The Associated Press
Actress Rene Russo, shown in June 2000, revealed during an appearance Thursday on "Good Morning America" that she was raised by lesbians after her father left the family.

Rosie's confession moves Russo

Olympian news services

Originally published Friday, March 15, 2002

NEW YORK -- While appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" to promote her new movie, "Showtime," Rene Russo cried Thursday and said how grateful she was to the lesbians who raised her after her father left.

She was inspired to talk about her childhood following a segment on Rosie O'Donnell's "Primetime Thursday" interview, in which O'Donnell reveals that she's a lesbian.

"I wasn't going to say this, but I was just listening to Rosie O'Donnell and I have to tell you, I wanted to burst into tears," Russo said, her eyes welling up.

"First of all, I want to say thank you to her. Second, I'd like to say that when I was born -- oh, I'm going to cry, but this is for you, Rosie -- my dad left and it was women in my life that were gay that raised me and that helped and nurtured me. ...

"I wanted to call my mom to say, look, mom, I'm going on national television to say thank you for all your friends, because she was just pretty much abandoned and a lot of her friends came and helped her to raise me and my sister," the actress said.

NEW YORK -- Michael J. Fox turned to alcohol after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991, he says in his autobiography.

In "Lucky Man: A Memoir," the former "Spin City" star describes the nightly drinking binges, which his wife, actress Tracy Pollan, confronted him about. Excerpts from the book, due out in April, appear in People magazine.

"At the end of the workday I'd drink a couple of beers in my trailer, having a couple more as my Teamster driver shuttled me home. At dinner, I'd ask Tracy if she wanted wine. I'd select a bottle, pour us each a glass, then take the bottle back into the kitchen under the pretense of returning it to the refrigerator. In my other hand, I'd be carrying my own wine glass," Fox writes.

"Once in the kitchen, I'd quickly polish off the bottle, throw it in the recycle bin and extract an identical bottle from the wine rack. I'd open it and swill enough to lower the level of liquid so it matched that of the first (bottle) when I'd left the living room."

The 40-year-old Fox said he decided to stop drinking in June 1992.

WEST WINDSOR, N.J. -- John Forbes Nash, whose life is chronicled in the Oscar-nominated movie "A Beautiful Mind," could lose his home if the township picks one of its proposals to replace a nearby bridge.

If officials choose an option that would move the span slightly north, they might need to acquire some, or all, of the Nash property.

"We're just devastated," Alicia Nash told The Times of Trenton for Wednesday's editions. "We've always liked this house. We're looking forward to making other improvements to it."

Nash, 73, works at Princeton University. His wife takes the train to Newark, where she is a computer programmer for NJ Transit.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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