Gabriel Byrne out of tune

LOS ANGELES (May 5, 1998 09:38 a.m. EDT (http://www.nando.net) - Nothing steams Gabriel Byrne up more than a spot of on-screen singing.

He's avoided it in action films such as "The Usual Suspects" and "Miller's Crossing" -- but in "Mad Dog Time," he's supposed to sing Frank Sinatra's "My Way."

"It's most likely the last singing experience I or anyone else will endure on a film," he vows.

"Then, I heard it was going to be Paul Anka singing with me, and I was doubly nervous. I've never been that nervous in a film," Byrne says.

"They had to put a big idiot board up in front of me because I kept forgetting the lyrics.

"No, I was never a gifted singer, but for some elusory reason I was in tune while I was singing, and I thought that Paul Anka was out of tune, and I kept saying to people during the takes, 'Isn't it amazing that Paul Anka is out of tune after a career of 50 years of singing?' and then I looked at the results and saw that I was suffering from severe selective hearing. I was out of tune on every take."