People

By Lev Grossman

Q&A WITH BRUCE WILLIS

BRUCE WILLIS supplies the voice of Spike the Dog in Rugrats Go Wild!, which opens this week.

So what kind of a dude is Spike the Dog?

Well, you know, he's a happy-go-lucky dog. He gets a pretty big kick out of life. He's a heroic dog. Although he shuns fame.

So he's a modest dog.

That's a pretty apt way to describe him. Not a very good singer. But he gives it his best shot.

I think that's all we can ask of any dog.

That's all we can ask of anybody, really.

What breed of dog is Spike?

He's a Heinz.

A Heinz?

Heinz. Like 57 Varieties. Mutt, I think they call it.

Are you a dog person?

I am a dog person. I have about--let's see--three, four, five, six dogs right now.

That's like a pack of dogs.

I live in the country a big part of the time. So the dogs have a lot of room.

Was that good preparation for playing Spike?

Well, I did talk to the dogs, at length. But I didn't get any answers back. A lot of barking.

Was there any Rugrats-Thornberrys tension on the set?

Everybody got along really well. When the Nickelodeon people came up with the idea of having these two worlds collide, the Rugrats and the Wild Thornberrys, I don't really know if they knew what they were going to get.

Spike sings a duet with Chrissie Hynde on the sound track. What was that like?

Let's face it, Chrissie Hynde is a singer. I'm more of a howler.

BAT TO WORSE

Chicago Cubs slugger SAMMY SOSA was caught using a corked bat in a game against Tampa Bay. Sosa, the only major leaguer ever to hit 60 home runs in three different seasons, and who shouldn't need a corked bat to thrash the hapless Devil Rays anyway, says the incident was an accident: he picked up the wrong bat. X rays of 76 (!) other bats from Sosa's locker all turned up negative (though the inquiry did determine the cause of global deforestation), but Major League Baseball handed him an eight-game suspension. Sosa is appealing the decision. It was another blow in a week of tarnished icons, including Martha Stewart, the New York Times and tennis star Serena Williams, who was bounced from the French Open in the semifinals. Maybe she should have tried a corked racket.

Hughes and His Hotties

The upcoming The Aviator will star Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes, but who will play the tycoon's legendary love interests?

THE ACTRESS Cate Blanchett

WHO SHE PLAYS Screen siren Katharine Hepburn

WILL IT FLY? Let's see--Blanchett has already played the Queen of England and an immortal elf. That should be a good warm-up

THE ACTRESS Serendipity's Kate Beckinsale

WHO SHE PLAYS Legendary beauty Ava Gardner

WILL IT FLY? Note to aspiring starlets everywhere: avoid inviting comparisons between your looks and Ava Gardner's

THE ACTRESS No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani

WHO SHE PLAYS Original bombshell Jean Harlow

WILL IT FLY? Stefani is blond, she's brassy, she probably can't act...basically, she's perfect

DEMI'S NEW PARA-MOORE IS A SOPHO-MOORE

Either this is an unusually long and elaborate episode of his prank show Punk'd, or else ASHTON KUTCHER and DEMI MOORE are an item. Kutcher, 25, and Moore, who turned 40 last year, have been spotted getting handsy with each other all over town, most recently at a party thrown by music mogul P. Diddy after the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles. Kutcher has clearly never seen St. Elmo's Fire; then again, he was 7 when it came out, and it is rated R. But maybe he could use the guidance of an older woman. Lately he and Diddy have been referring to themselves as the newest version of the legendary Rat Pack. Moore, who was a founding member of the mid-'80s Brat Pack--which included such early bloomers as ANDREW MCCARTHY and ALLY SHEEDY--might want to point out that that isn't necessarily the greatest career move.