Banner Graphic, Volume 19, Number 155, Greencastle, Putnam County, 8 March 1989 — Page 6

THE BANNERGRAPHIC March 8,1989

People in the news Ever wonder about lawsuits? PHOENIX (AP) An Arizona company was inviting criticism when it sent a sample of its windshield-cleaning product to “60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney, a lawyer for CBS has aigued. Attorney Douglas Jacobs on Monday asked U.S. District Judge Robert Broomfield to dismiss a sl6 million suit filed against the network and its newsmagazine show by Unelko, a Scottsdale-based company. He said the suit attacks freedom of expression. Robert Cummins, a lawyer for Unelko, countered that the Constitution does not protect the snide type of “factual disparagement” made by Rooney during an April 17,1988, broadcast of “60 Minutes.” “Nobody invited Mr. Rooney to do anything,” Cummins said. “Twenty million folks heard CBS and Andy Rooney declare that Rain-X doesn’t work.” Rooney, who attended the hearing but did not testify, said on the air he was receiving “junk” in the mail. He held up a bottle of Rain-X, which is supposed to make rain or snow roll off auto windshields, and said he’d tried the product and found it lacking in the advertised qualities. • NEW YORK (AP) Bryant Gumbel and Willard Scott sought to patch things up on a special “Today” show hookup, but the critical co-host balked at reciting the weatherman’s pledge against computer memo writing. Tuesday’s on-air conversation followed a botched effort Monday to reach the vacationing Scott in Florida. “I hung up on you,” Scott joked about the previous day’s technical snags. Scott, who had threatened to leave unless Gumbel apologized for his in-house memo criticizing Scott and other staff members, then told the co-host to raise his right hand and recite after him. Gumbel raised his left hand. Scott: “I, Bryant Gumbel...” Gumbel: “I, Bryant Gumbel...” Scott: “...will promise...” Gumbel: “...will promise...” Scott: “...to never write another memo and leave it in the computer again. ” Gumbel: “...but I can’t write in longhand.” The session concluded with Gumbel and co-host Jane Pauley wishing Scott, who turned 55 on Tuesday, a happy birthday and a good vacation. BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) Michael Jackson, Anita Baker, Bobby Brown and the recording group Guy have received three nominations apiece for the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. Dionne Warwick, Patti Laßelle and Ahmad Rashad will be hosts of the live, two-hour presentation ceremonies April 12 at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium.

Selleck: It’s one man and a baby

LOS ANGELES (AP) Tom Selleck shy? “I think so, yeah,” he says. “I was terribly shy all my life, not just as a kid. An awful lot of actors I know are shy.” That may help explain part of his enduring appeal, first in eight seasons and eternal reruns as television’s ‘‘Magnum, P. 1.” and now as the big-screen star of “Three Men and a Baby” and the current “Her Alibi.” He may display the outward appearance of a movie hero, but there’s an underlying uncertainty that beguiles women and reassures men. Selleck’s own appraisal: “I’M SIX-FEET, FOUR-INCHES tall. I’ve been taller than most people most of my adult life. I see no reason to run around trying to intimidate people with that. I’ve always kind of gone the other way.” In December Selleck’s wife, actress-singer Jillie Mack, gave birth to their first child, Hannah. The 44-year-old father remains exultant. “Hannah is great,” he said. “The main reason I thought it was time to end ‘Magnum’ was that I felt my priorities were a little off.” Will there be a “Three Men and a Baby II”? “YEAH. AND THEY (Disney) postponed it, which to me is a real vote of confidence. It’s encouraging, because I think a lot of studios would consider their investors and say, ‘Why delay it? You could do anything and make a hundred million dollars.’ “So when they said, ‘We’re willing to forego next Christmas to make the script better,’ it says to me they want to make a sequel that’s better than the first, as opposed to ripping off the audience.” “Three Men and a Baby” and to a lesser extent, “Her Alibi,” indicate that the key to Selleck’s film success lies in stressing his fallibilities. The new film casts him as a mystery writer who becomes involved in a spy plot involving a Romanian exchange student, played by model Paulina Porizkova. “It’s a change of pace for me,” Selleck said of

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TAMMY WYNETTE Stands by her vow

WASHINGTON (AP) Actor Ben Vereen, columnist Ann Landers and country singer Tammy Wynette were honored for their efforts to educate the public about mental illness and addiction. “I’m not proud of the fact that I once had a drug problem, but I am proud I did something about it,” Ms. Wynette, who overcame dependency on prescription drugs, said Tuesday at an awards reception on Capitol Hill. “Let’s be sympathetic, let’s be kind, let’s be caring and let’s recognize the burden these people who have mental illness are carrying. I can’t tell you how much pain, how much suffering is out there,” Ms. Landers urged. Vereen, a national spokesman for the campaign for “A Drug Free America,” said parents and teachers must be educated to spot mental illnesses such as depression that can lead to drug abuse, and then reach out to those afflicted. • NASHVILLE, Term. (AP) Singer Marie Osmond and her husband, studio engineer Brian Blosil, are expecting a child in August “We’re very excited,” she said Tuesday. “It’s been a while.” The couple were married in October 1986 and have a 15-month-old adopted daughter. Miss Osmond has a five-year-old son by her first husband, Stephen L. Craig. They were divorced in 1984. • RADNOR, Pa. (AP) Author Chet Flippo, longtime friend of slain Beatle John Lennon, said he’s surprised by “parasitic, would-be tell-all books” about Lennon. “Because John was always pretty much an open book, there didn’t seem to be much call for any amplification of his life,” Flippo wrote in TV Guide. Flippo, author of “Yesterday,” the unauthorized biography of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, was particularly critical of Albert Goldman’s “The Lives of John Lennon.” He called Goldman’s assessment of Lennon’s life with Yoko Ono and son Sean “pure junk, as far as I know.... John was certainly no angel. Most of the time he was much worse. Which is to say, he was perfectly human.”

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TOM SELLECK: With his real-life mom “Alibi.” “There’s a lot more physical comedy in this picture, and yet as silly as the picture gets, it’s the kind of comedy which I think you have to play absolutely for real.” GROWING UP SHY IN the San Fernando Valley, Selleck never had a desire to become an actor. “I never did a school play, I never did anything,” he declared. “I got into (acting) because I grew up in the town where the business centered, and somebody said, ‘You ought to try commercials.’ Cigarette commercials and ads led to a contract at 20th Century Fox, where he learned his craft. He free-lanced in television, then landed at Universal, which cast him in seven failed pilots until “Magnum, P. 1.”

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