Thursday, December 09, 1999
Clooney return to 'ER' uncertain
BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It sounds too good to be true, and it may be: that George Clooney's Dr. Doug Ross will return to ER in the May season finale and marry nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies), who delivered his twins on Thanksgiving.
On Wednesday, ER executive producers John Wells and Lydia Woodward issued this joint statement: “We have had no conversation with George Clooney regarding his return to ER.”
And the New York Daily News reported that “there's no talk of a marriage in the show's story lines this season, many of which are planned months in advance.”
Earlier in the week, Mr. Clooney's publicist raised hopes of ER fans by telling Reuters that his client, who quit the show in February, could be back for spring nuptials.
“Everybody would like it to happen,” said Stan Rosenfeld, Mr. Clooney's publicist. “We're working toward the same conclusion, but it hasn't been set yet.”
The story rang true because:
• Ms. Margulies will leave the show in May, having turned down a two-year, $27 million offer last month.
• Pal Anthony Edwards and Mr. Wells told TV critics in July that Mr. Clooney was interested in a guest shot, depending on his movie schedule and if he liked the ER script.
The characters' romance began in the first ER season, after producers decided not to kill off the nurse from a drug overdose in the 1994 pilot. Hathaway revealed she was pregnant in May, three months after Dr. Ross quit Chicago's County General Hospital under pressure and moved to Portland.
The Thanksgiving birth episode was the highest-rated program the week of Nov. 22-28. It drew 30.7 million viewers, 2 million more than the second-place show, ABC's last Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
Ms. Margulies, 33, told the New York Daily News that a May marriage would be the perfect storybook ending for Hathaway and Ross.
“That's what she (Hathaway) wants. That's what the viewers want to see,” she said. “It would be a wonderful way to say goodbye to wonderful people on the show. (Ross) left wanting that, and ultimately she'll come around to see that, too.”
WITHOUT CRIS: Guinness World Records: Primetime returns to Fox today (8 p.m., Channels 19, 45) without Cris Collinsworth.
Mark Thompson, the in-studio host since the 1998 summer premiere, takes over for the former Bengal and Emmy-winning Fox pregame analyst.
On today's show, two people compete to see who can remain longer in a bathtub filled with 75 rattlesnakes, while another man swallows 10 swords.
MARGE MOVIE: If USA Network makes The Marge Schott Story, who could play Marge and other characters in the film?
Send your casting suggestions to margemovie@enquirer.com. You must include your name, address and daytime phone number.
For ideas, check out Monday's story.
CHRISTMAS PAST: Don Herman's Cincinnati Christmas Past, recollections of holiday newspaper headlines and advertisements through the years, airs six times Monday through Saturday on WSAI-AM (1530).
Catch them at 8:30 and 10:30 a.m., and 12:30, 3:30, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. They also air on Sunday at 12:30, 3:30 and 6:30 p.m.
“It's been kind of an institution here for about 10 years. We get requests for these things starting in July,” Mr. Herman says.
The station has produced three Christmas Past audio cassettes for sale. For information, call the station (241-9597).
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