John Huston

"The Hustons: Hollywood's Maverick Dynasty" is a loving look at a dysfunctional family that's been responsible for some of Hollywood's finest works.What's most interesting about the show, a two-hour "Biography" special airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on A&E, is that each Huston spent almost as much time shunning Hollywood as embracing and being embraced by it.Patriarch Walter had achieved some success on the Broadway stage and was initially hesitant to make motion pictures, even after talkies made it possible for stage actors with well-trained voices to practically write their own ticket.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN HAS always had something extra behind the eyeballs: a glint of high or lowdown wit, a surfeit of mischief or creative energy. A prize supporting actor for more than a decade, he's played everything from a droll oversize preppie with an annoying sense of truth, in The Talented Mr. Ripley, to a sleazy tabloid reporter who gets a flaming sendoff from a serial killer, in the Hannibal Lecter thriller, Red Dragon. In three dozen films, playing big men who move with misguided confidence or sometimes genuine grace, Hoffman had become an heir to the great Hollywood character actors -- the kind that audiences loved seeing even if they couldn't instantaneously recall the performers' names.

Thirty years after Liz Taylor and Richard Burton put Puerto Vallarta on the map with a torrid romance, this once-placid little seaside village on the west coast of Mexico has become a major resort.In what used to be a fishing hole, a half-dozen mega-hotels now rise, each with enormous pools set amid forests of coconut palms. As fat yachts ride at anchor in the marina, vacationers from all over the world stroll on the harbor's boardwalk, pausing to browse in boutiques or sip a cool drink at an outdoor cafe.

June 6 will be the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that was a turning point in World War II. The World War II Memorial Dedication (2 p.m.-3:30 p.m., History Channel) is the first of several specials related to that observance. The coverage is live from Washington. At a glance WNBA Basketball (4 p.m.-6 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) - The Detroit Shock became the first team in American pro sports to go from having the worst record to champs a year later when they beat the Los Angeles Sparks in the decisive third game the league championship.

June 6 will be the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that was a turning point in World War II. The World War II Memorial Dedication (2 p.m.-3:30 p.m., History Channel) is the first of several specials related to that observance. The coverage is live from Washington. At a glance WNBA Basketball (4 p.m.-6 p.m., WMAR, Channel 2) - The Detroit Shock became the first team in American pro sports to go from having the worst record to champs a year later when they beat the Los Angeles Sparks in the decisive third game the league championship.

SOUTHPORT, England -- Normalcy returned to the 127th British Open yesterday at Royal Birkdale. The second round was a meteorological roller coaster, beginning with rain, ending with sun and interspersed with 30-mph winds as well as a little sleet that briefly suspended play.The weather also caused havoc somewhere else -- on the leader board.First-round co-leader Tiger Woods, who felt the brunt of the front moving in off the Irish Sea, started at 5-under and fell to even par through 15 holes.

PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN HAS always had something extra behind the eyeballs: a glint of high or lowdown wit, a surfeit of mischief or creative energy. A prize supporting actor for more than a decade, he's played everything from a droll oversize preppie with an annoying sense of truth, in The Talented Mr. Ripley, to a sleazy tabloid reporter who gets a flaming sendoff from a serial killer, in the Hannibal Lecter thriller, Red Dragon. In three dozen films, playing big men who move with misguided confidence or sometimes genuine grace, Hoffman had become an heir to the great Hollywood character actors -- the kind that audiences loved seeing even if they couldn't instantaneously recall the performers' names.

Bruno Richard Hauptmann could hardly have foreseen how prophetic his close-to-final words would become when he uttered them on the night of April 3, 1936, shortly before being escorted to the electric chair in the New Jersey State Prison at Trenton.Hauptmann, in the oddly syntaxed and sometimes poetic way he had of speaking, told his minister, "They think when I die, the case will die. They think it will be like a book I closed. But the book, it will never close."More than a half century later, the book in the Lindbergh kidnapping case remains open.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Dan Halldorson birdied three of the last four holes to finish with a 9-under-par 63 for the first-round lead.Halldorson, whose best finish this year is a tie for 10th at the St. Jude Classic, played the front nine in 5-under. He did not have a bogey and leads John Huston and Mitch Adcock by two strokes.Halldorson birdied No. 15 with a 15-foot putt, No. 16 with a 45-footer and the par-5 18th from four feet."At 16 I was just trying to get the ball close," Halldorson said.

* ''Funny About Love'' Gene Wilder is a cartoonist who falls in love with a caterer, divorces her then tries to win her back. Christine Lahti co-stars. A drama with comedy.* ''GoodFellas'' Martin Scorsese's film version of Nicholas Pileggi's ''Wiseguy'' is the story of a boy who dreamed of being part of the mob and saw that dream come true. A drama with comedy. Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta star.* ''Narrow Margin'' Gene Hackman is a district attorney who has to protect a federal witness from professional killers.

"The Hustons: Hollywood's Maverick Dynasty" is a loving look at a dysfunctional family that's been responsible for some of Hollywood's finest works.What's most interesting about the show, a two-hour "Biography" special airing at 8 p.m. Sunday on A&E, is that each Huston spent almost as much time shunning Hollywood as embracing and being embraced by it.Patriarch Walter had achieved some success on the Broadway stage and was initially hesitant to make motion pictures, even after talkies made it possible for stage actors with well-trained voices to practically write their own ticket.

SOUTHPORT, England -- Normalcy returned to the 127th British Open yesterday at Royal Birkdale. The second round was a meteorological roller coaster, beginning with rain, ending with sun and interspersed with 30-mph winds as well as a little sleet that briefly suspended play.The weather also caused havoc somewhere else -- on the leader board.First-round co-leader Tiger Woods, who felt the brunt of the front moving in off the Irish Sea, started at 5-under and fell to even par through 15 holes.

Thirty years after Liz Taylor and Richard Burton put Puerto Vallarta on the map with a torrid romance, this once-placid little seaside village on the west coast of Mexico has become a major resort.In what used to be a fishing hole, a half-dozen mega-hotels now rise, each with enormous pools set amid forests of coconut palms. As fat yachts ride at anchor in the marina, vacationers from all over the world stroll on the harbor's boardwalk, pausing to browse in boutiques or sip a cool drink at an outdoor cafe.

Ben Maddow, an author and screenwriter whose credits included John Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle," died Friday at age 83.* Robert E. Wall, whose Wall-Streeter Shoe Co. helped popularize the wingtip, died Monday of cancer. The 78-year-old was president and treasurer of the North Adams company, which was founded by his father in 1912.* Ulysses Guimaraes, a leading foe of Brazil's military dictatorship and one of the country's most respected politicians, was killed in a helicopter crash Monday off a coastal resort.

A posse full of soon-to-be-big-name movie stars comes out with guns a-blazing in John Sturges' 1960 The Magnificent Seven, airing at noon today on AMC. This tale of seven gunslingers (actually, six gun- and one knife-slinger) hired to protect a poor Mexican town from a band of nasty desperadoes is a classic for so many reasons: Elmer Bernstein's soaring score, Charles Lang's sparse cinematography, and a cast of then-unknowns, including Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson and James Coburn (who plays Britt, the guy with the knife)