NANCY HARTZOG

Bessemer's Hollywood connection doubles

At the Bright Star, actors Leslie Jordan and Glenn Shadix, the town's new Hollywood connection.

essemer's little Hollywood connection doubled this past Sunday when diminutive Emmy award winner Leslie Jordan came to town to visit with long-time friend

Glenn Shadix, who actually lives here.

Of course, the two of them, along with a proper entourage, headed over to the Bright Star for lunch on Sunday.

The 4-foot-11 Jordan was in Birmingham to do a weekend showing of "My Trip Down the Pink Carpet," a one-man show at the Terrific New Theatre on Second Avenue South.

The show is taken from his autobiography by the same name, which came out in June.

"We put the book on its feet, making a show out of it," explained Jordan in his perfectly cultured South drawl.

So far, he's done 30 cities and plans for more.

In the play he regales his audience with tales of his hit TV series "Hearts Afire," "Boston Legal," and "Will & Grace."

"It's really the story basically of my
journey out of the Baptist church," he says.

"The idea is about having been raised in the church and not embraced. I fell out of the womb and into my mama's high heels. With all due respect to the Christian right, there's no choice here."

The 53-year-old actor's jounrey also took him into the abyss of alcoholism, which is also turned into something quite humorous.

, Much of Jordan's story sounds awfully familiar — almost like that of Shadix.

Both arrived in Hollywood dirt poor and began working hard to build their careers. And each one succeeded.

Shadix, who has made countless movies, is thinking about doing something similar.

He's nearly recuperated from a broken ankle that he suffered, and now he's looking for another project.

As for Jordan, the book is selling well, but the stage ver-
sion is doing better than anyone thought, including himself.
He says the book was written at the behest of a friend.

- "I had Simon and Schuster, and he said, 'You're the perfect

dinner guest with all those stories. You're a wonderful raconteur," Jordan said. "I had to look that word up — it sounded nasty."

His most recent roles have been closer to home than his
appearance on "Star Trek," where he played a hillbilly feren-

gi. He's starring in the TV version of the play "Sordid Lives" and had a role in "12 Miles of "Bad Road," a very Southern, very soapy drama that was written by Linda Bloodworth-

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Hartzog

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Thompson ("Designing Women") and starring Lily Tomlin.

HBO declined to pick it up, and Jordan fears it will never air.

He said it is because of a regime change at HBO.

"They brought in this Dartmouth-educated lawyer from New York, and he just hated our show," he explained.

Well, there are still the many other vehicles left.