Come March, he'll be sucking on a lollipop and knocking heads as the reinvented Theo Kojak in USA's "Kojak," but Ving Rhames would rather not get into how his character came by the name that seemed to fit Greek-American actor Telly Savalas to a T some 30 years ago.

Apparently the show won't address it, either.

After he noted that no one ever asks him how he came by the name Rhames, naturally, I asked him.

It's Egyptian and Greek, he said.

Sounds like an interesting family story, but like so many of Rhames' remarks, he wasn't interested in following up.

After telling reporters that he'd never watched the original "Kojak" growing up in Harlem ("We were watching 'Good Times'...Who wanted to see a white man arresting black people? We saw that every day"), Rhames mentioned in passing that he's married to a former homicide detective.

Sounds like another good story, so hoping to hear it, I asked if his wife had led him to become interested in police dramas.

No, he said. "I probably started watching them when I was arrested."

No elaboration was forthcoming, though Rhames, who cried twice during this morning's press conference -- and seems to cry from time to time in "Kojak" -- did grow emotional as he talked about the risk that kids growing up in Harlem will grow up to be criminals because they think that's all that's available to them.

When another reporter asked if this new Kojak would have a catch phrase like "Who loves ya, baby?" Rhames offered a possibility:

"Let me see -- who loves getting medieval on your ass?"