Quake nips Kup's acting career in the bud p.

By: Editorial Staff

THE LOS ANGELES earthquake nip-ped in the bud the potential acting career of 81-year-old Chicago Sun-Times gossip columnist Irv Kupcinet.
Kupcinet, who is known as Kup, was caught in the Jan. 17 temblor while in Los Angeles to film a bit part in the movie I Love Trouble.
"The quake caused considerable damage to the studio, thus postponing the filming until next Monday [Jan. 24], far beyond the time I wanted to spend in Hollywood," Kup explained in his column Jan. 20.
"But I am indebted to the producer of the movie, Charlie Shyer, who related I was the only actor ever canceled by an earthquake," Kup added.
However, the earthquake was journalistic fodder for Kup, who wrote a Jan. 18 first-person account of how the jolt measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale tossed him from his bed at the Bel Age Hotel.
Although I Love Trouble, which stars Julia Roberts and Nick Nolte, is about a Chicago newspaper columnist, Kup earlier had told readers he would not be portraying a gossip writer. "They told me I'm not the type," he wrote.