Flash

By Compiled from Times wires

Survivor host Jeff Probst knew he was going to take some jibes for some of the program's hammy dialogue, but he didn't expect them to be quite so harsh.

"I didn't know it would be to this degree," said Probst, who has intoned such lines as "Fire represents life," and "This is the conch shell of truth" on the show. "I've never been criticized before. And I'm no different from anyone else. I want to be liked."

Still, Probst says he knows how lucky he is to be a part of the summer hit.

"CBS and (Survivor) creator Mark Burnett took a gigantic risk letting me host the show," he said. "In a star-driven universe, they could have looked for someone like Regis Philbin or Dick Clark."

Burnett said he was looking for something different in a host.

"I (wanted) someone who looked like they belonged out there," Burnett said. "Someone who wouldn't be a whiner and wouldn't quit on me. I didn't need a talking head."

Probst, 38, has appeared on cable's FX network and has hosted the VH-1 game show Rock and Roll Jeopardy.

Fawcett denies rumors of drug, alcohol abuse

Farrah Fawcett admits she is anything but an angel.

But the former Charlie's Angels star says she doesn't abuse drugs or alcohol, contrary to media and industry speculation that has dogged her for years.

"I take no drugs," says Fawcett, 53, in the September issue of Movieline. "I don't drink either. I don't like the taste. The only thing I'll have is a glass of champagne.

"Stories about me make it seem as if I'm holed up in some motel room shooting up or something. Anyone who knows me knows that my time off is spent either at the gym or playing paddle tennis or in the ocean."

Fawcett also enjoys aspects of her single life.

Fawcett, who posed nude for Playboy at the age of 50, will appear with Richard Gere in Robert Altman's film Dr. T and the Women in the fall.

'Sex and the City' star to take his turn on stage

Sex and the City's Mr. Big is going to Broadway. Will a big-time movie career in Hollywood be his next stop?

Chris Noth isn't sure he wants it to be.

"I have enough attention already. More, I don't really need," said Noth, who plays Mr. Big on the HBO series and was Detective Mike Logan on Law and Order.

Noth, a Yale School of Drama graduate, dismisses those who compare him to George Clooney, the last TV star to make the transition to film stardom.

"Clooney's got a charm that is really palpable," said Noth in Sunday's editions of the Daily News. "I'm not sure I have that. No one is coming to me and offering me a $50-million movie."

Noth will play Sen. Joe Cantwell in the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's The Best Man, set to open Sept. 17.

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