Banner Graphic, Volume 17, Number 161, Greencastle, Putnam County, 11 March 1987 — Page 7

People in the news Network news 'fat and happy'? NEW YORK (AP) The firing of 214 CRS News staffers has news executives past and present wondering whether the network that set standards for the industry can live up to the legacies of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite. “I frankly despair for the future of CBS News,” former CBS News President Bill Leonard, retired and living in Washington, said Tuesday. Cronkite, still active at CBS as a documentary producer and commentator, has remained silent about the upheaval, but in a recent interview he was asked how network news should be treated by the new business-oriented owners of the networks. “I think it’d be great if the evening news broadcast for instance were unsponsored and unrated,” Cronkite said. “But that’s like dreaming of nuclear disarmament next Friday afternoon. It ain’t gonna happen.” Hughes Rudd, a long-time CBS correspondent now retired and living in France, said in a telephone interview that the CBS news division, like those at the other networks, had become “fat and happy.” “For years, it seems to me, they didn’t even care about your expense accounts as long as you turned in something to show for it,” said Rudd, who was known for cutting criticism of network news even when he was in the thick of it. “Money used to fly around like dead leaves at CBS.” Leonard said he went to visit with the news staff after the firings. “It’s a sad thing to see, when you spend your life in a place that was a wonderful place to have lived and worked,” he said. “The terrible thing is you wonder where it’s going to end.” Laurence Tisch, who became CBS’ chief executive officer when Paley was brought back, told The Washington Post that “most everything is behind us” in regard to cutbacks. • PITTSBURGH (AP) Linda Marchiano, who as Linda Lovelace starred in the pornographic movie “Deep Throat,” was reported in improved condition after a liver transplant last week. Mrs. Marchiano, 37, of Suffolk County, N.Y., was in fair condition Tuesday in Presbyterian-University Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Chris Shirer. Mrs. Marchiano received her new liver in a 14-hour operation that ended Friday morning. Her condition had been upgraded Monday from critical to serious, Miss Shirer said. Mrs. Marciano, who made “Deep Throat” in 1972 and later denounced the porn industry, suffered from a potentially deadly liver disease that doctors think stemmed from hepatitis received in a 1970 blood transfusion. • SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A $225,000 donation from rockers Huey Lewis and the News will be used for a program to train doctors to deal with AIDS patients. The University of California-San Francisco said Thursday the program was needed because most physicians completed their medical training before the epidemic of acquired immune deficiency syndrome began and have had little experience treating such patients. “This is a disease that affects the whole country, not just a single element of the population, and Huey and the band wanted to start helping here at home,” said band manager Bob Brown. Members of the band come from nearby Marin County.

Mel Gibson 'lethal' at box office

LOS ANGELES (AP) “Lethal Weapon” outdrew the competition at the box office last weekend, earning $6.8 million in its debut. The Warner Bros, movie stars Mel Gibson as a cop on the edge and Danny Glover as his rational partner. Fiendish Freddy from “Nightmare on Elm Street III” put up a good fight in the box office stakes, with $6.7 million in ticket sales. “Platoon,” the harsh Vietnam War drama, began losing ground over the weekend, slipping from second to third place in its 12th week in distribution. While “Platoon” took in $6.1 million last week, the film’s director, Oliver Stone, won the annual Directors Guild Award. Only three times in history has the winner of the Director’s Guild Award failed to win the Academy Award. Coming in fourth was the voodoo thriller, “Angel Heart,” which stirred controversy when the Motion Picture Association of America threatened to slap it with an X-rating for a sex scene between actors Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet of “The Cosby Show.” Director Alan Parker reluctantly cut 10 seconds from the film to achieve an R-rating, but it still drew curious filmgoers who purchased $3.7 million in tickets to see the end result.

THE FAMILY CIRCUS @ By Bil Keane “Daddy, can you fix the audio on this key?”

