Charlton Heston

The 1992 Senate election season is not over. Next Tuesday Georgia voters go back to the polls to vote in a race they thought they had settled Nov. 3. On Dec. 4, voters in North Dakota will vote in a special election to fill a vacancy caused by a death. And after the Electoral College meets to cast presidential-vice presidential votes, Sen. Albert Gore Jr. will resign and the governor of Tennessee will appoint a replacement.The most interesting of these developments is in Georgia. First term Sen. Wyche Fowler, a Democrat, came in first on Election Day. He got 49 percent in a three-man race.

Series Law & Order: : Criminal Intent: : The apparent suicide of a student at an elite private school proves to be a homicide. (8 p.m., WBAL-Channel 11) NCIS:: A high-ranking senator wants Gibbs (Mark Harmon) to investigate the mysterious death of a young female naval officer. (9 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) Movies Ben-Hur:: Eleven Oscars went to this 1959 epic about childhood friends, a Jew (Charlton Heston) and a Roman (Stephen Boyd), who become enemies during the time of Christ. (8 p.m., TCM)

Considering the way some people feel about Sherlock Holmes, it is probably fitting that a man who once was the voice of God should be playing Conan Doyle's celebrated detective.Charlton Heston does just that tonight in "The Crucifer of Blood," a 2 1/2 -hour movie that will run on the TNT cable channel at 8 o'clock with a repeat at 11 p.m.Heston, whose great fame came from starring in a type of movie they just don't make anymore -- "The Ten Commandments," "Ben Hur" and that ilk -- has settled into a comfortable niche making much smaller movies for cable channels, some for Ted Turner's TNT, others for Disney.

Charlton Heston, who died Saturday at the age of 84, seemed to be built for the spectacles of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was never an athlete like Burt Lancaster, who took a pass on the role that made Heston a superstar, Ben-Hur. But no movie star ever looked like more of an athlete than Heston, with his comic-book wedge of a torso, his Dick Tracy-square jaw and the competitive glint in his eye, which also held signs of something deeper - a wounded masculinity. That's what made him shine in Ben-Hur.

Charlton Heston's newest political role as first vice president of the beleaguered National Rifle Association is merely his latest act in an on- and off-screen career of imparting a heroic, broad-shouldered presence to movies and real-life issues.In four decades, the 72-year-old Heston has soldiered in the early civil rights movement, campaigned against the nuclear freeze, raised money to fight breast cancer and formed his own political action committee to fund conservative candidates.In fact, it's difficult to write a story about Heston's sometimes-dramatic entries into these causes without using the word "Moses" and invoking the memory of the actor leading his forces out of the wilderness in "The Ten Commandments."

Charlton Heston, who died Saturday at the age of 84, seemed to be built for the spectacles of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was never an athlete like Burt Lancaster, who took a pass on the role that made Heston a superstar, Ben-Hur. But no movie star ever looked like more of an athlete than Heston, with his comic-book wedge of a torso, his Dick Tracy-square jaw and the competitive glint in his eye, which also held signs of something deeper - a wounded masculinity. That's what made him shine in Ben-Hur.

Rehrmann has Sid Kramer, Larry Gibson and the casinos. Glendening has Don Schaefer and the Kennedys. Bet on Sauerbrey.Charlton Heston endorses guns! Guns raise potency, help catch a man, protect the elderly and raise SATs. Buy guns!Starr will subpoena Jay Leno next, to find out where his writers get that stuff.Hopkins wants to roof over Memorial Stadium. That's why it's the Dome Corporation.Pub Date: 6/12/98

The Census undercount that really hurts is of all those people who threw out the junk mail without looking. If Himmelrich and Tufaro can manage to fill Montgomery Ward's gigantic old warehouse with vibrant businesses, O'Malley will be hailed as a genius. Charlton Heston should drop that NRA role. He never made a convincing villian. If they can child-proof an aspirin bottle, why not a gun?

Starr will subpoena Socks next. Socks saw everything. Buddy is out of the loop.TC Nigeria's dictator is dead but don't worry, they had another one waiting in the wings.Why can't Charlton Heston just endorse milk like other celebrities who are worried about going out of fashion?Foundations are awash in money while panhandlers drive folks out of downtown. Anyone have an idea?Pub Date: 6/10/98

HERE'S a film of five low-lifers beating and robbing a man in the street. One of the five filmed it himself with a video camera. It shows how far people will go nowadays to get on television.The film was shown in a Washington courtroom where the cinematographer and his cast are on trial for assault and robbery. Fragments of it shown on TV stations there featured a punch to the jaw that left one pedestrian unconscious and a brief sequence in which one assailant urinated on the fallen man's face.

