Banner Graphic, Volume 22, Number 108, Greencastle, Putnam County, 9 January 1992 — Page 4

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC January 9,1992

People in the news Protest due for Jackson’s visit ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) Pop superstar Michael Jackson has accepted a government invitation to perform in Islamic Pakistan, an official said, but opposition by religious leaders could cancel the concert. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, minister of culture and sports, said the concert had been tentatively set for April 14 in the eastern city of Lahore, the country’s cultural center. But he said threats by religious leaders to close airports and organize street protests could force Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to rescind the offer. “The final decision is the prime minister’s,” Ahmed said. “If Noor Jehan, a famous Pakistani classical singer, can go to the United States why can’t Michael Jackson come here?” Ahmed extended invitations last year to Jackson and Madonna, hoping their appearances would help portray this predominantly Muslim country of 120 million as a modem state tolerant of other cultures, customs and ideas. But Jamaat-e-Islami, or Party of Islam, a small but powerful religious party that is a crucial component in the governing Islamic Democratic Alliance, says there’s nothing wrong with Pakistan’s image. “We will do whatever we can and if that means closing the airport then we will do it,” said Khalid Rehman, a party spokesman. “Michael Jackson does not represent our culture. Our position is clear. We will organize people to protest.” • HAILEY, Idaho (AP) A conservation group accused Bruce Willis of stealing river water to fill ponds on his property. So the “Die Hard” actor obtained a permit that will allow him year-round access to water from the Big Wood River, said his lawyer, Ed Simon. Officials had shut down Willis’ river water supply after protests from Friends of the Big Wood. “We’re concerned about keeping water in the river for the fish,” said group spokesman Nick Cox. But Simon said the water is being used to maintain existing ponds. “They were originally created by beaver dams,” he said. ALHAMBRA, Calif. (AP) Former major league outfielder Jay Johnstone pleaded no contest to misdemeanor assault for a scuffle stemming from his Oct 31 shoplifting arrest. Johnstone, 46, entered the plea Tuesday in Municipal Court in exchange for prosecutors’ dismissal of the shoplifting charge, deputy district attorney Celia Politeo said. According to the the plea bargain, Johnstone will be fined S3OO, put on two years’ summary probation and pay for a store employee’s pants that were tom during the scuffle. Store employees accused Johnstone of shoplifting a carton of cigarettes. Johnstone, 46, is a Los Angeles sports announcer.

R.E.M., Adams pace nominees

NEW YORK (AP) The 1992 Grammy nominations showed Paul Simon is still creative after all these years, Natalie Cole is back and the mainstream has finally discovered R.E.M., the early1980s darling of the underground. Simon, who won Grammys for best album in the 19605, ’7os and ’Bos, was nominated in that category again Wednesday, for “Rhythm of the Saints.” If he mpr wins, he will be the only artist to capture the honor in four different decades. THE SOUTHERN ROCK group R.E.M., which has - P r °d ucc d 10 albums and critical praise in a career dating to 1980, also was nominated for album of the year for “Out of Time,” as well as in six other categories, • <* including record of the year for * « “Losing My Religion.” ♦ k " « The seven nominations the ' gB most an Y act got this year *• ’ vH were the first R.E.M. ever Tl received. Rocker Bryan Adams, who NATALIE COLE has been nominated twice but never won, had six nominations, including single of the year for “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You.” Miss Cole, who won three Grammys in the 19705, was nominated in four categories, including album of the year for “Unforgettable,” a sentimental tribute to her father, Nat “King” Cole.

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GEORGE MCFARLAND No ‘Spanky’ rights

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) George McFarland can still call himself “Spanky” but does not hold the rights to the image of the chubby, beanie-clad smart aleck he played in the “Little Rascals” and “Our Gang” series, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Clarkson Fisher has tossed out McFarland’s lawsuit against Joseph Miller, an Ocean Township, NJ., businessman whose tavern, Spanky McFarland’s, was lined with “Little Rascals” photographs. Fisher ruled Monday that the 64-year-old McFarland relinquished rights to the Spanky name and image in a contract his parents signed with Hal Roach Studios in 1936. McFarland “retained merely the right to use the nickname ‘Spanky,’ not the right to license the name and image of ‘Spanky’ to others,” Fisher wrote. “Hal Roach Studios Inc. retained those rights.” Fisher’s decision runs counter to that of a federal judge in Minnesota, who ruled that a bar using a Spanky logo had violated McFarland’s right to publicity. Other businesses, including the Justin Boot Co., pay McFarland for the right to use his name and childhood face. • LOS ANGELES (AP) Stacy Keach, best known as TV’s tough-guy private investigator Mike Hammer, has won rave reviews in a completely different role, as a Howard Hughes-like reclusive billionaire. “There’s such an effort on everyone’s part to cubbyhole people,” he said. “The great vice in being a versatile performer is no one can quite identify you.” Keach played the recluse in Rupert Holmes’ stage thriller “Solitary Confinement,” which just finished a run here and opens on Broadway in April. “I’m very optimistic about this play. It’s a wonderful role,” he said. • NEW YORK (AP) “Superman” star Christopher Reeve may not know where he’ll be on June 30, but he knows what he’ll be doing: Getting married. The 39-year-old actor will wed Dana Morosini, a 30-year-old singer and actress, five years to the day they met, said publicist Wendy Morris. “They will be married wherever they are at that time,” Morris said. “It’s not like they’re only going to do it if they’re both in New York.”

AMY GRANT, WHO HAS won five Grammys for Christian music, made an easy conversion to pop, picking up four nominations, including album of the year consideration for “Heart in Motion.” Bonnie Railt, the comeback favorite of 1990 when she won four Grammys, was nominated five times, including album of the year for “Luck of the Draw.” Boyz II Men, C + C Music Factory, Marc Cohn, Color Me Badd and Seal were nominated in the best new artist category. Winners will be announced in New York on Feb. 25 at the 34th annual awards ceremony of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Wednesday’s nominations were a vindication of sorts for R.E.M. and Miss Cole. FORMED IN 1980 BY four University of Georgia students, R.E.M. was proclaimed the best new group of 1983 by Rolling Stone magazine. The group has enjoyed critical and commercial success over the years with such albums as “Murmur,” “Green” and “Document,” but until now, no Grammy nominations. The title cut from Miss Cole’s album is an across-the-decades duet with her father, who died 25 years ago, that was achieved through studio dubbing. She said last year that Elektra Entertainment released the record after another company had turned it down. Simon won Grammys in in 1969 and 1970 for the Simon and Garfunkel albums “Mrs. Robinson” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and in 1976 and 1987 for the solo a’bums “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “Graceland.”

REAL LIFE ADVENTURES by Gary Wise and Lance AldricF

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