Ask American Profile 8/10/2008

Q Whatever happened to John Tesh, who was on Entertainment Tonight?
—Jane Matthews, Scranton, Pa.

After 10 years as co-host, Tesh left ET in 1996 to follow his dream as a full-time musician and to pursue other projects, one of which was his successful Intelligence for Your Life syndicated radio program. He also recently released Alive: Music & Dance, a DVD celebrating youthful creative expression that evolved by watching his young teenage daughter, Prima, in dance class. “I was thinking how blessed I was to have a kid who has that passion in her life,” says Tesh, who lives in Los Angeles with his daughter and his wife of 16 years, Connie Sellecca, and Sellecca’s son, Gib, from her marriage to actor Gil Gerard.

Q What can you tell me about the actress who plays nurse Leyla Mir on General Hospital?
—Rose Chapelle, Idyllwild, Calif.

The first Iranian-born actress to play an Iranian character on daytime television, Nazanin Boniadi was born in Tehran and raised in London. She became an actress after graduating with honors from the University of California, Irvine, with a degree in biological sciences. Boniadi, 28, plays a reporter in the hit movie Iron Man. When not performing, she crusades as the Middle East ambassador for the organization Artists for Human Rights. “The basic message is: Know your rights and share it with others,” she says. “You cannot defend what you don’t know. It is as simple as that.”

Q On the TV show Hart to Hart, Robert Wagner was the star. But who was his co-star? Her initials were S.P.
—Harold Morris, Van Buren, Ark.

That was Stefanie Powers, a Hollywood native who has appeared in more than 100 television shows since her 1958 debut in the soap opera Now Is Tomorrow. In April, she reunited with Wagner for a special edition of a British TV series that spotlighted Hart to Hart.

Q I recall a movie from the early 1960s that I think was called Bye Bye Birdie. But I can’t remember who was in it, and none of my friends has ever heard of it. Can you tell me anything about it?
—Christine Rogers, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Bye Bye Birdie was a 1963 movie musical starring Janet Leigh, Ann-Margret, Dick Van Dyke and Paul Lynde. Ed Sullivan even made an appearance in the comedic tale of a hip-shaking rock ’n’ roll singer, Conrad Birdie (a thinly veiled reference to the era’s real-life musical heartthrob, Conway Twitty, with a nod as well to Elvis Presley) who creates a wave of hysteria by traveling to a small Ohio town on a promotional jaunt to plant a kiss on his “biggest fan” before he’s drafted into military service.

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