Thread: S'more Gossip ...

Bishops call St. Louis meeting successful

ST. LOUIS, -- Catholic bishops saw their meeting in St. Louis as another successful step toward healing in the church in the wake of sex abuse allegations. They agreed to share diocesan files on abuse with the National Review Board, a group assigned to monitor compliance with a year-old policy calling for the removal of any priest credibly accused of child sexual abuse. The bishops also talked about reaching out to victims. Progress has been "nothing less than miraculous," said Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

However, some defenders of the faith such as William Donohue of the Catholic League Against Discrimination remain critical of church leadership. "The church is in free-fall with no discipline for its leaders," he said. An estimated 1,000 lawsuits are pending against various dioceses, citing allegations of sexual abuse by priests and administrative malfeasance by superiors. An additional 500 suits have been settled.


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Screenwriter George Axelrod dies

LOS ANGELES, -- Playwright and screenwriter George Axelrod, who penned "The Seven Year Itch" and adapted "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "The Manchurian Candidate," has died. He was 81. Axelrod died Saturday morning in his sleep of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, Daily Variety reported.

He was a widely respected Broadway and Hollywood power in the 1950s and '60s, specializing in dark satires of American attitudes toward sex and politics. He earned an Oscar nomination in 1961 for adapting "Breakfast at Tiffany's," then adapted and co-produced "The Manchurian Candidate" in 1962.

Born in New York on June 9, 1922, Axelrod sold his first radio script, "Midnight in Manhattan," in 1942. He scored his breakthrough Broadway success 10 years later with "The Seven Year Itch," which ran for three years with 1,141 performances. He added directing to his accomplishments with his next Broadway play, the somewhat autobiographical "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" in 1955. His first film credit came in 1954 with the Judy Holiday/Jack Lemmon comedy
"Phfft." He followed that by co-writing the film version of "Seven Year Itch" with Billy Wilder, and an adaptation of William Inge's "Bus Stop," both starring Monroe. "Rock Hunter" also became a movie in 1957 as did "Goodbye Charlie" in 1964, but Axelrod did not write either script.


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Oscars searchable database back up

LOS ANGELES, -- An official Academy Awards searchable data-base has returned to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Web site in a new and improved format. The database, oscars.org/awardsdatabase, had been unavailable while navigational and presentation difficulties in the previous search engine were corrected and improved. "The old database contained only the basic information about nominees and winners, said Academy Executive Administrator Ric Robertson. "So while all the data was correct, it was only searchable by keyword and had limited and often inadequate capabilities for sorting and displaying search results."

This complete historical record of the Academy's 75-year-old Awards competition lists some 6,500 people, almost 600 companies and countries and nearly 13,600 nominees (because many of the 6,500 people appear multiple times). Over the years there have been more
than 9,000 nominations in 4,000 films. "It's a small database, but it is surprisingly complex," Robertson said.

Celebrity Dating
Are Demi and Ashton for real? And everything else you need to know about Hollywood mating rituals.
By David Plotz


Nothing Demi Moore has done in her long career has delighted Americans—at least those of us who read Us magazine—as much as her alleged romance with MTV icon Ashton Kutcher. The red-carpet spectacle of Demi (40 going on 22) canoodling with Ashton (25 going 16) has been delicious fodder for the tabloids and unbeatable publicity for the couple. Demi, assisted by the best 40-year-old body money can buy and her comeback role in Charlie's Angels, has re-established herself as a sex symbol. Ashton, meanwhile, has widened his narrowcast teen cool into mass appeal (This week he did the impossible, edging out Prince William to win People magazine's Sexiest Bachelor contest.) Is Demi-Ashton all a sham—a Punk'd practical joke on the celebrity-worshipping American public? Is it true love? Or something in between?


Only Ashton and Demi (and their publicists, and agents, and bodyguards, and personal trainers …) know the whole truth, but the relationship does offer a useful entree into the elaborate rituals of celebrity coupling. America's obsession with celebrity romance dates to the beginning of the film industry. Hollywood manufactured our first true national stars and the publicity machine designed to promote them. Early on, studio bosses and gossip columnists recognized the value of a great real-life love story, understanding that fans lived vicariously through their movie idols. So from the '20s until the studio system disintegrated in the '60s, the bosses—who exercised absolute authority over their actors—fabricated fake dalliances and exploited real ones for two purposes: first, to create new stars by attaching them to established ones, and second, to cover up the homosexuality or potentially tarnishing behavior of a star.

