Post-’Survivor’ Gigs Are Carefully Controlled

“Survivor: The Road Show” continues this week as Colleen, Gervase, Rudy, Susan, Gretchen and million-dollar winner Richard reconvene Tuesday on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” to help O’Donnell kick off a new season of shows. It’s the survivors like you’ve seen them numerous times before--lying prostrate before the cult-of-celebrity gods. “During her summer vacation, Rosie became very involved with ‘Survivor,’ ” a press release said. The survivors, meanwhile, have been learning lately that freedom’s just another word for doing CBS’ bidding. A story on the Web site https://www.inside.com on Friday reported that the survivors have been limited in their ability to cash in on their fame because of the restrictive contracts they signed with CBS before “Survivor” went into production. The network, of course, wants to use the survivors to promote CBS shows, but not prime-time or late-night shows on competing networks (this killed Richard’s shot on “Saturday Night Live,” inside.com said). A CBS spokeswoman said the survivors’ contract prohibits their appearing on “competing networks, either as themselves or as a character,” but that news talk shows, including “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” are excluded from that restriction.

‘Betty’ Is Latest in a Long Line of Soap Spoofs

In Neil LaBute’s quirky “Nurse Betty,” actress Renee Zellweger plays Betty Sizemore, a Kansas waitress so fixated on her favorite soap opera, “A Reason to Love,” that she heads to Los Angeles in the delusional belief that her favorite character on the show, Dr. David Ravell (Greg Kinnear), once jilted her at the altar. Still madly in love with Ravell, Betty stumbles into a job at a real L.A. hospital, then, with a friend’s help, attends a party where she meets the actor playing Ravell. What Betty doesn’t know is that two drug dealers (Morgan Freeman and Chris Rock), who killed her husband back in Kansas, are now hot on her trail. USA Films will release the R-rated film on Friday. “Nurse Betty” is only the latest example of movies that use the over-the-top, fan-obsessed soap world as a backdrop. In Sidney Pollack’s entertaining 1982 comedy “Tootsie,” Dustin Hoffman played a down-on-his-luck actor who dresses up as a woman to land a role on a daytime soap. The film grossed a staggering $177.2 million. That same year brought “Young Doctors in Love,” an “Airplane”-like spoof of hospital soaps. The 1991 comedy “Soapdish” saw Sally Field portray a Queen of the Soaps whose career and life are thrown into upheaval when an old flame (Kevin Kline) and their grown daughter (Elisabeth Shue) are cast on the show. And in this year’s comedy/drama “28 Days,” Sandra Bullock and others confined at an alcohol and drug rehab center became fixated on a TV soap. Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co., said “Nurse Betty” is aimed at people who like eccentricity in their films. “You never know how these films are going to perform,” he says. “Their subject matter is not quantifiable. But I think the unpredictability of this film appeals to some people.”

Will Ulrich Be Booed at MTV Awards?

Watch this week to see if the spirit of Napster visits the MTV Video Music Awards. The awards show on Thursday, the 17th edition, offers eclectic performers--when was the last time Janet Jackson and Eminem and Rage Against the Machine shared a stage?--and at least one intriguing moment with a presenter: Metallica’s Lars Ulrich is scheduled to hand out one of the astronaut trophies. Will boos fill Radio City Music Hall in New York? It will be Ulrich’s highest-profile public appearance (not counting Metallica concerts) since testifying before Congress about the evils of the popular and controversial Napster, an online music-swapping service that some see as piracy and others treasure as the ultimate jukebox. The fan angst over Ulrich and Metallica’s campaign to stamp out Napster peaked when the band gave authorities the names of more than 300,000 Napster users who allegedly pirated Metallica’s songs. Many of the band’s faithful fans bitterly turned their backs on the group. Things have quieted down, but not by much. Fan Web sites are still roiling with the topic, and the newest issue of Spin magazine, devoted to the “100 Sleaziest Moments in Rock,” puts Ulrich and Co. at No. 30 for their “cynical and supremely ill-conceived” decision to “rat out” their fans. Will he be booed? Talking to The Times a few weeks ago, Ulrich said he would not be hiding from critics or embittered fans. “If they don’t understand what we did and why we did it, [expletive] them,” he offered. “We’re not going anywhere.” Apparently much love for the band remains, since fans and industry types nominated them for some trophies of their own for their “I Disappear” video. The awards air here on tape delay at 8 p.m.

--Compiled by Times staff writers