Jackie Guerra

Jackie Guerra hopes to take her tremendous good fortune as far as she can. Guerra, 28, joins the ranks of several other stand-up comedians as she heads up a new sitcom this fall, WB's "First Time Out." It's a look at life in L.A. through the eyes of a young Latina. Unlike other comedians who join the fall lineup with sitcoms--Drew Carrey, Jeff Foxworthy, Rondell Sheridan and Ellen Cleghorne--Guerra didn't spend years honing her craft before she caught the attention of producers.

Friday: My boyfriend and I usually have friends over. We rent videos. I usually cook Mexican food, but I've been trying to apply what I've learned from the Oprah Winfrey "Cooking With Rosie" cookbook. I have been experimenting a lot, to all of my friends' dismay. We rent a lot of foreign movies, a lot of old classics. We like very campy stuff, like "Valley of the Dolls." Saturday morning: I go to my spinning class, the latest workout craze. It's sort of like a stationary bike and there's music.

Some of them you know. Some you don't. But the following artists, entertainers and executives have one thing in common: We're counting on each to mae a significant impact or difference in their respective fields this year. Sure, there will be thers who make a splash, but after we talked with dozens of people who work in entertainment and the arts, these were the names mentioned most often. You might say that Jim Carrey was a face to watch in '94, and you would be right.

Jackie Guerra hopes to take her tremendous good fortune as far as she can. Guerra, 28, joins the ranks of several other stand-up comedians as she heads up a new sitcom this fall, WB's "First Time Out." It's a look at life in L.A. through the eyes of a young Latina. Unlike other comedians who join the fall lineup with sitcoms--Drew Carrey, Jeff Foxworthy, Rondell Sheridan and Ellen Cleghorne--Guerra didn't spend years honing her craft before she caught the attention of producers.

Friday: My boyfriend and I usually have friends over. We rent videos. I usually cook Mexican food, but I've been trying to apply what I've learned from the Oprah Winfrey "Cooking With Rosie" cookbook. I have been experimenting a lot, to all of my friends' dismay. We rent a lot of foreign movies, a lot of old classics. We like very campy stuff, like "Valley of the Dolls." Saturday morning: I go to my spinning class, the latest workout craze. It's sort of like a stationary bike and there's music.

Actors Richard Masur and Kitty Swink and activists Peg Yorkin and Eleanor Smeal will host the third annual "Choose to Laugh, Laugh to Choose" comedy event benefiting the National Clinic Defense Project, which works to keep women's health clinics open in the face of violence and harassment by abortion foes. The event--which marks the 23rd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion--will be held Monday at 8 p.m. at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood.

In this era of multiple (and growing) TV channel options, the simplicity of the stand-up comedy show must be a tempting format for programmers and producers--rent a club, line up a few comedians and hope for the best. In the case of "Comedy Compadres" (premiering at 11:30 tonight on KTLA-TV Channel 5), the difference is that the program is a showcase for Latino comics.

Speedy screenwriter Dan Berendsen uses a little magic of his own to send America's favorite witch on her globe-trotting made-for-TV movies. On Sunday, Sabrina is off to Australia in "Sabrina Down Under." Last season, Berendsen had only 21 days to write the script for Melissa Joan Hart's well-received "Sabrina Goes to Rome" on ABC.

The WB Network will inaugurate its second season with a Sunday night block of comedies and a slate of new series featuring such stars as Kirk Cameron and former "Saturday Night Live" performer Ellen Cleghorne. Warner Bros.

Jurassic Presidents Department: Here's a potential plot for a horror film: Abraham Lincoln gets cloned from a pen. According to Consumer Reports magazine, a company called Fahrney's Pens Inc. has created a $1,650 fountain pen that contains a copy of the deceased president's DNA. Apparently, Honest Abe's "genetic essence" was replicated from a preserved sample of his hair, then crystallized and embedded in a chunk of amethyst on the cap of each pen.

Some of them you know. Some you don't. But the following artists, entertainers and executives have one thing in common: We're counting on each to mae a significant impact or difference in their respective fields this year. Sure, there will be thers who make a splash, but after we talked with dozens of people who work in entertainment and the arts, these were the names mentioned most often. You might say that Jim Carrey was a face to watch in '94, and you would be right.

To Ethel Kennedy, he was "a saint." To Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, "a man of indomitable faith." To Cheech Marin, he was "the biggest Chicano hero there ever was." Martin Sheen said he was "a catalyst who moved people toward living for others." And besides that, he got the actor to quit smoking. They were speaking of Cesar E. Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers union.

It was a stellar evening of memories of a beloved tejano singer and accolades for Latino filmmakers at the Los Angeles premiere of Warner Bros.' "Selena" on Thursday night. "I'm proud of what we, as movie makers, have achieved because we did it for Selena," said producer Moctesuma Esparza. "This movie is a historic film--the first time there has ever been a movie about Latino culture in the United States that was produced for the mainstream.