Kevin Bacon

Most of us think of Kevin Bacon as that famous movie actor, the all-American guy with some 60 films to his credit, serious titles such as Mystic River, Apollo 13, A Few Good Men and JFK. Or as the fulcrum of the ubiquitous "six degrees" theory that anyone can be associated with anyone else within a half-dozen connections. And, we're well aware of his famous actress wife, Kyra Sedgwick, who is earning high praise and high ratings on TV with The Closer. If you go The Bacon Brothers play at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at West Shore Park on Light Street between Conway and Lee streets, in the Inner Harbor.

Apart from one urban cliffhanger set in a parking garage - it should have an afterlife as an action sequence long after the rest of this sorry celluloid has turned to soup - the grandiose, grimly silly revenge thriller Death Sentence will mostly benefit free-form players of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Bacon can now readily be linked to nonpareil macho movie star Charles Bronson, because Death Sentence is based on novelist Brian Garfield's 1975 sequel to Death Wish, which Bronson and director Michael Winner turned into a hit vigilante film in 1974.

After a summer of "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Sixth Sense," who would want to have the bejeebers scared out of them one more time by "Stir of Echoes," the latest entry into the Heebie Jeebie Sweepstakes of 1999?This supernatural thriller, which stars Kevin Bacon as a blue-collar husband and father who becomes convinced that his stolid brick rowhouse is haunted, isn't nearly as terrifying or suspenseful as its predecessors. Writer-director David Koepp ("Mission: Impossible," "Jurassic Park")

Footloose," the sleeper hit movie of 1984, is still an oft-referenced cult classic. Its spirit and amiability were and are enough to get even the most anti-A.M.-radio Gen-Xer to voluntarily listen to and even savor Kenny Loggins.The soundtrack, mainly the work of lyricist Dean Pitchford and composer Tom Snow, includes such Reagan-era gems as "Let's Hear It for the Boy," "Holding Out for a Hero" and, of course, Loggins' title track. It's like a time machine with a beat, transporting fans back to the days of breakdancing and pastels.

In older cities like London and New York, it's not unusual for a building with a lengthy history and unlikely provenance to morph into a hotel. A recent transformation is in Boston, where the Harborside Inn opened late last year.As befits its location 300 yards from Boston Harbor, the eight-story granite-walled building started life in 1858 as a warehouse across the street from the Custom House at McKinley Square. More recently, it housed a spice, candy and syrup company. In fact, when the previous occupants moved out a decade ago, they left a tank brimming with 2,000 gallons of molasses.

It may be early yet, but here's betting there won't be a more hilarious film all year than "Wild Things."Problem is, it's not meant to be funny.Fortunately, that small matter does not detract from the hilarity of such scenes as Kevin Bacon's face when he spies two teen-age girls lip-locked in the family pool, or Neve Campbell trying to convincingly talk like ignorant gutter trash, or stone-faced Robert Wagner as a macho lawyer who comes off as threatening as...

"Animal House," the ultimate party movie, launched many a Hollywood career.Tom Hulce went on to be nominated for an Academy Award. Kevin Bacon attained pop-culture icon status with his own game. Some, like Karen Allen, enjoyed brief stardom and disappeared off the face of the earth. John Belushi is dead.Here's a sampling of post-grad achievements of "Animal House" vets who went on to tap that elusive keg of stardom. Some came up dry, and others are dizzy with success:Tom Hulce (Larry "Pinto" Kroger)

You can be two tiny degrees away from Kevin Bacon. mm jj nnn mm ilk Just see the Nields in concert. mm lk klk ilk The Northampton, Mass.-based Nields first played with Kevin Bacon's band, the Bacon Brothers, at the Bottom Line in New York last year. Since then, the two bands have played more dates together, established a friendship, and the Nields can boast a one-degree association."I tingle all over every day when I think about it," says Nerissa Nields, vocalist and guitarist for the band.

Those lucky enough to have New Jersey's WOR on their cable system can pull out the love beads and watch "The Mod Squad" every day. The rest of us, unfortunately, may have to make due with this afternoon's showing of the 1979 reunion movie.* "Step by Step" (11:30 a.m.-noon, WBFF, Channel 45) -- Here's your chance to see Elizabeth Berkley, whose naked body was the star of "Showgirls," without having to sit through two hours of bad cinema. Rated G.* "World Professional Figure Skating Championships" (8 p.m.-10 p.m., WBAL, Channel 11)

The Bacon Brothers need validation."We have something to prove," said Michael Bacon, 47.No, musician Michael, and his brother, actor Kevin Bacon, don't need witnesses to hide in a closet to verify carnal conquests, like Kevin's character Fenwick in "Diner," which was set in Baltimore.What they do need, at the peak of hot young-actor-cum-rock-star careers (Keanu Reeves, anyone?) is for people not to pre-suppose the "movie-star vanity trip.""You may not dig our music, but you can't say someone's packaging us, putting nice clothes on us and shooting a video," the 38-year-old actor said.

