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People, Places & Things in the News
Photo by The Associated Press
Fund-raising concert
Christopher Reeve, second from left, listens as from left, John Lithgow, Dana Reeve, Mandy Patinkin, Mindy Jostyn, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Carly Simon sing the finale at a concert to Mr. Reeve at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, N.J., Sunday. The concert was a fund-raising effort for the Christopher Reeve Foundation, which sponsors medical research to find a cure for spinal-cord injuries.
Dick Morris got an attack of 20-20 vision and is seeing flaws where he didn't think they existed before.
On his affair with $200-an-hour prostitute Sherry Rowlands: "The entire thing was reckless. The entire thing was stupid."
"You can be a political genius and be a personal dunce. It happens," the fallen political guru told ABC's "PrimeTime Live" in an interview to air Wednesday. "I made fundamental mistakes that are based on deep flaws in my character and deep flaws in ... my adjustment to life."
Mr. Morris, 48, resigned as President Clinton's political consultant in August after it was disclosed that he allowed Ms. Rowlands to listen in on phone conversations with the president.
"What I did was behave like a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old in a stupid, ridiculous, immature, show-off kind of way, but I did not let her eavesdrop on conversations with the president," he said. "Just to hear his voice, just to show off and to say, 'Hey, look at me! Aren't I great?"'
Mr. Morris apologized to the president and to his wife of 20 years, Eileen McGann, who is seeking a divorce.
"I desperately, desperately wanted this marriage to continue," he said, "and desperately hope she comes back to me."
Rosie O'Donnell was an instant success as a TV talk show host, but she made a different kind of splash when she met her adopted son, Parker.
"I picked him up and was like, 'Hi!"' she said, opening her mouth wide to demonstrate, "and he vomited an entire jar of baby squash right in my mouth."
There were telltale signs of her inexperience with boys.
"I told Rosie Parker hadn't been circumcised, even though she insisted that he had," actress Rita Wilson said in the February issue of Ladies' Home Journal.
"I just thought, 'Wow, it really healed good in two days," said Ms. O'Donnell, who recalled bursting into tears when she realized the mistake, which was due to a mix-up in hospital records.
She said her friend Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg's wife, arranged to have the circumcision performed the next day.
Here's some grist for the gossip mill: For $1 million, Liz Smith will write her life story.
"I've thought about calling it 'Blind Item'," the gossip columnist said yesterday in the New York Post. "Maybe 'Sex.' That did very well for Madonna."
"Liz Smith," the column, is nationally syndicated in about 65 newspapers. Publishers have been trying to get her to write a book for more than 20 years. The winner was Hyperion, the Disney-owned book company.
"I've always put them off before because I never had the time," Ms. Smith said. "I still don't but they're convinced I can do it, so I'll give it a try."
The book would be published in the fall of 1998.
Ms. Smith was signed to Hyperion by senior editor Maureen O'Brien, a former Post columnist.
For Arnold Schwarzenegger, it happened in a rowboat in Austria. For Glenn Close, the big moment came on the set of the Broadway musical "Sunset Boulevard."
Mr. Schwarzenegger said his most romantic moment was when Maria Shriver said she would marry him.
"We went out on a lake in a rowboat and I popped the question," he said in the February issue of Ladies' Home Journal. "Later, I told her I did this on water so in case she said no I could throw her in."
For Ms. Close, who won a Tony award for her role in "Sunset Boulevard," her most romantic memory was when she got up the courage to ask Steve Beers, a carpenter on the set, to escort her to the show's opening night.
She was in full Norma Desmond warpaint.
"I said, 'I was wondering if, um, you would consider going out to dinner sometime. He looked at me and said, 'In a heartbeat.'"
The couple announced their engagement in March 1995 but have not set a wedding date.
Princess Diana arrived in Angola yesterday to focus attention on the deadly land mines left over from the country's two decades of civil war.
The visit could boost Diana's status as a roving goodwill ambassador, a role denied her by Queen Elizabeth II in the negotiations over her divorce last year from Prince Charles.
Diana's four-day tour through Angola's sprawling shantytowns and central highlands marks a restoration of ties with the British Red Cross that were broken off after the divorce. The princess wore jeans for the 11-hour flight to Angola and stepped off the plane in Luanda carrying a shoulder bag with a Red Cross emblem.
At the airport, Diana immediately spoke out against land mines, which killed many of the estimated 500,000 Angolans who died in the war between the government and UNITA rebels. UNITA is an acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.
"By visiting Angola we shall gain an understanding of the plight of the victims of land mines," Diana said, adding that she also would be examining how survivors and Angola as a whole can be helped to overcome the weapons' legacy.
About 70,000 Angolans have lost limbs to land mines.
Get ready! The Motown Cafe is taking its act on the road with help from some big names.
The Temptations performed several of their hits, including "Get Ready," "Just My Imagination" and "My Girl," during Sunday night's opening of the Motown Cafe at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, nominated for 12 Grammy Awards as a producer, songwriter and singer, was on hand for the celebration along with "Baywatch" hunk David Hasselhoff.
Also among the celebrities were Boyz II Men, Queen Latifah, Paula Abdul, Sinbad, Kim Fields, Alyssa Milano, Blair Underwood, Steve Guttenberg, Tyra Banks, Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Jamie Foxx.
The restaurant -- with motif and music harkening back to the '60s -- is the second in what's planned as a worldwide chain. The first is in New York City.
-- COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS
Photo by The Associated Press
Diana, Princess of Wales, is greeted by a young Angolan girl yesterday after her arrival in Luanda. At left is Angolan Foreign Minister Vanacio de Moura.
