Entertainment News from June 2001

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

1: Rick Schroder announces he's through with NYPD Blue. “The long hours required to shoot NYPD Blue would prevent me from being where I really want to be at this time—which is with my family,” he said in a statement. The last season ended with his character's mysterious disappearance.

2: Gladiator wins top honors at the MTV Movie Awards. Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise take the best actor awards for Erin Brockovich and Mission: Impossible 2, respectively. Charlie's Angels' Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu nab a trophy for best on-screen team.

3: Anthony Quinn, Oscar-winning film and stage actor who is best remembered for his role as a impassioned peasant in the film Zorba the Greek (1964), dies at age 87. Many believed that Quinn actually took on the persona of Zorba. He won Academy Awards for his performances in Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956). Other credits include Fellini's La Strada (1954) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962).; The Producers cleans up at the Tony Awards, taking a record 12 trophies, including Best Musical, Best Book, Best Score, Best Director, and Best Leading Actor. Proof wins Best Play. For a full list of winners, see Tony Awards.

5: Cast changes are in store for the next season of Ally McBeal. Lisa Nicole Carson and James LeGros will leave the show. They'll be replace by James Marsden and Regina Hall.; Michael J. Fox and his wife Tracy Pollan announce that they're expecting their fourth child. Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, left ABC's hitSpin City in May 2000 to battle the illness.; Tom Cruise sues Michael Davis for $100 million for allegedly making false and defamatory statements. Davis reportedly contacted several news outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and Playboy, claiming he had a videotape of Cruise having sex with a man. It's the second such lawsuit Cruise has filed in a month. He is also suing Chad Slater, aka Kyle Bradford, who claims to have had an affair with Cruise.; Sony, parent company of Columbia Pictures, admits using fake quotes from a fictitious movie reviewer to promote its films. The reviewer, named David Manning, supposedly gushed about Hollow Man, Vertical Limit, and The Animal in Connecticut's Ridgefield Press.; Former ER star Sherry Stringfield tells Variety that she'll be returning to NBC's top-rated show in the fall. “I just felt like really working again, and it was the obvious choice for me,” she said. She's onboard for the last three years of the show.

7: MGM drops plans to produce Basic Instinct 2, much to the chagrin of Sharon Stone, who was set to star in the film for a $14-million payday. Stone sues the film's producers, claiming they promised her the paycheck regardless of if they movie was ever made. The producers denied that was part of the deal.

9: While visiting the Los Angeles Zoo, Phil Bronstein, the husband of Sharon Stone, is bitten by a Komodo dragon. He suffers severed tendons in one of his big toes.

12: San Jose DJs Kramer and Twitch spark a nationwide teen panic when they announce that Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake were involved in a car accident that left Spears dead and Timberlake near death. Needless to say, it was a hoax.; Variety reports that Rose McGowan, who was formerly engaged to shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, will replace bad-girl Shannen Doherty on the upcoming season of WB's Charmed.

16: A 4-year-old boy drowns at a birthday party held at the home of Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. Daniel Karven Veres was reportedly left alone briefly in the pool. The child's nanny reportedly left the Lee home to go to a Wango Tango concert and asked another woman to watch the boy.; Kelly Ripa, who recently joined Regis Philbin as cohost of Live With Regis and Kelly, delivers a healthy baby girl, named Lola Grace Consuelos. She's the second child for Ripa and her husband, soap star Mark Consuelos.

19: Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing who was arrested in April on drug charges, will avoid jail time by undergoing treatment at a rehabilitation center.; Denzel Washington, star of Remember the Titans, wins top acting honors at the first Black Entertainment Television Awards. Sanaa Lathan won best actress honors for Love + Basketball. Other awards go to Outkast (best male group and video for “Ms. Jackson,“”” Destiny's Child for top female group, and Nelly for best new artist.

20: Following Columbia Pictures lead, Fox Searchlight admits to having an employee pose as “regular” moviegoer in a commercial to promote the 1998 film Waking Ned Devine. Caren Lipson, who was then an executive assistant at Fox Searchlight, appeared in a commercial and said the film was “hysterical.”

21: Legendary blues musician John Lee Hooker, whose somber lyrics and endless one-chord guitar riffs helped to define boogie blues, dies at age 83. He has influenced bands ranging from the Rolling Stones to Carlos Santana to Z.Z. Top. Hooker won a Grammy Award for “I'm in the Mood,” a 1989 duet with Bonnie Raitt, and two more in 1997 for the album Don't Look Back. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.; Emmy Award-winning actor Carroll O'Connor, who began his career on stage but will be best remembered for his role as the bigoted yet lovable Archie Bunker on All in the Family (1971–79), dies at age 76. He won four Emmys for the portrayal and one for his starring turn on In the Heat of the Night (1987–1994). His film credits include Lonely Are the Brave (1962) and Return to Me (2000).

22: Kelsey Grammer becomes the highest-paid actor in television history, signing on for two more seasons of Frasier for $1.6 million an episode.; People magazine picks Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, George Clooney, Russell Crowe, and Benicio Del Toro as the country's most desirable eligible bachelors. And we shouldn't ignore other honorees rocket scientist(!) Satish Krishnan, swim coaches Don and Ron Heidary, and Harvard law student Shawn McDonald.

25: Barbara Eden's son is found dead at a Chevron station in Monrovia, California. Matthew Ansara, 35, was found slumped in his car. Ansara was a personal trainer who was set to marry in September. The cause of death was not determined. He was the only child of the I Dream of Jeannie star.

27: Beloved actor Jack Lemmon dies at age 76. In many of his comedies, Lemmon portrayed an Everyman, prone to mishaps and pratfalls. He won two Oscars, one for his supporting role as Ensign Pulver in Mister Roberts (1955) and another for his lead role in 1973's Save the Tiger. Lemmon starred opposite Walter Matthau in several films, including The Fortune Cookie (1966), The Odd Couple (1968), and Grumpy Old Men (1993). He also frequently collaborated with director Billy Wilder. Their projects together include The Apartment (1960), Some Like It Hot (1959), in which Lemmon dressed up as a woman, and The Fortune Cookie. Lemmon won an Emmy Award in 2000 for his turn as a terminally ill professor in Tuesdays with Morrie.; Comedian Paula Poundstone is arrested and charged with three counts of committing lewd acts on a girl under 14 and one count of endangering two girls and two boys. The To Tell the Truth host has three adopted children and has cared for several foster children.

28: Julia Roberts and Benjamin Bratt announce that they have split up after a four-year relationship. Their publicists say it was a mutual breakup and no third parties were involved, thus debunking the rumor that Roberts and George Clooney had become close during filming of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven.