A few weeks ago when I was interviewing Ray Liotta and asked him what he planned to do next, he replied rather dejectedly: "I'm just reading things now, and hoping." The good news for Liotta is that he has been cast in the plum role of his fellow New Jersey native, Frank Sinatra, in the HBO (Home Box Office) movie, The Rat Pack. Scripted by Kario Salem, the film will be directed by Rob Cohen who made Dragon Heart and the Bruce Lee biopic, Dragon.

Don Cheadle (from Devil In A Blue Dress) has been offered the role of Sammy Davis Jr, while there is no word yet on the casting of Dean Martin, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. Cohen's film starts shooting in mid-February, getting in well ahead of Martin Scorsese's biopic, Dino, scripted by Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote Good Fellas. Scorsese's casting wish-list includes Tom Hanks as Dean Martin, John Travolta as Sinatra, Hugh Grant as Lawford, Adam Sandler as Bishop and Jim Carrey as Jerry Lewis.