Roone Silverman Is On Next Week

The town is atwitter that this season’s hourlong hit drama “NYPD Blue” on ABC has among its rotating cast of characters one by the name of Det. Greg Medavoy, played by actor Gordon Clapp.

Why this would be such a curiosity factor is that a very high-profile studio chairman at TriStar Pictures, Mike Medavoy, shares the same, hardly common surname. The executive is an outspoken--sometimes controversial--Clinton insider and Hollywood political heavyweight.

If the guys don’t look exactly alike, some might argue they could be related. Both are fair and have red hair.

The show’s co-executive producer David Milch (with Steven Bochco) says he is amused by the talk, but disavows any connection: “A lot of people have said it’s a measure of my abject failure in the film business not to know what Medavoy looks like. It’s a total coincidence.”

But, he added, Medavoy, the detective, for sure is “an upright and admirable character to the extent there is a resemblance.”

Medavoy, the man, is also amused--and flattered. “Who would ever have thought someone born in Shanghai, raised in Chile and whose relatives were mostly killed off by Germans would be linked to a good TV show.”