Newman's Own tribute

I was at a press junket for one of Paul Newman's less memorable movies, and during the round-table interview, a woman from a Japanese publication asked him, in halting English, "What do you see for the future?"

It was one of those cringe-inducing moments so common to movie junkets - the reporter who brings the proceedings to a grinding halt with a stupid question. Newman was a little taken aback. "What do you mean - for me or for the world?"

"Both," she replied. Eyes were furtively rolled around the table.

But not Newman's piercing baby blues. I don't remember what he said in response, but I do remember thinking, wow, he just took a crap question and made something fairly elegant out of it.

That seems to be the way he was in general, and Turner Classic Movies will pay tribute to Newman on Oct. 12 with a daylong marathon of his films. It's lacking a lot of his classics, but some essential movies are part of the package:

3 a.m.: "The Rack." Newman as a Korean War vet on trial for treason; script by Rod Serling.

5 a.m.: "Until They Sail." Newman stepped up to matinee-idol status playing a Marine captain who falls for a widow (Jean Simmons) in New Zealand during World War II.

7 a.m.: "Torn Curtain." This Hitchcock Cold War thriller features one of Hitch's most famous scenes, in which Newman's scientist, pretending to be a defector, goes through an exhaustingly protracted fight to the death with a Russian spy.

9:15 a.m.: "Exodus." Newman plays an Israeli resistance leader in the Palestinian War epic.

12:45 p.m.: "Sweet Bird of Youth." Newman also played the role in this Tennessee Williams drama of a guy who returns to his hometown with a fading movie queen on Broadway.

3 p.m.: "Hud." One of his best: He plays a rotten guy who screws everyone over, but you still can't dislike him.

5 p.m.: "Somebody Up There Likes Me." Newman plays boxer Rocky Graziano; he eventually backed off the Method approach he applied to this performance.

7 p.m.: "Cool Hand Luke." Another classic anti-hero role; he's a member of a prison chain gang with a failure to communicate.

9:15 p.m.: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." More Tennessee Williams; Newman plays Brick, the washed-up ex-football player whose latent homosexuality is kind of toned down here. Elizabeth Taylor plays his voracious wife.

11:15 p.m.: "Rachel, Rachel." Newman also directed this film and starred opposite his wife, Joanne Woodward, who played a spinster trying to come out of her shell.

1 a.m.: "The Outrage." An adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's "Rashomon," with Newman playing a Mexican bandit accused of rape.

Also, the Bio Channel will present a documentary surveying Newman's life Wednesday at 10 p.m.