People

By Rebecca Winters Keegan

Q&A JOHN WATERS

From his home in Baltimore, Md., filmmaker John Waters curates and is host of a collection of Movies That Will Corrupt You, starting Feb. 3 on here! Networks.

What do these films have in common? They're little seen. They're intelligent but extreme.

Explain your first selection, the 1996 black comedy Freeway. We're so used to seeing Reese Witherspoon. But you've never seen her be a mean redneck. In this movie, she's poor and angry and very funny. I think it's one of her best performances.

What's your idea of a good date movie? Sometimes a date movie can be a litmus test: If you can get through this, then we should be in love. Freeway would be a good date movie for me. If they were too uptight to like it, it wouldn't work out.

Your intros to the films feel very Vincent Price. Well, I love Vincent Price, and, to be honest, I've been trying to hijack his career forever.

What's the difference between good bad taste and bad bad taste? Good bad taste is not condescending. Anything I ever make fun of, I love. Bad taste is a freedom I don't have. I worry what other people think. The creative use of bad taste is almost over with. What's trashy now?

What about reality TV? I've never seen it. I'm radically against it. Reality TV is for people who lead boring lives. I'm never bored.

Is Brokeback Mountain a cultural watershed? The only thing I've ever agreed with the right wing on is that this is a great recruitment film. I know a lot of gay people who dress as cowboys, and none of them are that cute.

I'LL HAVE WHAT SHE'S HAVING Angelina Jolie has two. So does Nicole Kidman. And now MEG RYAN just got one of her own. No, we're not talking about the new It Bag. Ryan, 44, is the latest celeb to adopt a child, a Chinese girl (she already has a son, Jack, 13, with ex- husband, actor Dennis Quaid). After the tepid response to her 2004 boxing film, Against the Ropes, sent the star to her corner for two years, Ryan is re-entering the fight with a new movie, In the Land of Women, due in May. Nothing like a new baby to ease that treacherous journey from ingenue to auntie roles.

WHAT WOULD ALICE THINK? Though daring for its time--Mom and Dad sleep in the same bed!--The Brady Bunch omitted certain realities of life in 1970s America. This spring BARRY WILLIAMS, who played eldest sibling Greg, and CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT, middle kid Peter, will make up for at least one omission by guest starring as a gay couple on polyester's current TV home, Fox's That '70s Show. "This is a clever, hip, edgy look at that time period," says Williams. The duo introduce a bit of counterculture to their new neighbor, Wisconsinite Kitty Forman, played by DEBRA JO RUPP, when they share an onscreen kiss. Maybe next Marcia and Jan can get Kitty and the girls to go campaign for Jimmy Carter.

O.K., NOW HE'S IN A MILLION LITTLE PIECES Thou shalt not lie to OPRAH WINFREY. In a tone generally reserved for condemning genocidal dictators, the talk-show host drove home that commandment of publishing by shredding author JAMES FREY on live TV for fabricating parts of his 2003 book, A Million Little Pieces. "I really feel duped," said Winfrey, who chose the memoir for her book club, boosting it to last year's second-best-selling title. After thesmokinggun.com revealed that key details in the book--like Frey's claim of a three-month prison stay--never happened, Winfrey stood by him, calling in to Larry King Live days later to offer support. But after two weeks of considering, Winfrey changed her mind. She made Frey squirm and squirm and then brought on guests to make him squirm some more. "You betrayed millions of readers," she said. Head down, Frey admitted to the lies. "This hasn't been a great day for me," he said at the end of the show. Actually, that we believe.