PHOREN
Not-so-bright Demi Moore

veteran actor joss ackland has blasted passion of mind co-star demi moore as not very bright or talented.' the 73-year-old star has also lashed out at himself, admitting that most of his work was 'awful.' bemoaning the parts offered to him, he says, "i'm so tired of not being able to make a movie without a car chase, or the villain dying twice. it's all exactly the same." ackland confesses that many of the roles he has undertaken in his 50 year career were just for the money or to settle bets.the 72-year-old says, "i do an awful lot of crap, but if it's not immoral, i don't mind. i'm a workaholic. i was in mad dogs and englishmen, with liz hurley, which was god-awful and quite rightly torn to shreds. then there was passion of mind last year with demi moore. terrible script. awful, actually, but i needed the money." ackland also says he 'regretted' appearing in bill and ted's bogus journey, starring keanu reeves, and his cameo in a pet shop boys video. harry connick jr goes back to school actor harry connick jr took to the stage with his former teacher in a concert marking the 100th anniversary of louis armstrong's birth. in high school, connick studied jazz piano under ellis marsalis, father of four professional musicians: saxophonist branford marsalis, trumpeter wynton marsalis, trombonist delfeayo marsalis and drummer jason marsalis. ellis marsalis also played with all four sons on saturday. saturday's concert marked ellis marsalis' retirement from the music faculty at the university of new orleans, though connick played down the importance of his mentor's departure from academia. connick says, "they say ellis is retiring from education _ whatever that means. it's really not a big deal to me. i retired from education somewhere between 11th and 12th grade." alisha is confident alisha mashruwala tells apurva bhatt that the hong kong open is hers for the taking twelve-year-old alisha mashruwala is confident of winning the under-13 junior hong kong squash open, which begins today. the top seed who finished third last year, has won the tournament twice _ in 1998, 1999. "i'm confident of winning the title this year, but i have a tough semi-final opponent in weaven davis from malaysia," says this eighth grader from bombay international school. alisha started playing with her father's broken rackets when she was just seven-years-old. apart from squash, she's also interested in swimming, athletics and playing the piano. "swimming was my first love, and i still love swimming, but somehow i got attached to squash, as it was more of a family sport," reveals alisha. her dad too plays squash to keep fit. alisha has had the good fortune of learning the game under three coaches _ madhu velinkar, rehmat khan and cyrus poncha. "it was great learning under cyrus," says alisha. "he has his own style and teaching pattern, which differs from the other coaches." at the moment, alisha is being coached by brigadier manchanda. cyrus is positive that alisha will do well at the hong kong open. "i think alisha is gonna come up with all guns blazing. she's got the right temperament and potential, which a player should have. she could be a great prospect for india in future." but alisha has other ideas. "i want to be an interior designer, as one cannot make a living playing squash. in india, it is very difficult to find coaches and the right infrastructure, which a player needs." her mother, jyoti, agrees with the wisdom of her daughter. "at the moment, alisha is sponsored by head (the racquet company) and cci is also providing financial support. but i feel in the long run, finding sponsors and coaches is going to be a big issue." in that sense, yes, pursuing squash as a professional sport is going to be tough. look at what happened to misha grewal who performed at the international circuit for three years. she was a good prospect but failed to get the proper backing and ultimately backed out. alisha has to her credit 25 titles _ in european, asian and the national circuit. by the look of things, title no 26 is not far away. apurva.bhatt @timesgroup.com