George Hamilton burst on the scene in the final days of Old Hollywood - one of his first credits was Vincente Minnelli's "Home From the Hill" (1960). He soon embodied all the fashion-plate allure of big-studio stardom with his own glints of humor and hedonism. He learned the studios' lessons about swank, verve and glamour without swallowing them whole. Irony became him - and becomes him. Over the past five decades, he's gone from youthful bon vivant to silver fox without losing his je ne sais quoi.

Zach Johnson has spent the past 12 years racing pigs at fairs nationwide, and this weekend marked his sixth return to the Maryland State Fair in Timonium. But the goateed Kansas City resident still seems to enjoy watching the creatures waddle-trot around the tiny track. Or as he'd undoubtedly put it, the job isn't boaring. The man is a pig pun machine, cranking them out like a sausage factory, especially when it comes to the names. Consider the lineup for the first of three races Saturday afternoon: Kevin Bacon, David Hasselhog, Brad Pig and Simon Sowell.

Series Criminal Minds: : The team goes after a serial killer who rides the rails like an old-school hobo and kills people who live near the tracks. (9 p.m., WJZ-Channel 13) America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back: : Pauley Perrette (NCIS) delivers an update on a murder case with two young female victims. With John Walsh. (9 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45) Movies Glory: : Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for his performance as a runaway slave who enlists in Robert Gould Shaw's (Matthew Broderick)

HBO might have lost its way when it comes to making weekly series, but it still produces exceptional made-for-TV movies. Taking Chance, an elegiac chronicle of the final journey home for a 19-year-old Marine killed in Iraq, is one of the most eloquent and socially conscious films the premium cable channel has ever presented. Kevin Bacon delivers a lights-out, searing performance as Michael Strobl, a tightly wrapped lieutenant colonel who escorts the remains of Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps from the Dover Port Mortuary in Delaware to the home of the dead Marine's parents in Dubois, Wyo. Meanwhile, producer-writer-director Ross Katz steeps the cross-country journey in such a rich brew of distilled emotion and America iconography that at times the film feels almost too intense to bear - and that is a good thing.

The movies entertain us, enlighten us, challenge us - except when they're set in Tennessee. A look at some films depicting the two regions involved in Saturday's big game. TENNESSEE Coal Miner's Daughter Weepy tale about life of country star Loretta Lynn, starring Sissy Spacek. Hard times, cheating men, etc. Nashville Bizarre Robert Altman pic about country music biz intersecting with a political convention. The "Don't Rent" of the year. The Thing Called Love Newcomers to - what else?

Apart from one urban cliffhanger set in a parking garage - it should have an afterlife as an action sequence long after the rest of this sorry celluloid has turned to soup - the grandiose, grimly silly revenge thriller Death Sentence will mostly benefit free-form players of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Bacon can now readily be linked to nonpareil macho movie star Charles Bronson, because Death Sentence is based on novelist Brian Garfield's 1975 sequel to Death Wish, which Bronson and director Michael Winner turned into a hit vigilante film in 1974.

Most of us think of Kevin Bacon as that famous movie actor, the all-American guy with some 60 films to his credit, serious titles such as Mystic River, Apollo 13, A Few Good Men and JFK. Or as the fulcrum of the ubiquitous "six degrees" theory that anyone can be associated with anyone else within a half-dozen connections. And, we're well aware of his famous actress wife, Kyra Sedgwick, who is earning high praise and high ratings on TV with The Closer. If you go The Bacon Brothers play at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at West Shore Park on Light Street between Conway and Lee streets, in the Inner Harbor.

CHESAPEAKE HISTORY Commemorate John Smith's voyage on the Chesapeake in 1608. Visitors to the Annapolis City Dock this weekend can see the replica shallop John Smith, meet the crew and explore the interactive exhibit tent. On Saturday, Gov. Martin O'Malley and Rep. John Sarbanes will be the guests of honor. .................... There will be a boat parade into Annapolis Harbor at 10 a.m. Saturday, with a ceremony at the City Dock at 10:30 a.m. The exhibit will be open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Kevin Bacon once told an interviewer that one reason so many actors are waiters is because so much of an actor's time is spent waiting. Josh Lefkowitz mentions this insight in his one-man show, Help Wanted, a hilarious, touching portrait-of-the-monologist-as-a-young-man at Center Stage. Help Wanted runs Thursdays-Saturdays, through Feb. 17, at Center Stage, 700 N. Calvert St. $15. 410-332-0033 or centerstage.org.

Hollywood is once again working itself into a lather about prejudice within its ranks. First it was movie star Mel Gibson, claiming that Jews are behind all the wars in history - a comment that, among other reactions, led actor Rob Schneider to declare he would never work with Mr. Gibson. Now it's comedian Michael Richards, who has infuriated the industry by hurling the hated "N-word" at a couple of black hecklers during his stand-up routine at a Los Angeles comedy club. I find all of this outrage a bit ironic, because Hollywood itself is unequaled when it comes to spreading prejudice.