Ask American Profile 8/1/2007

Q I’m just curious: What’s the biggest-selling commemorative U.S. postage stamp of all time?
—M. Marcus, New Haven, Conn.

When it comes to the post office, Elvis is still the king. The 29-cent Presley stamp issued in 1993 has sold more than 517 million copies; if you put all of them together side by side, they’d stretch from New York to Tokyo. Presley, of course, never lived to see his U.S. Postal Service honor. He died 30 years ago this Aug. 16.

Q Is journalist Chris Wallace related to Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes?
—L. Helms, Ponca City, Okla.

Yes, Mike Wallace is Chris’ father, although the hard-charging 60 Minutes correspondent and his wife divorced when their son was 1; Chris grew up with his stepfather, Bill Leonard, who eventually became president of CBS News. Since 2003, Chris, 59, has hosted the Fox-TV weekly Fox News Sunday series, which followed his previous longtime positions with the NBC and ABC networks. Mike, 89, retired from 60 Minutes last year, but returns occasionally for special assignments.

Q What happened to Charlotte Church, the young singer from Wales? She had the most beautiful voice I’d ever heard.
—Mary Ann Brabec, Stephenson, Mich.

The international singing sensation, 21, lives in Wales, where she’s expecting her first baby (with boyfriend Gavin Henson, a Welsh rugby player) in the fall. Church hosts her own self-titled TV variety show in the United Kingdom. She’s sold more than 10 million albums worldwide but does not have any new recording projects in the works at this time.

Q Has the actor who plays Don Draper on the new TV series Mad Men made any movies? He reminds me of someone in the movie We Were Soldiers.
—B. Smedley, Moses Lake, Wash.

Jon Hamm, one of the stars of the new AMC-TV series Mad Men, appeared as Capt. Matt Dillon in We Were Soldiers. A Missouri native who taught acting in St. Louis before coming to Hollywood in the late 1990s, Hamm, 36, also had recurring TV roles in Providence, The Division and What About Brian. Single but attached and now living in Los Angeles, he says the acting bug first bit when he landed his earliest role: Winnie the Pooh in a first-grade play.

Q What is “Boston Rob” Mariano doing these days? I loved him on Survivor and The Amazing Race.
—Cindy S., Palo Alto, Calif.

Boston-born Mariano, 31, didn’t win either one of those TV showdowns. But he learned a lot, and he’s now putting his experience to work as the host of a new in-the-works TV competition called Tontine. He’s traveling city-to-city to audition gung-ho, willing-to-do-anything contestants for a scheming 100-day race that will visit every continent on Earth before awarding one final winner a cool $10 million. What makes the former reality-show competitor the perfect reality-show host? “I know all the tricks of the trade,” he says with a grin. Tontine will tape later this year and air next spring.

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