Playing grab-ass in the crabgrass?

Was Quaid offside and holding with "Any Given Sunday" extras? Rick's therapist analyzes Darva's need for nudity; Thandie Newton describes Tom Cruise "in the flesh." Plus: Whitney Houston blows it again!

Published July 7, 2000 4:00PM (EDT)

Maybe Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid weren't such a squeaky-clean couple after all.

Rumors of pre-split adulterous behavior (or at least heavy flirting -- occasionally with tongue) are rife these days. Whispers that the couple recently publicly quarreled when Quaid made eyes at a 20-year-old waitress have turned to full reports of unsolicited heinie-handling on the actor's part.

A flock of female "Any Given Sunday" extras has apparently complained about Quaid's frisky foolery to People magazine, claiming he was "very aggressive, touching them and grabbing their butts."

One 21-year-old woman who played a cheerleader in the film says that, a couple of weeks into filming, the randy Quaid yanked her off a golf cart and into a rest room, where he began kissing her. "I was freaking out, thinking, 'I can't believe he's doing this and he's married,'" she tells the magazine. "I said, 'We better get back.'"

Quaid says the story is "completely untrue," but it hardly seems to matter now. Sightings of his estranged wife cuddling with her "Proof of Life" costar Russell Crowe all over London are crowding the U.K. tabloids. The Sun even ran a photo of Ryan and Crowe walking arm-in-arm and looking quite couplish.

"They were all over each other," blabbed one nightclub denizen. Another waiter claims he saw Crowe stroking Ryan's hair and fondling her face.

Yeah, OK, but did he grab her butt?

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Money makes the island go 'round

"It's so easy and poetic to say it's not about the money ... but that million bucks is a big deal."

-- "Survivor" contestant Joel Klug, who lost his chance at the cash when he was voted off on Wednesday night's show, on the castaways' true motives.

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The doctor's still in

Darva Conger's not the only "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" veteran who's milking the moment for all it's worth.

Remember Dr. Mark Goulston, the therapist who helped Rick Rockwell come up with questions to help him identify his perfect bride? He just called me to offer his perspective on Darva's decision to pose for Playboy.

First off, "It's the whole seduction of fame," Dr. Goulston explains, pointedly ignoring the self-confessional aspect of his analysis. "When you go from being anybody to being somebody, going back feels like nobody, and it's hard to do that."

And then there's the cash. "When you've had a taste of being humiliated, you may actually be desensitized and be willing to rehumiliate yourself if it can make you money," he says, adding that he himself is heading into another collaboration with the wedding show's production company. But this time, he'll go before the cameras.

Unless, of course, Hef's people call first ...

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Cruisin'

"At some point, everyone who has ever met Tom Cruise has been in love with him ... I'll tell you, he is absolutely spectacular in the flesh."

-- Thandie Newton on her "Mission: Impossible 2" costar.

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Juicy bits

A "Seinfeld" reunion? Don't hold your breath. Jason Alexander says more yadda-yadda-yadda ain't comin' your way anytime soon. The man who made George Costanza sorta lovable tells TV Guide online even the network suits know revisiting the show would be "talking to a wall. We left because there was nothing left to do." And since it was the show about nothing in the first place ...

Is Whitney Houston up to her old tricks again? The New York Post reports that the diva got a little discombobulated during a concert in Atlantic City, N.J., last Saturday night. "She stopped in the middle of eight of nine songs. She either forgot the words or her voice cracked and then she ended up doing all these weird cover songs ... not any of her hits," a source told the paper. When she couldn't get through "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)," Houston told the crowd she wanted to "make it up" to them -- and treated them to a hearty rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Play ball.


By Amy Reiter

MORE FROM Amy Reiter


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Celebrity Survivor Tom Cruise Whitney Houston