NAMES IN THE NEWS : ‘Elvis’ Star a Last-Minute Choice

Actor Michael St. Gerard was a last-minute replacement to star in the TV series “Elvis: The Early Years” after the first choice washed out.

Five days before filming was to begin, the show’s producers, Priscilla Presley and Jerry Schilling, checked the progress of the first-choice actor--whose identity they won’t reveal--and were displeased. “We really knew then it wasn’t going to work,” Schilling told Us magazine. “We were getting desperate.” They called in St. Gerard, who had auditioned for the part earlier and had played Elvis in Dennis Quaid’s “Great Balls of Fire.” Priscilla says she sees some similarities between St. Gerard and her one-time husband. “Elvis was charming. He had charisma,” she said. “And I really feel Michael has these qualities naturally, not just trying to be Elvis.”