Addams Family

Next season at the Hippodrome Theatre , a character in an iconic outfit will fly off the stage and into the house, soaring high above wide-eyed spectators. The chances of a mishap during this show-stopping feat are just about nil, however, since we're not talking about the guy who is supposed to zip effortlessly through the air in that unlucky monolith of a musical called "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. " Baltimore audiences will see instead a primly dressed woman with an umbrella over one arm — the famed governess who takes charge of children and adults alike in the well-traveled Broadway revival of "Mary Poppins.

Johns Hopkins University students scramble to sign up for a coveted spot in the acting and directing classes taught by John Astin. After all, who wouldn't want to study theatrical techniques with a famous actor? Internationally known for his role as Gomez Addams in the 1960s television show "The Addams Family," the Baltimore-born Astin has received Academy Award and Emmy nominations for his work in front of the camera, and also for writing and directing. Perhaps the most meaningful recognition came last December, when it was announced that the university's renovated Merrick Barn theater would now bear his name: The John Astin Theatre.

John Astin doesn't mind being identified with Gomez Addams, the "creepy and kooky" character he played for years on television's The Addams Family. "I loved the show and enjoyed playing the character, and have no problem with the identification. In many ways, Gomez is an extension of my own inner life - there's an awful lot of me in Gomez," Astin says. Having moved on to a demanding and fulfilling theatrical career that includes teaching, acting, writing, directing and producing, Astin will take the stage in Annapolis this month to portray a very different character, 19th-century American author Edgar Allan Poe. He will perform the one-man show April 25 at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.

Assassination Vacation By Sarah Vowell Simon & Schuster / 259 pages / $14 In an earlier life, Sarah Vowell was probably a member of the Addams Family. Who else would plan a national tour of places associated with presidential assassinations as the basis for a book? Last year, our reviewer, Stephen Kiehl, wrote, "Part travelogue, part history text and part memoir, Assassination Vacation is more fun than it has any right to be - a bizarre road trip into some of the most searing moments of the nation's past with one of our most amusing storytellers at the wheel."

George McTurnan Kahin, 82, a Cornell University professor and author who was one of the nation's leading scholars of Southeast Asia, died Saturday in Ithaca, N.Y. David Levy, 87, the former network executive who created "The Addams Family" television comedy, died Jan. 25 in Los Angeles. Rudolph W. Patzert, 88, a sea captain who broke through the British blockade of Palestine to move Holocaust survivors to their historic homeland after World War II, died Jan. 21 in Encinitas, Calif. He had battled melanoma.

It's official: Gomez has own theater. A newly renovated theater in the Johns Hopkins University's Merrick Barn was renamed Saturday in honor of the actor who originated the role on television of Gomez Addams, husband to Morticia and patriarch of one of America's weirdest clans on "The Addams Family. " On hand Saturday night to rename the 104-seat performing space "The John Astin Theatre" after its $210,000 make-over was Astin's close friend, the actor Ed Asner. Astin, a member of the class of 1952, starred in "The Addams Family" from 1964 to 1966, and returned to his alma mater in 2001 to teach acting and directing.

Frank Inn, 86, who helped train Lassie and Rhubarb the cat and discovered and made actors of Arnold the pig on Green Acres, the 500 or so animals on The Beverly Hillbillies and Benji, the cuddly movie dog, died July 27 at a nursing home in Sylmar, Calif. Mr. Inn may have been television's greatest animal star maker. In the early 1950s, he trained his first big star, Cleo, the basset hound on The People's Choice who appeared with actor Jackie Cooper. He followed up with Tramp, the mutt on My Three Sons, and Higgins, the canine star of Petticoat Junction, and also trained animals for shows including I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, The Addams Family and Barnaby Jones.

If you thought there weren't any more awards left for "Schindler's List" to win, think again. Steven Spielberg's epic collected a record seven prizes recently in the Hollywood Reporter's 23rd Annual Key Art Awards.What's key art, you ask? Any advertising art keyed to the release of a movie, such as trailers, posters, print ads, billboards and standees.And what, while we've got the dictionary open, is a standee? No, not something you stand on, although many theater managers would certainly, vigorously like to. A standee is one of those free-standing cardboard displays in a theater lobby or video store.

You can tell it's Christmas time because: 1) Fat guys in red suits are panhandling; 2) Even snow-phobic Baltimoreans are praying for flakes on a certain day; and 3) There are more productions of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" than Santa has elves.The biggest, glossiest "Christmas Carol" in town is the one at the Mechanic Theatre this week. It also boasts a star -- Baltimore native John Astin, of "The Addams Family" fame -- in the lead role of Ebenezer Scrooge.But first the gloss, then the star.