Bill Macy

Memo to James Brown, the undisputed Godfather of Soul: Relax. William H. Macy is not, repeat, not trying to steal the title of the hardest-working man in show business. To be sure, the evidence that suggests otherwise is pretty daunting. Macy, the actor who came close to walking away with 1996's "Fargo" with his Oscar-nominated role as a hapless Minnesota car salesman caught up in a murder scheme, seems like he's in almost every movie that comes out.

William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman make quite the starry couple, but as Bill tells it, they're just plain old Hollywood Hills folks, with two daughters (Sofia, 8, and Georgia, 6) and a dog named Tucker. "We love entertaining and having game nights at our house," Macy says. "Running Charades is the game of choice right now, and there's a group that plays that has gotten quite vicious over the years." Their careers keep them busy too.

William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman make quite the starry couple, but as Bill tells it, they're just plain old Hollywood Hills folks, with two daughters (Sofia, 8, and Georgia, 6) and a dog named Tucker. "We love entertaining and having game nights at our house," Macy says. "Running Charades is the game of choice right now, and there's a group that plays that has gotten quite vicious over the years." Their careers keep them busy too.

Memo to James Brown, the undisputed Godfather of Soul: Relax. William H. Macy is not, repeat, not trying to steal the title of the hardest-working man in show business. To be sure, the evidence that suggests otherwise is pretty daunting. Macy, the actor who came close to walking away with 1996's "Fargo" with his Oscar-nominated role as a hapless Minnesota car salesman caught up in a murder scheme, seems like he's in almost every movie that comes out.

Nedra Volz, a character actress remembered for her early 1980s roles as housekeeper Adelaide Brubaker on the popular television comedy "Diff'rent Strokes" and postmistress Miz Emma Tisdale on "The Dukes of Hazzard," has died. She was 94. Volz, who played her customary "old lady" role in her final film, "The Great White Hype," which was released in 1996, died Jan. 20 in Mesa, Ariz., of complications of Alzheimer's disease.

"Oh! Calcutta!" will be baring all for the last time. Broadway's long-running nude revue will close Aug. 6 after a run of 5,959 performances, executive producer Maria Di Dia has announced. The current edition, which opened Sept. 24, 1976, at the Edison Theater, was the second major incarnation for the revue, which originally premiered in 1969 at off-Broadway's Eden Theater, moved in 1971 to Broadway's Belasco Theater and ran there until the following year.

Flower child Merlin Olsen plays an Amish father who takes wife Belinda Montgomery and their four children from an East Coast community to start a new life in contemporary California in an NBC movie "Aaron's Way," which films next week in Australia. . . . Bill Macy is a toy salesman (played by Jackie Gleason in the feature) who's at odds with son Todd Waring in the upcoming TV series "Nothing in Common," which begins shooting next week in town. . . .

"Bad Medicine" (citywide) is bad news. This feeble comedy is set in a 5-year-old south-of-the-border medical school run by a corrupt, pompous Latin nerd (Alan Arkin) who accepts Americans who can't make the grade at home. Arkin has a penchant for generating publicity by sending his students to remote pueblos in a show of free medical treatment for the poor, yet he denies them any medicine. (Never mind that his students aren't qualified to diagnose, let alone prescribe.

NBC's new sitcom, "Nothing in Common," has little in common with the appealing theatrical movie of the same name on which it's based. Unfortunately. Although the series (premiering at 9:30 tonight on Channels 4, 36 and 39) was developed by the very same Garry Marshall who also directed the movie, it's geared mostly for cheap laughs and debuts with a gaggle of jokes that could make you gag. Todd Waring is David Basner, the wild and warped advertising man played by Tom Hanks in the movie.

Melvin Bernhardt, a good director, and Doris Roberts and Bill Macy, good actors, have gotten themselves involved in a play called "Harry and Thelma in the Woods" at the Mayfair Theater in Santa Monica. The story concerns a suicidal husband, Harry, and a castrating wife, Thelma. Harry tries to leave Thelma after 25 years of marriage but the alternative, a young woman named Choo-Choo (whom we don't meet), is worse, so he ends up back in Thelma's power. Pure Strindberg.