The Beat

Despite his glowering visage, we always knew there was a kinder, gentler Lawrence Taylor. Now the NFL Hall of Famer is going to showcase his softer side. Taylor, who's been attempting to kick-start an acting career, will guest star in the pilot episode of a Showtime series called Going to California, and according to sources close to the show, he'll play a flamboyant transvestite named Fighting Iris. California follows two guys who road-trip across the country and along the way encounter various colorful characters. (Clearly, cross-dressing linebackers fall in that category.) Taylor's agent, Mark Lepselter, wouldn't confirm the nature of the part but did say, "LT is going to have to be secure in his manhood for the role."...

Speaking of jocks getting in touch with their feminine sides, Bruins right wing Bill Guerin, Panthers center Rob Niedermayer and Lightning goalie Kevin Weekes will appear on the June I episode of ABC's All My Children. This is the second hockey-soap crossover in the last year: Back in August, five players, including the Coyotes' Jeremy Roenick, made cameos on One Life to Live. So what's the deal with NHLers and daytime dramas? "A lot of players are huge soap fans," says Niedermayer. "Our schedule leads us to it. On game days there's that one to two o'clock hour where you're just flicking around the TV."...

This week's entry in the exhuming-a-sports-classic department: Paramount will remake the Burt Reynolds football film The Longest Yard. But whereas Reynolds (above) played a convict who leads a team of inmates against a squad of redneck guards, the new version will take place in a British prison, and the sport will change from football to soccer. Starring in the lead will be Vinnie Jones, the former English soccer bruiser who played memorable tough guys in Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.