From TV Guide Ultimate Cable week of August 11-17 2001

The Full Nelson, by Rochell D. Thomas

Remember him from "The Breakfast Club"? This ex-brat pack doesn't if you do.

Sixteen years and 41 roles have passed since former brat packer Judd Nelson played class-cutting rebel John Bender, but fans of 1985's "The Breakfast Club" won't let him forget the high school bad boy. If Nelson's in a bar and the DJ spots him, he's sure to play a song from the film's soundtrack. And even when the Portland, Maine, native attends the premiere of his new movie, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (August 22), in which he portrays a police chief, or takes a break during one of the many celebrity golf tournaments he plays in, someone (this reporter included) is bound to ask if he's still haunted by the Bender role.

"Yeah. But of all the things to have follow you, that's quite nice," says Nelson, 41, who stars this week in USA's Return to Cabin by the Lake (August 14, 9P.M./ET), the sequel to last summer's campy TV horror movie about a screenwriter who kills for good material. "It could be a lot worse", adds the Suddenly Susan star. "It could be like O.J., you know what I mean?"

"You've played in a few celebrity golf tournaments,. How's your game?"

"I'm able to strike the ball but not in the direction I'm aiming. I always come in last."

"So why do you keep getting invited to tournaments?"

"I have no idea. Even my clubs don't like me. But it's fun. People make jokes, I make jokes back."

"You're admittedly thrifty. What's the last thing you splurged on?"

"I just put a new engine in a 1972 Toyota Land Cruiser."

"Don't you own a pair of Muhammad Ali's gloves?"

"Yeah, but they were a gift from my girlfriend [aspiring screenwriter Kelly Stafford]."

"In Cabin, you play a serial killer. Which would make you mad enough to kill: 20 questions all about "The Breakfast Club"...

""[Laughs] Uh, no..."

"... or your ex, Shannen Doherty, standing at your door?"

"Aw, no. Shannen's very nice. She's in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" too. I hadn't seen her in, like, a year, and she was great. Probably the only thing that would wanna make me kill would be someone trying to hurt anyone in my family."

"So you're not the angry brat packer you used to be?"

"I try to avoid conflict now. If I sit around and do nothing, my engine runs hot. So I find outlets for my physical energy. Now I'm like [in a wimpy voice]: 'Let's not fight'."