£• toMI r ■■ _j«p a*s"f« fIKvIHHi ■HHrKi MKKm

ABBIE HOFFMAN Dissent not dead

SEATTLE (AP) Dissent is not dead, although American college students lag far behind their counterparts in other countries when it comes to political activism, said radical activist Abbie Hoffman. Hoffman told a news conference at the University of Washington that many young Americans “have lost hope. ... They’re detached from the rest of the young people around the world.” Hoffman spoke at the school Tuesday night along with Timothy Leary, the former guru of LSD use, and “gonzo” journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Students in developing countries are “out there in the streets, fighting social injustice,” Hoffman said. “It’s happening in the streets of Manila, it’s happening in Haiti, it’s happening in the streets of Seoul, it’s happening in the mountains of Nicaragua. “Some things are stirring in the wind on the cam puses here. But they’re way behind the rest of the world.” Hoffman, Leary and Thompson, who writes a weekly column for the San Francisco Examiner, have lectured extensively on campuses, but this was the first time they appeared together. • LONDON (AP) The Duchess of York is the most fun member of Britain’s royal family, says a poll that gives the former Sarah Ferguson a higher rating in that category than even her husband, Prince Andrew. Andrew, whose earlier escapades earned him the nickname “Randy Andy,” was rated as most fun by 50 percent of the 1,062 people queried in a nationwide survey published Tuesday in London’s Daily Express newspaper. Sarah was rated the most fun by 55 percent, also topping Princess Diana’s 35 percent rating. Only 3 percent said Queen Elizabeth II was the most fun, and 4 percent chose the queen’s husband, Prince Philip. The British also said they consider Prince Charles, Diana’s husband and heir to the throne, the smartest member of the royal family and Diana the least intelligent. NEW YORK (AP) Sydney Biddle Barrows, dubbed the Mayflower Madam after her prostitutionrelated arrest, may keep money she earns from book and movie deals about her escort services, an appeals court ruled. Miss Barrows, listed in the Social Register as a descendant of Mayflower settlers, pleaded guilty in July 1985 to a misdemeanor charge of promoting prostitution and paid a $5,000 fine. She ran three escort services Finesse, Cachet and Elan which authorities said were fronts for prostitution. The 5-0 decision Tuesday by the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division blocks an attempt by the state Crime Victims Board to seize money Miss Barrows received as a result of her illegal activities. “I’m absolutely thrilled,” Miss Barrows said.

Here are the top movies at the box office last weekend, with distributor, weekly gross, number of screens, weekend per-screen average, total gross, number of weeks in release and estimated costs. Distributors supply the gross amount figures. Figures not available are indicated by n-a. 1. “Lethal Weapon,” Warner Bros, $6.8 million, 1,256 screens, $5,438 per screen, $6.8 million, one week, n-a. 2. “Nightmare on Elm Street III,” New Line Cinema Corp., $6.7 million, 1,378 screens, $4,894 per screen, slß.l million, two weeks, n-a. 3. “Platoon,” Orion, $6.1 million, 1,554 screens, $3,932 per screen, $84.6 million, 12 weeks, $6 million. 4. “Angel Heart,” Tri-Star, $3.7 million, 815 screens, $4,526 per screen, $3.7 million, one week, na. 5. “Outrageous Fortune,” Touchstone, $3.3 million, 1,251 screens, $2,644 per screen, $37.4 million, six weeks, sl2 million. 6. “Some Kind of Wonderful,” Paramount, $3.1 million, 1,082 screens, $2,880 per screen, $7.5 million, two weeks, n-a. 7. “Mannequin,” 20th Century Fox, $3 million, 978 screens, $3,026 per screen, s2l million, four weeks, $lO million.

"How was the cruise?"

SARAH FERGUSON Rated most fun

Peanuts

THE 60LF PRO JUST "f MY U- / YES THE 60lF PRO SAYS CALLEP..HE WANTS TO I( P 06 ?) r—r I ( UNPERSTANP ) FOR YOU TO STOP SEE YOU ABOUT YOUR POO 1 >, \ p / -1 MARCHIN6 THROUGH AL^ —" 5 ™ E SANPTRAPS! "

Garfield

/ HAVE 50Me\ i SORE, ANP LET'S \ / SPINACH, ( GARNISH IT WITH ) IGARFIELP 1 \ A BIG BOX J ( I HATE \ —Y ' -yy&Vj’

Bloom County

HERB'S "nt? Frank's AN INPBX W HOW ABCX/T SOMETHING f NAW. HOW ABOUT FROG LB GO WHRTCHYA PIET BOOKS. 1 BATING LESS, "THE BROCCOLI- m WB/RP EATING LESS, FIGS ANP NSTFi ZtSFf JF[ m * r /w&eKC&e. emu/wp / Neep M>exexe&e FLArvcence \ ‘ wgggiw ' *s?"*

Buz Sawyer

Beetle Bailey

■ X HATE Y X HATE s HEY.' THAT B OV ALL THE s 16 BECOMING A OFFICES /PENTAGON ?

Blondie

HER© AND I BUT I'D AND I WANT TO SEE \ ©LONDIE WATCHES HER L s DASWOOD, YOU'RE "V IT'S WANT TO WATCH ) LIKE TO THE COMEDY SPECIAL ) SHOW HERE AND TOOTSIE £ A WORLD-. - A THE SEE THE • —GOES HOME FOR HERS I CLASS GIFT r | S

Hi and Lois

ANOTHER NICE 7i 1 lof HE'C yVARMTO EVER/eoCY/ % £BoOTTIA£ CDNgEAM / f

Barney Google and Snuffy Smith

IT'S GRANDMA'S i I NEED RECIPE FER ASH \ I HANDFULS OF x OF SALT J TRUST THEM cakes-- By Jingo a J I white corn new-fangled

Redeye

llt MUST BE SPRING ! \ Iwj ‘ ' s Itfe WOT OFTEN YOU = ,1 yoU'RE RETURNING | / —| RMP A O\RP WITH ~ nFROM THE SOUTH J ( YEAHi AMP LET = * I A PEAR OF HEIGHTS J

Wednesday. March 11, 1987 THE BANNERGRAPHIC,