The fundamental good deed of Passover is to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt to the children of the family. But reading a long Bible story with rabbinical commentary can be pretty difficult as kids climb under the dining room table, fight with their siblings or simply tune out. To keep kids riveted to a 4,000-year-old-story usually lasting two hours or more, teachers, religious leaders and authors suggest putting on a show that includes cooking, playacting,...

I LOST MY mind the other night and plunked down $8.50 for a movie ticket and another 50 bucks or whatever for a giant tub of popcorn and trash-barrel sized Pepsi and saw "The Legend of Bagger Vance." If you have not yet seen "Bagger Vance," the first thing I would say to you is: good move. Simply put, it's a horrible movie. In fact, it's a movie that is absolutely stunning in its horribleness. Imagine sitting in a darkened theater for two hours and watching a troupe of free-form mimes, or a unicyclist with a particularly bad juggling act, or six large, sweaty men in lederhosen and Alpine hats playing the accordion.

The Census undercount that really hurts is of all those people who threw out the junk mail without looking. If Himmelrich and Tufaro can manage to fill Montgomery Ward's gigantic old warehouse with vibrant businesses, O'Malley will be hailed as a genius. Charlton Heston should drop that NRA role. He never made a convincing villian. If they can child-proof an aspirin bottle, why not a gun?

I DON'T know about you, Baltimore, but I'm walking a little taller today, a little prouder, since the Great Storm of 2000. Oh, they used to call us Snow Wimps, didn't they? They said we panicked at the slightest hint of the White Death. They said we'd rush off to the supermarket and elbow old ladies with oxygen tanks in our mad scramble for bread, milk and toilet paper. They said we got so freaked out by a little snow on the roads that we all drove like your great-uncle Harry after his cataract operation.

WASHINGTON -- While President Clinton was playing host at his conference on youth violence Monday, saying he and his guests were "not here to place blame, but to shoulder responsibility," the uninvited National Rifle Association was holding a news conference of its own several blocks away.Its executive director, Wayne LaPierre, did not mince words about the White House conference and the NRA's exclusion. He called talk about new legislation to curb gun ownership and use "dishonest" and "phony."

DENVER -- As 8,000 anti-gun demonstrators -- rallied by the anguished pleas of the father of a slain Columbine High School student -- marched in protest, the National Rifle Association held a scaled-back meeting here yesterday.But although the group's members were outnumbered nearly 4-to-1 by the protesters, the mood among NRA members meeting in a basement ballroom was exuberantly defiant."Each horrible act can't become an ax for opportunists to cleave the very Bill of Rights that binds us," NRA President Charlton Heston told a cheering overflow crowd, many wearing blue-and-silver Columbine memorial ribbons fastened with NRA buttons.

Robust and fulfilling "family entertainment," Fraser C. RTC Heston's "Alaska" works as both high adventure for the general trade and satisfying fare for the younger audience.Director Heston plays the yarn with a distinct bias in favor of juvenile stars Thora Birch and Vincent Kartheiser (as alienated brother and sister, united in crisis), pitting them against a gathering arctic storm and a ruthless poacher.The poacher is played with rugged malice by Charlton Heston, the director's famous father, so you know the kids aren't going to be cut any slack in that department.

Series Law & Order: : Criminal Intent: : The apparent suicide of a student at an elite private school proves to be a homicide. (8 p.m., WBAL-Channel 11) NCIS:: A high-ranking senator wants Gibbs (Mark Harmon) to investigate the mysterious death of a young female naval officer. (9 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) Movies Ben-Hur:: Eleven Oscars went to this 1959 epic about childhood friends, a Jew (Charlton Heston) and a Roman (Stephen Boyd), who become enemies during the time of Christ. (8 p.m., TCM)

While Orson Welles was editing "Touch of Evil," he left to film a movie in Europe. In his absence, Universal Pictures re-cut the picture and, although Welles wrote the studio an impassioned 58-page memo with his detailed instructions as to how the film should be edited, the "Touch of Evil" that was released in 1958 was Universal's version, not Welles'.That injustice -- one of the most storied in film history -- has been redressed in this, the fourth version of "Touch of Evil," which has been re-edited to the specifications laid out in Welles' memo.

Wyndham Hotel will draw large crowds to waterfrontWhen Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that "every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm," he could have been describing last week's groundbreaking for the new Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel.This event, which drew more than 300 people, celebrated the collective enthusiasm and vision of this city and its leaders which, in just two short years, will produce one of the finest convention and business hotels in the country.