The Tiny Screen

The Alex Kingston Debacle

Sasha Stone
Mirror staff writer
  
   Alex Kingston has been very vocal about her recent dumping from the long-running series on NBC, ER. Kingston said the reason for her ouster was because she was, simply, “too old.” She also made mention of her hefty salary, $150,000 per episode as being a potential factor in the decision-making process. Now Kingston is shouting it from the rooftop, which is exactly what NBC doesn’t need, especially since ER is no longer the hottest show on prime time drama circuit.
   Kingston played Elizabeth Corday, the brilliant but complicated surgeon who was in love with Mark (remember him? Played by Anthony Edwards) and had a baby by him, stood by him as he died of brain cancer, and this after having an affair with the Eriq LaSalle’s brooding surgeon. Or was it the other way around? Either way, Corday was a bit of a breath of fresh air on ER. She was never really suited as a series regular, but instead should have had a juicy guest spot – for which she could have won an Emmy.
   According to an interview she gave to the Radio Times, ER had been writing her out of the show long before it decided not to renew the contract. She’d been given less and less to do – and wasn’t really the hottest girl on the show, which, believe it or not, she once was.
   Kingston accused the network of skewing the show to a younger audience – which means the lucrative 18 to 24 year-olds, none of whom will be pointing their television sets to ER unless Eminem is cast as the new head surgeon. But unfortunately, to stay afloat, which means to keep employing the hundreds who work on the show, ER simply has to get more exciting – and if that means getting rid of the old, er, so to speak, to make way for the new – so be it. It is the nature of the beast.
   The producers have already assembled a statement to the press about the hubbub. “Alex Kingston has been an integral part of ER for the past eight years. She is a gifted actress and a true professional. Like countless other characters on long-running series, storylines run their course over time,” the producers said. “The situation with Alex Kingston’s character Dr. Elizabeth Corday is no exception. We wish Alex all the best in her future endeavors and hope to have the opportunity to work with her again in the near future.”
   For the record, Kingston is only 41. Surely it can’t be her age preventing her from doing well – rather, it’s that her character has become old. They did try to spice things up for her once upon the time, with the whole brain cancer love story – but let’s face it, Dr. Corday was never all that interesting to begin with.
   So, was Kingston hurt or helped by this debacle? Most people knew her as the new mom Ralph Fiennes dumped just after their baby was born. Shortly after that humiliation, she landed the ER role. Now, she’s being dumped again. But before Fiennes and ER, she trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
   But who is the bigger loser? Kingston or NBC? Perhaps the network underestimated her ability to drag it through the mud. Generally speaking, actors and actresses use ER as a springboard, They get popular on the show then they leave the show behind. But that never happened to Kingston; she must have liked the regular gig a lot more than those younger, hungrier sorts nipping at her heels.
   And anyway, the publicity from this could be a lot bigger than being Miss Popular for a month or so and then leaving for better opportunities that, most of the time, never come anyway. George Clooney did well but what happened to others, like Goran Visnjic and Gloria Reuben and poor Anthony Edwards?
   Kingston ought to thank her lucky stars they pushed her out. How else would she get a jump start on life after ER?
  
   “All I need is a miracle…”
   Meanwhile, no one wants to be cynical at a time like this but Ronald Reagan’s recent death has transformed the news media from rabid dogs on the hunt for criminals in Iraq (of the American kind) into a mass of patriotic, flag-waving Republicans. Bush knew it would take a miracle and perhaps this will now confirm in his mind that yes, somebody up there likes him.
   Jon Stewart on The Daily Show joked that J. Lo planned the whole thing to divert attention away from her now infamous third wedding.
   Will it be enough to energize the GOP and help Bush win a re-election? Magic 8-Ball says, it’s a mystery.

This Week’s Notable Television

   Thursday, June 10
   A Guy Named Joe (****), with Spencer Tracy, 7 p.m., TCM.
   The Grifters (****), with John Cusack and Anjelica Huston, 7:30 p.m., WE.
   Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters, 8 p.m., PBS.
   Pepsi Smash: Alanis Morissette, Maroon 5, Joss Stone and Morrissey perform, 8 p.m., WB.
  
   Friday, June 11
   Biography: Liza Minnelli, oy, poor Liza, 8 p.m., A&E.
   Jaws (****), the flawless original, 8 p.m., BRAVO.
   Madonna: Innocence Lost (*), so bad it’s good, 8 p.m., WE.
   Stagecoach (***), called by Diane Keaton her most influential film, 9 p.m., TCM.
  
   Saturday, June 12
   Bladerunner (****), brilliant Ridley Scott film, 8 p.m., WB.
   Pulp Fiction (***), 8 p.m., IFC.
   The Asphalt Jungle (****), John Huston directs, Marilyn Monroe steals it, 8:30 p.m., TCM.
   Field of Dreams (***), with Kevin Costner and a whole lot of Midwest hokum, 8 p.m., ABC.
   Mission: Impossible 2 (**), nowhere near as good as the first, which wasn’t very good to begin with, 8:30 p.m., CBS.
   Sunday, June 13
   I Married a Witch (***), with Veronica Lake, 7:30 p.m., TCM.
   The Blues Brothers (***), 8 p.m., AMC.
   Dr Wayne Dyer returns with The Power of Intention, 8 p.m., KCET.
   See You in my Dreams, based on the writings of Sam Shepard, 9 p.m., CBS.
  
   Monday, June 14
   The Runaway Bride (**), you’d think Julia Roberts, Garry Marshall and Richard Gee could have come up with something better than this, 8 p.m., TBS.
   The Terminator (***), with the governator, 8 p.m., USA.
   Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte (**), poor half-mad Charlotte! 9 p.m., FMC.
   The Next Action Star, the casting segment, 10:15 p.m., NBC.
  
   Tuesday, June 15
   Boys Don’t Cry (***), guaranteed to darken any good mood, 7:30 p.m., IFC.
   Raging Bull (****), “so give me a stage where this bull here can rage,” 7:30 p.m., SPIKE.
   The Next Action Star, premieres for real, for better or worse, 8 p.m., NBC.
   The Philadelphia Story (****), one of the better films ever made, guaranteed to lift any sour mood, 9 p.m., TCM, bracketed by five other Cary Grant novies.
  
   Wednesday, June 16
   Around the World in 80 Days (**), won the Oscar, if you can believe, for Best Picture, 7:30 a.m., TCM.
   The House of Mirth (***), Gillian Anderson showing her dramatic side, 7:30 p.m., IFC.
   Bridget Jones’s Diary (***), with plumped up Renee Zellweger, 8 p.m., TBS.
   The Godfather (****), they don’t make ‘em like they used to, 8 p.m., SPIKE.