Banner Graphic, Volume 15, Number 1, Greencastle, Putnam County, 4 September 1984 — Page 7

People in the news $225 million suit for 'oo7' Connery LONDON (AP)~Albert Broccoli, producer of the James Bond movies, said Monday he was “shocked and distressed” at Sean Connery’s $225 million claim he hadn’t been paid for five of the 007 movies. The only thing that I have done to Mr. Connery was to place him in the role of 007, which became the most successful film series in the world and made him an extremely wealthy and important film personality,” Broccoli said. “My attorneys are dealing with his unfounded allegations.” Connery on Friday filed suit in Los Angeles against MGM-UA Entertainment Co., Broccoli and two of Broccoli’s companies. The $225 million he is seeking represents payments and interest Connery says he never got for “From Russia With Love,” “Diamonds Are Forever,” "Goldfinger,” “Thunderball” and “You only Live Twice.” Broccoli is in Britain to film a new Bond movie, “A View to a Kill,” starring Roger Moore, who took over the role from Connery in later 007 movies. STURGEON BAY, Wis. (AP)-George Takei, who played Mr. Sulu in “Star Trek” on television and in the movies, says he’s proud that the program delved into the problems of the turbulent 19605. Although set in a futuristic world in outer space, it dealt with the Vietnam conflict, the hippie movement and civil rights, Takei said at the opening of a shopping mall. “I find it ironic that the program was finally canceled the year that the first man landed on the moon,” he said. “Star Trek” was canceled in 1969 after three years of production. “I’m afraid when I die, my tombstone will read, ‘Here lies Mr. Sulu - a.k.a. George Takei,’ in smaller letters,” he said. “But I’m proud of my association with the program, which I feel had a positive effect on the television industry.” MILLWOOD, N.Y. (AP)--Former Miss America Vanessa Williams says she sometimes has to hold back tears when she thinks about the turmoil that followed publication of nude pictures of her in a men’s magazine. “My mother goes to the market and hears people talking about it and kids in cars scream awful things when they pass the house.” When those things happen, she said in an interview, she tries to concentrate on the supportive people who write letters and call her house and those who stop her on the street to say, “We still love you.” Miss Williams, the first black Miss America, was forced to relinquish her crown in July after the photographs were published in Penthouse magazine. “I’m not sure exactly why I did it,” she said of her posing nude. But she said she may have reacted to the fact that “my boyfriend and I had broken up for a little while that summer and I was feeling like my own woman -- free, rebellious, my own person.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) award-winning actress Jessica Lange is going country as the star of “Sweet Dreams,” the story of the late Patsy Cline, legendary songstress of the Grand Ole Opry, the project’s backers say. Production on “Sweet Dreams” is to begin in early November with a sl3 million budget financed by an investment company formed by E.F. Hutton & Co. Inc., said Tom Rye Steele, company branch manager in Nashville. “Sweet Dreams” was Miss Cline’s smash hit of 1963. At age 30, Miss Cline was closing the gap on Kitty Wells as the top female performer in country music when she died in an airplane crash on March 5,1963. She had already topped the charts with such tunes as “Crazy,” “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “I Fall to Pieces” and “She’s Got You.”

Lewis' telethon tops $32 million

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) Highlighted by calls from both President Reagan and Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale, the Jerry Lewis Telethon drew a record $32,074,566 in pledges for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The pledges, from millions of viewers across the United States and Canada, represented the highest amount ever pledged to a televised charitable event, association officials said after the telethon ended Monday. The total, which will be finalized later in the week, topped the previous record of $31,498,772 pledged in 1981, when 210 television stations carried the telethon. This year’s show, the association’s 19th national telethon, was carried by 194 stations in the United States and cable television in Canada. In addition, some two dozen corporations and organizations presented Lewis, the host, with more than S2O million in checks.

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LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) Country music star Hank Williams Jr. was “a perfect gentleman” when his customized touring bus was seized in lieu of a $98,606 civil court claim, authorities said. “As far as I know I’ve got his van,” Bobby Womble, civil division supervisor for the Polk County sheriff’s office, said Monday night. “If he’s paid it out I’m not aware of it.” In January, an Orange County jury awarded $98,606 to a Kissimmee promotions company that accused Williams of breach of contract when he failed to show up for an April 1982 outdoor concert. “We’re between a rock and a hard place,” Womble told the band Friday when the bus was confiscated as collateral. “I hope you understand.” The bus was then sandwiched between two patrol cars at a hotel north of Lakeland, where the band was staying. The band’s concert at the Lakeland Civic Center went on as scheduled. Williams, 35-year-old son of legendary singer and songwriter Hank Williams, was “upset to start with,” but after Womble explained, he was a “perfect gentleman. The whole band were perfect gentlemen,” Womble said. • LINCOLN, Neb. (AP)-Comedian Red Skelton, who has performed for audiences ranging from royalty to farmers, says he may be “hokev,” but today’s young comics turn him off. “State fairs are the only surviving American entertainment that has lasted over the years,” said Skelton, 71, who does 125 concerts a year, including 12 state fairs. Asked at a news conference what he thought of young comics today, Skelton said: “I don’t. I sometimes watch it whether I want or not.” He said he objects to acts that ridicule a segment of society and that people shouldn’t pay money to hear things “you can read on bathroom walls.” • COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)-Actor Nick Nolte will return to Columbus for the Oct. 3 premiere of his film, “Teachers.” a state official says. Most of the sl2 million “Teachers,” in which the 44-year-old Nolte plays a disillusioned educator, was filmed from January through March at the former Central High School. The production is to be released nationwide Oct. 5. Nolte has accepted an invitation from the governor to attend the premiere at the Ohio Theater. Ticket proceeds will go toward renovation of the theater and for Children’s Hospital. THIS WEEK’S CELEBRITY BIRTHDAY PEOPLE: Holiday cake and candles Monday went to actresses Valerie Perrine, 41, and Eileen Brennan, 49, and cartoonist Mort Walker, 61. On Tuesday, it’s No. 66 for radio’s Paul Harvey and No. 35 for golf’s Tom Watson. Actress Raquel Welch, 44, and comedian Bob Newhart, 55, double up on Wednesday’s birthdays, while comedian Jane Curtin is 37 on Thursday. Friday finds actor Peter Lawford at 61 and heart surgeon Dr. Michael Deßakey at 76. Comedian Sid Caesar, 62, and Florida Congressman Claude Pepper, 84, add a year next Saturday.

While some of the biggest names in show business appeared in the 21V2-hour weekend telethon, they were upstaged by Bob Sampson, a vice president of United Airlines who is a muscular dystrophy victim. Sampson, bound to a wheelchair for the past 50 years, told of being the only child in the Chicago school system during the height of the Depression to contract the crippling disease and live. Sampson likened the struggle of muscular dystrophy victims to that of an Olympic athlete. “We’re in a marathon called survival until they find a cure,” he said. “Someplace out there in this great country is one dollar that’ll pay a doctor who’s gonna punch through a cure for this disease.” Ed McMahon anchored the telethon, while singers Sammy Davis Jr. and Tony Orlando and disc jockey Casey Kasem served as co-hosts. Some 100 celebrities were featured during the show.

By Bil Keane

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September 4,1984, The Putnam Countv Banner-Graphic