing about Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor and George Carlin and Redd Foxx, people that went that route. They believed in their convictions. They weren't cussing just to cuss. It was a time in America when it was uptight. They were pushing the uptightness of America," Sinbad tells the San Antonio Express-News. "The thing that makes them different from a comic now, who cusses, they weren't rewarded for cussing. As a matter of fact, it was detrimental for their careers. I mean Lenny and Richard would get arrested onstage. "So when I look at a guy right now saying he's pushing the envelope, I say, 'You ain't pushing the envelope.' What's edge now?"
Notable deaths
NAPLES, Fla. -- Dr. John Wiegenstein, a leader in establishing emergency medicine as a specialty, died Thursday in a car crash in Florida, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. He was 74. The crash also killed his 6-year-old grandson. Wiegenstein was one of the fathers of emergency medicine, joining with seven other doctors in 1968 to found ACEP.
He steered the college through the process that resulted in the recognition of emergency medicine as a new medical specialty in 1979.
He was also a past president of the American Board of Emergency Medicine and served as emergency medicine's first delegate to the American Medical Association.
Today's birthdays
Newspaper columnist James J. Kilpatrick is 84. Golfer Gary Player is 69. Country singer Bill Anderson is 67. Actress Barbara Bosson is 65. Actor Robert Foxworth is 63. Actress Marcia Wallace is 62. Magazine publisher Larry Flynt is 62. Actress Jeannie Berlin is 55. Pop singer-musician Dan Peek is 54. R & amp;B musician Khalis Bayyan (aka Ronald Bell) (Kool and the Gang) is 53. Country singer-songwriter-producer Keith Stegall is 50. Country singer Lyle Lovett is 47. Actress Rachel Ticotin is 46. Rock musician Eddie MacDonald (The Alarm) is 45. Rock singer Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers) is 42. Pop singer-musician Mags Furuholmen (a-ha) is 42. Rock musician Rick Allen (Def Leppard) is 41. Country singer "Big Kenny" Alphin (Big and Rich) is 41. Rapper Willie D (Geto Boys) is 38. Singer Sophie B. Hawkins is 37. Country musician Dale Wallace (Emerson Drive) is 35. Actress Toni Collette is 32. Actress Jenny McCarthy is 32. Rock musician Andrew Gonzales is 32. Actor Penn Badgley is 18.