Quotes of the Day

Q&A with David Hasselhoff
David Hasselhoff appears as himself in this month's The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie

Did your kids talk you into this? I took this role specifically because my kids said, "Oh my God, Dad, you have to do it." I was like, What's the big hoopla about SpongeBob?

Whose body is more inherently buoyant, SpongeBob's or Pamela Anderson's? SpongeBob's buoyancy rivals Pamela's.

Did you get to keep the 750-lb. David Hasselhoff replica made for the film's special effects, or did that go straight to the Smithsonian? I'm deciding what to do with it. Right now my kids say we should use it as a mailbox.

What's going on with the Knight Rider movie? It's still in development. There's such a cult following around the world. I even hung out at Kensington Palace with some of the royal family's kids because they're all Knight Rider fans.

What do you think of men who wax their chests? Guys used to come to the [Baywatch] set all the time with no chest hair, and they just look like drowned rats to me. I like to be like SpongeBob and go au naturel.

What's your TV guilty pleasure? The History Channel. I find that riveting.

And you feel guilty about that? I don't feel guilty about anything.

Picking Pocahontas
If her director's knack for ushering in new talent is any guide, Q'ORIANKA KILCHER'S face is one worth watching. Kilcher, 14, plays Pocahontas in Terrence Malick's The New World, now filming in Britain. Malick gave first big breaks to Richard Gere, in 1978's Days of Heaven, and James Caviezel, in 1998's The Thin Red Line. An aspiring singer, Kilcher had her only previous film role in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, as a little choir member. The Peruvian Indian sang a blues tune at her screen test for Malick. "She had the innocence of the young Pocahontas and the gravitas to play her as an adult," says producer Sarah Green. We're sure that maturity will come in handy when shooting scenes with the film's John Smith — perpetual pup Colin Farrell.

Joining the 13th Precinct ...
Who loves ya, Ving baby? The next generation of Kojak fans, if the USA network has any say. Starting in March, Pulp Fiction's VING RHAMES will resurrect the role of the dapper detective played by TELLY SAVALAS. Rhames, 43, says he never watched the '70s show. "Growing up in Harlem, running into the house to see a bald white guy arrest black people didn't interest me," Rhames says. "I was running in to watch Good Times." Rhames' Kojak will be "edgier, a Prince of the City type," he says. Yet he'll retain the character's trademarks: expect chrome domes and Tootsie Pops to suddenly seem hip again.

Just Feed Me an Oscar
CHRISTIAN BALE dropped 63 lbs. to play an insomniac factory worker in this fall's The Machinist, joining a corps of actors who seriously slimmed down for breakout roles. (Women, of course, pretty much have to do it for every movie.) Bale may not go on to win a statue, as all these big losers have. But at least he got to chow down for his next part — as burly Batman.

ROBERT DE NIRO -- Taxi Driver

In 1976, four years before he bulked up for Raging Bull, the original morphing actor took off 35 lbs. to play scrawny cabbie Travis Bickle, earning an Academy Award nomination and a six-pack.

MATT DAMON -- Courage Under Fire

Already boyishly trim, Damon lost 40 lbs. to play a heroin-addicted soldier in 1996. He suffered side effects from the crash diet for two years, but the role won him critical goodwill for future gigs.

ADRIEN BRODY -- The Pianist

After Brody whittled off 30 lbs. for his 2002 portrayal of a Holocaust victim, his Oscar-winning performance launched him on to gargantuan things, like a role in next year's King Kong.

• Rebecca Winters