NAMES IN THE NEWS : Busfield, Elliott Share Kinship

Timothy Busfield says he draws on his own personality in playing Elliott Weston, the yuppie jerk, in ABC’s “thirtysomething.”

“That’s who I am,” Busfield said in an interview in the March 17 edition of TV Guide.

“I’m a jerk, first and foremost. I don’t know the answers. I’m an idiot. I make mistakes. I stick my foot in my mouth. I’m insensitive when I don’t want to be.”

He said the people he meets recognize him as Elliot. He gets Bibles in the mail from those offended by the character’s philandering, and one time a woman walked up to him in a supermarket, said “Oh, it’s you!” and slapped him.

People are “emotionally disturbed by Elliot, yet they’re completely enthralled by the character,” Busfield said. “He gets under their skin.”