The studios developed crude but effective techniques for selling an affair to the media and public. Studio heads ordered starlets to appear with more established actors at Hollywood nightspots. Young celebrities were instructed to ditch pre-fame boyfriends and girlfriends. Publicists dropped hints to gossip columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper about supposed on-set romances between ingénues and their co-stars: Such affairs increased box-office take and boosted the actresses' careers. (In some cases, of course, the liaisons were real, which just made the story an easier sell.)

False romances concocted to hide a star's homosexuality were known as "twilight tandems" and "lavender marriages." Such bearding had its heyday in the 1950s, as the studios sought to keep gossip columnists and the magazine Confidential from spreading rumors about their stars: Rock Hudson was the most famous case. He successfully masked his homosexuality by briefly marrying his agent's secretary. Here are more amazing examples of cover-ups.

With the breakup of the studio system, actors and other celebrities have become free agents. Today, no boss can order Demi and Ashton to do his bidding. But celebrity romance has not changed radically, because celebrities have become so savvy about their own images that they do what the bosses used to. "Movie stars have unconsciously become their own publicists. It is an instinctive skill. They don't need publicists to tell them what boyfriends and girlfriends are good for their career," says Paramount producer Lynda Obst.

For example, while bearding has decreased, it has not disappeared, because gay stars understand the PR value of seeming straight. "It has yet to be proved that an openly gay leading man can be a sex symbol," says MSNBC gossip columnist Jeannette Walls. Several incredibly famous male stars we don't dare name are rumored to be gay and hiding behind gorgeous women. (In some cases, gay stars are believed to have had children to prove their straight bona fides.)

{continued}

Harrison and Flockhart: Strategic distraction

Straight celebrities frequently use relationships to burnish their own careers. Actors understand that the public likes to see celebrities together, and that dating a "civilian" has no Hollywood cachet. When a less famous actress dates a leading man, his fame rubs off on her. ("Dating up," that's called.) One critical side benefit of dating up: The less famous celeb may get access to the famous one's more powerful agent and manager. A common phenomenon is the May-December celebrity coupling, which benefits both parties. Calista Flockhart's youth, for example, distracts fans from the fact that Harrison Ford is a senior citizen, while his fame may boost her movie career (since goodness knows her talent won't).


Affleck and J. Lo: A win-win proposition

Dating famously is a particularly important career move for actresses, says former Premiere editor Chris Connelly: "It really helps an actress for an audience to have a personal stake in her happiness." (This may start to explain why Julia Roberts, with her endless dating travails, has always been such a draw.) Jennifer Lopez is a stellar example of a female celebrity who is exploiting a tumultuous personal life to seduce audiences. Until recently, J. Lo was tarting around with the sleazy P. Diddy. By hooking up with Captain America Ben Affleck, and endlessly milking their relationship for publicity by co-starring in movies, posing for magazines, and discussing wedding plans, J. Lo has sweetened herself. She is a darling again. (What does Ben get out of it? He gets to sleep with J. Lo.)

What kind of dating helps a celebrity most? MSNBC's Scoop Columnist Jeannette Walls has constructed a dating hierarchy: At the top are "major royalty" (that is, Prince William). Next are movie stars, then TV stars, then minor royalty. At the bottom: rock stars. (Rock stars, after all, will date anyone. Rock stars date porn stars.)

This is not to say that all celebrity romances are fake, only that there is an element of calculation to them. In fact, most Hollywood insiders suspect these relationships are fundamentally genuine. (Of Ashton and Demi, for example, Washington Post Reliable Source columnist Lloyd Grove says, "I have to believe that at a minimum they are having very satisfying sex.") Why would celebrities end up together? For starters, it's convenient. Most celebrities spend most of their time with either hangers-on or other celebrities, so it's no surprise they end up smooching with the people they know best. Also, it takes a celebrity to understand a celebrity. Most civilians don't understand or want to endure the endless attention and prying that celebrities take for granted: A celebrity boyfriend tolerates and even welcomes that attention. And celebrities are infatuated with other celebrities: "If they can hook up with another famous person, they are ecstatic," says one Hollywood cynic.

How do you create and then exploit your celebrity romance? (First advice: Imitate everything that Demi and J. Lo do.) If you haven't found your celebrity love, arrange it: Jennifer Aniston had her publicist call Brad Pitt's publicist to ask for a date. Once it's started, promoting it is very simple. You should appear together at semi-private places—in a back room at the Los Angeles' Ivy restaurant, or at the New York club Bungalow 8*, or anywhere that Tobey Maguire is. When you're photographed there, feign annoyance and express surprise that anyone would see you. A joint appearance at a Lakers or Knicks game (depending on your coast) is useful fodder for the tabs. Start engaging in very public canoodling—in your car, in clubs, at restaurants. "You should hold hands and gaze lovingly no matter what the situation," says Walls. When quizzed about the relationship, issue an ostentatious denial through your publicist: "They are just close friends." If public interest flags, have a friend drop a leak to Us or the tabloids: "They couldn't keep their hands off each other on the set. …"

Finally, when you're really ready to be a public couple, says entertainment reporter Elizabeth Snead, "you appear on a red carpet together. That is the Hollywood equivalent of walking down the aisle. Then you have to start answering questions, start dressing the same, and so on."

