Ask American Profile 12/31/2006

Ask American Profile 12/31/2006

Q What happened to Howie Mandel’s hair? He had such beautiful curly hair, and now he’s bald!
—Jacqueline Smith, Kingman, Ariz.

“I originally shaved my head for a film and then my wife said it was sexy,” the comedian-host of TV’s Deal or No Deal says. “But then I asked, ‘What have I been up until this point?’” Mandel, who suffers from germophobia related to an obsessive-compulsive disorder, says he likes the clean feeling of his bare scalp. Because of his aversion to germs, Mandel can’t bear to shake hands. “Intellectually I know I’m not going to die or get sick, but when my hand is touched, you have no idea what I have to go through.”

Q What can you tell me about the actress who plays Delinda on the TV series Las Vegas? She looks so familiar.
—Missy M., Saratoga, Calif.

That’s supermodel-turned-actress Molly Sims, 33, a native Tennessean who got her TV break in 2000 as hostess of the MTV series House of Style. A former competitive swimmer, she posed for the 2006 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue wearing a $30 million bikini made of more than 150 carats of diamonds. She’s also appeared in the movies Starsky and Hutch and The Benchwarmers.

Q Could you please tell me what happened to the actor Michael Beck, who was in the movie Xanadu and the TV show Houston Nights?
—Lynn C., Alabama

Beck was born in Memphis, Tenn., raised on a cotton and soybean farm in Arkansas, and quarterbacked the football team at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. His role in the Hollywood cult classic The Warriors led to work in Xanadu, Megaforce (for which he won a “Razzie” Award for Worst Supporting Actor) and more than 25 other movies and TV shows. Now writing his first novel, Beck lives in California with his wife of 25 years, Cari.

Q Do you have any information on the super-smart Margaret Warner, one of the anchors on Jim Lehrer’s Newshour on PBS?
—Alberta Noble, Oak Grove, Mo.

Born into the hypercharged political climate of Washington, D.C., Warner, 56, is one of three senior correspondents on the nightly newscast. “Politics interested me from the time I was a teenager,” she says. “Growing up in Washington, politics were all around, even though my family was not involved in it. When I went to college, it was a politically charged era, from ’67 to ’71.” Warner has been married for 20 years and has six stepchildren, as well as several grandchildren.

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