People

By Rebecca Winters Sunday, Apr. 11, 2004
    • A Pumped Popeye
    No, POPEYE is not on 'roids. The cartoon strongman and his hulking nemesis BLUTO have been buffed up by 3-D CGI for a Fox TV special due next fall. Though the movie celebrates the sailor's 75th anniversary, he has been well preserved by a life of "no coffee, a lot of spinach and that sea air," says Mad About You's Paul Reiser, who is co-writer and producer. In Popeye's Voyage: The Search for Pappy, the updated Popeye will hunt for his dad and confront relationship issues. For example, Reiser asks, "with a woman in his life, how does he get away with just sailing all the time?"

    A Literary Score
    Penning a memoir at age 26 takes cojones. Winning a British Book Award for it takes the world's most famous left foot, a former Spice Girl wife and a public adoring enough to make it the nation's fastest-selling biography of all time. Published last fall, soccer star DAVID BECKHAM'S My Side has sold more than 1 million copies, earning it a special prize for popular success at the awards last week. Beckham couldn't quite savor the victory, however, as he was also getting kicked around by the British press for an alleged affair with his assistant, which he denies. But hey, that's all the more fodder for My Other Side: The Late 20s.

    Now In Prime Time: Four Ways To Hide Your Belly
    While strutting pregnant and proud on the red carpet is now chic — a la brand-new mommy Debra Messing — TV stars have it tougher on the set. Here's how shows handle it when she's showing:

    Debra Messing
    Swaddled in blankets or big coats early in the season, the Will & Grace star was ordered to take bed rest by the finale taping and literally had to phone her performance in

    Leah Remini
    With Remini due in June, there's no purse too capacious for The King of Queens' Carrie — and no explanation for Doug's hot wife's getting hefty. Can't this UPS guy get a delivery?

    Holly Marie Combs
    Charmed's producers didn't play tricks when the actress who portrays witch Piper got pregnant. Combs' baby is due this month, and Piper has a little Wiccan on the way

    Courteney Cox Arquette
    Friends' Monica plans to adopt, but Cox Arquette is due this summer. Her tiny tummy has been easier to keep under wraps than the show's much awaited finale

    What the Girls Want
    Almost 18, MARY-KATE, left, and ASHLEY OLSEN are already fielding grownup offers: they turned down an invitation to pose for Hustler magazine. But as the queens of tweens prepare to open their first feature film, New York Minute, next month, they would like us to identify them as individuals. "If someone comes up to me and says, 'Hey, are you the Olsen twins?' I'm like, 'No,'" rebel and recent brunet Mary-Kate told Premiere. "It's rude." This doesn't signify a newfound desire to be detwinned, however; they're starting at the same university in September.