Entertainment news for August 29, 1997

Pulitzer, Schmulitzer. What Frank McCourt, author of the award-winning Angela’s Ashes, really wants to do is act. Well, not really, but he’ll make his acting debut by playing himself Sept. 10 on ABC’s One Life to Live. ”[The show] has a family atmosphere,” says the writer, ”which for me is very enviable because when you write you go off to a room by yourself.” Actually, there’s a specific reason for that familial feel: His brother Malachy plays Irish terrorist Thomas Kenneally on the show. ”[In my scene] I’m signing books and Malachy asks me to sign one for his brother Frank,” says McCourt. ”It’s all convoluted.” Although McCourt says he enjoyed his small-screen stint, he’s not planning an encore anytime soon. Is he concerned the literati will scoff? ”The people I know,” notes McCourt, ”aren’t watching One Life to Live.”