PASADENA, Calif. – A roundup of news Tuesday from the Television Critics Association winter meeting, at which TV networks and streaming services are presenting details on upcoming programs:
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Even supermodels feel pressure to keep up their looks.
Rachel Hunter confesses she has considered plastic surgery after feeling "horrified" seeing photos of herself. The 46-year-old former Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model took to wearing scarves to hide her jowls.
"In real life I was fairly happy with myself. In photos I was horrified," she said. "People were like, 'Why don't you get rid of those deep lines (around her mouth)?'"
Hunter, who has two grown children with ex-husband Rod Stewart, changed her opinion once she began working on her new Ovation series "Rachel Hunter's Tour of Beauty." The 13-episode show debuting Jan. 17 takes viewers around the globe to discover indigenous beauty secrets and how beauty is defined in different cultures.
"After going on this journey and seeing other cultures away went that superficial idea of beauty," she said. "Ideas of beauty are old and need to be shattered. We have no self-acceptance. If we don't enjoy who we are then how can you offer fully any sense of beauty or well-being or longevity?"
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ANOTHER RUN FOR O.J.
The O.J. Simpson saga is getting another treatment, this time on ESPN.
"O.J.: Made in America" will air over five nights sometime next spring under the sports cable network's "30 for 30" documentary banner.
Director Ezra Edelman tried to interview Simpson, who is serving time in a Nevada prison for robbery, but the football star acquitted for murdering his ex-wife and her friend refused. Edelman did persuade such key players as former prosecutor Marcia Clark, district attorney Gil Garcetti and Los Angeles policeman Mark Fuhrman to participate.
"Most people were reluctant to talk," Edelman said. "We really had to convince her (Clark) through the fact that we did know what we were talking about, we don't have an agenda. I'm just trying to get the story right."
Edelman, the Emmy-winning son of children's activist Marian Wright Edelman, explores the intersection of race and celebrity in America through the prism of Simpson's life against the backdrop of the Watts riots and Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles.
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PLUGGING AWAY
Ed Asner is still acting up a storm at age 86.
His latest role is in "Love Finds You in Valentine," airing Feb. 14 on the Up network.
Asner stays busy with acting and voiceover work and recently rejected the idea of retiring. He uses a cane to steady himself.
"I was thinking about it this Christmas but the new year looks very promising so I'll forget about retiring," he said. "I would like to die in the saddle and be like Dick Shawn and die on stage."
Shawn had a heart attack and died while performing a play in 1987.
Asner recalled the lesson his father learned from firefighters in their Kansas City neighborhood.
"They retired and a year later they were dead," he said.
Asner's father died at 82 still running his junk business.
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DA BEARS
Vince Vaughn is indulging his childhood love of the Chicago Bears with a new ESPN movie on the 1985 Super Bowl champs.
The 45-year-old actor, who grew up in suburban Chicago, serves as executive producer of "The '85 Bears," airing Feb. 4 as part of the network's "30 for 30" documentary series.
Vaughn was especially fond of star running back Walter Payton.
"You couldn't ask for a better sports figure to look up to as a child. He was beloved," Vaughn said. "The Bears are very Chicago. There was something very unfiltered about these guys. It seemed like they had a lot of fun. Catching up with them now, it's fascinating to see those big personalities and everything they went through."
The film includes a rare appearance by Buddy Ryan, the former assistant to coach Mike Ditka. Now 81, Ryan is in failing health and is visited by some of his former players.
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ORIGINAL SUPERHERO
Lindsay Wagner has mixed emotions about the female superheroes populating movies and TV today.
She, of course, rose to fame as "The Bionic Woman," her Emmy-winning role from the mid-'70s.
"It's great that finally women are allowed to be heroes," she said. "But I also am concerned when I see a lot of the modern-day idea of a woman superhero is just yesterday's male hero in some tights."
Wagner's star-making turn as sci-fi action heroine Jamie Sommers was a spin-off of "The Six Million Dollar Man." Both characters were re-built after accidents with bionic implants.
"We're hopefully getting used to technology so we don't have to be mesmerized by it and get back to story," she said.
The 66-year-old actress co-stars with Ed Asner in "Love Finds You in Valentine," airing on the Up network.
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