Gabriel Byrne

ON paper, Gabriel Byrne should be happy right now. He's back on Broadway, starring in a play he loves by a playwright he reveres. The production, a Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Eugene O'Neill's "A Touch of the Poet," allows him to live at his Brooklyn Heights town house, see his kids regularly and exercise his considerable stage muscles while waiting for the release of two new films he says he's quite proud of.

Gabriel Byrne and Margaret Conlin are kissing on a couch in front of a camera crew and empty bleachers. In walks their "son," John C. Hensley. They separate. There follows an exchange about who's in trouble and why. The director calls cut, and Byrne sits back, looking breathless and slightly dazed. It will get easier, the dialogue or the blocking or the kiss or all of the above.

Playing a doctor on TV is one of the oldest roles in the book, but Gabriel Byrne's Emmy-nominated turn as Paul Weston eschews the action of a hospital for the tense, charged silences of a therapist's office on HBO's "In Treatment." In fact, the half-hour drama is brilliant in its apparent simplicity, pairing skillful acting with rich dialogue in tightly drawn scenes that rarely find the characters doing anything more than sitting opposite each other.

In these strike-plagued days of endless reruns and empty, aching TiVo queues, just about anything new from HBO would be cause for rejoicing. But "In Treatment," a half-hour drama that debuts tonight, is the proverbial manna in the desert. And not just because it's based on a popular Israeli television show. Cleverly conceived, it boasts a star-studded cast (Gabriel Byrne, Dianne Wiest, Blair Underwood) who achieve, at times, theatrical transcendence.

Have the Vikings gotten a bum rap? At least according to popular imagination, they were fearsome barbarians in horned helmets who pillaged their way across Northern Europe during the Dark Ages. And while it's true these seafaring Norsemen were hardly a bunch of peaceniks, the new History scripted series "Vikings" will attempt to bring some nuance to the caricature of the bearded brutes when it premieres Sunday. "The great thesis is, 'You think you know the Vikings, but you don't," said series creator Michael Hirst.

The Irish Times typified the reaction to a weekend statement from new British Prime Minister Tony Blair by giving front-page coverage to Blair's acceptance of British blame for the Irish potato famine 150 years ago--the first such acknowledgment of his country's role in prolonging the famine.

Get ready to set sail on a six-hour voyage to the world of "Christopher Columbus." CBS will detail the explorer's life on a miniseries airing Sunday and Monday from 8-11 p.m. (Channels 2 and 8). Irish actor Gabriel Byrne stars as Columbus, and the large cast includes Faye Dunaway (as Queen Isabella), Rossano Brazzi, Virna Lisi, Oliver Reed, Raf Vallone, Max von Sydow, Eli Wallach and Nicol Williamson. The special was filmed in Malta, Spain and the Dominican Republic.

The American Cinematheque will hold a special sneak preview screening of the Miramax Irish fable "Into the West" Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. at the Directors Guild Theater, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. The screening of the movie co-starring Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin is part of an ongoing series, "Saturday Matinees for Children and Their Families," co-sponsored by the Cinematheque and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Tickets are $6 for the public, $3 for members and children under 12.

The American Cinematheque will hold a special sneak preview screening of the Miramax Irish fable "Into the West" Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. at the Directors Guild Theater, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. The screening of the movie co-starring Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin is part of an ongoing series, "Saturday Matinees for Children and Their Families," co-sponsored by the Cinematheque and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Tickets are $6 for the public, $3 for members and children under 12.