Douda's tough childhood times may soon come to the big screen

There is so much more to WCCO-TV weekend anchor Dennis Douda than those captivating blue eyes.

I'd say his screenplay writing hobby -- Douda's written 10 -- sounds like it's really taking off when he gets a call from one of Francis Ford Coppola's production execs saying: We can't get this script out of our minds. Where is it?

Douda was a finalist for a prize handed out by Coppola's studio, American Zoetrope, for Dennis' screenplay with the working movie title "Hero Wanted."

It's a story about a very tough two-month period during Douda's teenage years in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that was the start of his parents' protracted divorce.

His dad had left the family. His mother had become seriously ill and had been taken to a hospital 40 miles away. Douda became head of the household, responsible for caring for his two younger siblings. "We couldn't let anybody know because my mom was concerned social services would, for our own good, sweep in and put us in foster care," he said Thursday.

"It was macaroni virtually every day, but we would net thousands of crawdaddies from the bait shop. The ones that were too big to be good bait we would have for dinner. They are like little lobsters," said Douda. "We would take the pellet rifle out past the edge of town and hunt rabbits and squirrels. That would be the only meat that would hit the table."

A great uncle, who wasn't, was supposed to stay with the Douda kids at night, but said uncle was unreliable except for the occasional update on the Douda kids' mom, to whom they spoke directly only once during that two-month period.

Douda lined up Eric Howell, writer and director of "Ana's Playground," a short about an urban war zone that gobbled up film festival prizes in 2010. Howell hooked Douda up with Robert Schwartz, a producer in L.A. who is from Minnesota, whose speciality is rewrites.

"I finished the first draft in fall of 2005. Really have been doing dedicated rewrites a year and a half. It's been four completely different movies, all based on the same story," said Douda.

"If we have production financing, say, by the end of May, we would begin shooting Aug. 1 in Faribault. It has a more charming feel in many ways [than Cedar Rapids]. It'd be an ideal location. It has a warmth that comes through and the architecture. It would be just right."

There have been informal talks with bankable stars. Anybody with especially blue eyes?

Douda laughed and played along: "A couple of the guys considered for lead adult roles have piercing eyes."

"Bryce is on leave," said the woman who answered the phone Friday at KQ92-FM when I called to inquire about the whereabouts of Bryce Crousore.

I asked if this co-host on the station's morning show was coming back. "Bryce is on leave. That's all I've got for you," she replied.

There you have it. E-mailer Kathy, who has previously been a reliable tipster, said, "He [hasn't] been on for a couple weeks and his Facebook wall has tons of people asking about him but nothing."

I left a message Thursday at a number believed to be Crousore's, to find out if his absence was personal, personnel-related or professional in nature.

For what it's worth, there is buzz that a whip has been bought and it is being cracked at the station like never before.

Three things I vividly recall from the smutty movie "Showgirls": 1) I left early, 2) There was an interesting swimming pool scene, and 3) Elizabeth Berkley's character mispronounced Versace.

"I made that up," said Berkley. "Can I get a little credit? I've gotten beaten up for it. I need a little credit."

Credit granted. That was a brilliant way of illustrating Nomi's bumpkinness.

When the "Saved By the Bell" star came to the metro last weekend to promote "Ask Elizabeth" -- a New York Times bestseller for teenage girls which grew out of questions youngsters have asked Berkley at her self-esteem workshops -- I had some "Showgirls" fun with her.

I gave Berkley the names of some designers and asked her to mispronounce them as her character Nomi might.