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People, places & things in the news

*Index*
Maya Angelou	Betty DeGeneres	Sharon Stone
Elizabeth Taylor

For Maya Angelou, turning 70 didn't just bring a birthday. It brought months of birthday parties.

The poet turned 70 on April 4, but the celebrations keep going. First Oprah Winfrey threw a bash with a weeklong cruise, then there was the London birthday fund-raiser, and next month there's another fund-raiser.

"Yes, the celebration has been going on all year -- and I'm still standing, thank you," Angelou said from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I believe I've had enough birthday parties this year to carry me into my 90s."

The Oct. 3 party at Winston-Salem State University will feature Quincy Jones, R&B duo Ashford & Simpson, and the poet herself, who read at President Clinton's inauguration.

The party will raise money for the Maya Angelou Institute for the Improvement of Child and Family Education, and other educational programs.

Strangers would stop her on the street to tell their story, but Betty DeGeneres didn't mind.

After her daughter Ellen DeGeneres went public about her homosexuality along with her TV alter ego on "Ellen," people learned that Betty DeGeneres was fine with that. She became a hot commodity, appearing on TV.

She was recognized so frequently by people who poured their hearts out to her that she decided to quit her job as a speech therapist and become a national spokeswoman for gay causes.

"It feels like my mission in life. I just jumped in at the deep end," she said in San Francisco.

As spokeswoman for the National Coming Out Project, Betty DeGeneres has heard hundreds of coming-out tales on her Web site. She has just finished a book titled "Love, Ellen: A Mother-Daughter Journey."

Sharon Stone is only playing a mom in a new movie, her publicist says, denying published reports that she's pregnant.

Citing friends of the actress, the New York Post reported yesterday that Stone, married less than a year, is in her first trimester.

Stone begged to differ.

"Not only am I not pregnant, but it is the exterior of my body that is my public image and therefore available to the press," she said yesterday. "This place in my heart and my body is my own. I suggest the press back up to a dignified and respectful place."

Stone, 40, who became a star after her steamy role in "Basic Instinct", plays the mother of a young, handicapped genius in the upcoming movie "The Mighty."

The actress married San Francisco Examiner executive editor Phil Bronstein in February.

"I'm ready for motherhood because I've found the perfect partner," Stone told a British magazine in May. "So we make love every single moment that we get a chance."

Hindus who criticized Madonna for her revealing clothing were not looking deeply enough, some Hindu scholars say.

"Hinduism is a religion of tolerance," Acharya Vageesh Shastri, one of the most respected scholars in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, said Sunday. "One should have the vision to look beyond her transparent tops. Her interior is more appealing than her exterior."

The World Vaishnava Association had issued a statement condemning Madonna for wearing a holy facial marking along with "clothes through which her nipples were clearly visible and while gyrating in a sexually suggestive manner" during the Sept. 10 MTV Video Music Awards.

B.N. Chaturvedi, another Varanasi scholar who praised Madonna for her pronunciation of Sanskrit prayers she wove into a pop song, dismissed her critics as an "unknown organization run by people with doubtful credentials."

Hindus range from fundamentalists to reformers. No central hierarchy has the final word on doctrine.

Elizabeth Taylor was greeted with shouts of "We love you, Liz!" when she arrived on the arm of Magic Johnson for an AIDS fund-raising gala in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday night.

"Now is the time for guts and God" in beating the AIDS virus, Miss Taylor told the crowd.

Johnson, who was at the height of his basketball career with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1991 when he announced he had contracted the AIDS virus, introduced Miss Taylor as "the queen." Supermodel Christy Turlington called her a woman "who has taught the world a lesson in compassion."

The Oscar-winning actress, who has long been involved with AIDS charities, last year gave $100,000 to an AIDS organization,
-- COMPILED FROM WIRE REPORTS