Some celebrities do strive to keep their private lives private. They don't appear together much in public, and they save their groping for hotel rooms. A few brave souls insist on dating civilians, much to the annoyance of the gossip hounds (and, presumably, their own agents). George Clooney is Exhibit A of a star the tabs would love to couple with a hot actress, but who dates coat-check girls instead.


Douglas and Zeta-Jones: What price glory?

It is generally considered a bad career move to allow celebrity dating to progress to marriage. When a sexy actor marries, it dims his hot image. When a sexy actress marries, it's even worse. The story gets boring for the public: The tantalizing fear and doubt and curiosity about whether the couple will survive dissipates. Both members seem suddenly duller. There are a few notable exceptions: When Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas married, she ascended from B-movie actress to Hollywood royalty, he from wrinkly old man to stud. The marriage of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward gave him depth and her glamour.

There is one corner of the entertainment industry where celebrity romances are still manufactured the old-fashioned way: reality TV. As Obst points out, reality TV shows—in which the players are indentured by rigid contracts—are ruthlessly controlled by producers and publicists. They insist on a romantic storyline, regardless of truth. Since Joe Millionaire wrapped, Evan Marriott has complained that the producers pushed him together with winning companion Zora Andrich, even though he wasn't interested, in order to create a better story. It is a delightful irony of the American entertainment industry that Demi and Ashton may be less fake than the stars of reality TV.

[Correction, July 7, 2003: The original version of this piece mentioned the club Bungalow 61. This conflated two ultratrendy New York bars owned by the same person, Bungalow 8 and Lot 61.]

Too Sexy for This Store
Wal-Mart's strange decision to blackball Redbook.
By Dana Goodyear
Posted Monday, July 7, 2003, at 1:21 PM PT

http://slate.msn.com/id/2085183/

Redbook magazine, you might assume, is the Laura Bush of glossies—maternal, remedial, smugly unstylish. Along with Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Family Circle, Woman's Day, and Better Homes and Gardens, it is one of the so-called "Seven Sisters" of service-magazine journalism—think of them as a regular bridge group—who, in gentle conspiratorial whispers and energetic soccer-practice tones, instruct American women in the lost art of domesticity. And so it came as a surprise when Wal-Mart announced in early June that it would install prophylactic "U-shaped blinders" to obscure the suggestive cover text of four women's magazines—and Redbook was among them. This new sorority—including Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and Glamour—was one where stories were less likely to be about organic snacks than orgasmic ones. (Redbook's fellows in shame are publications whose readers tend to be single girls in their 20s while Redbook's target audience is married women in their 30s.)


The magazine, which turned 100 in May, was evidently not acting its age, and what could be more vulgar? How about the revelation, in a rash of unrelated news stories over the next week, that Redbook had given two of its cover girls big crude face lifts: Jennifer Aniston had been doctored for the June issue (and was considering suing), and Julia Roberts, her head (from a photo taken at the People's Choice Awards in 2002) scarily large atop a paper-doll stiff body (from the Notting Hill premiere in 1999), had been butchered for July. The editors apologized, saying they had wanted an image that would "pop on the newsstand," a spokesman for Redbook said. "Pop" it did, against a background of garish pink, red, and bright violet.

But if Redbook isn't all that dignified, it's not that sinful either.

The prevailing view within its pages is of a kind of married chastity—Miltonic, say. The values—and I don't mean the articles on great summer buys and as-seen-on-TV kitchen gadgets—are family values: how to help your child get a better night's sleep, the signs of a problem pregnancy, entries from a new-dad diary. The story about Julia? A swift recapitulation of her love life and a list of "five reasons this Pretty Woman will make a great mom." The editors conclude with a ringing endorsement of her suitability: "We have no doubt that Julia will be a fabulous mom!" Wal-Mart-friendly stuff. So perhaps the reason for the company's censure lay under the Sex and Marriage rubric in the table of contents? Alas, what dwells there is "Which pet belongs to which couple?"—a feature that asks the reader to match up five couples with a basset hound, three cats, five guinea pigs, a Russian tortoise, and a pug named Phineas. The piece titled "Men Confess: 'The Sexiest Way I Was Ever Seduced' " has potential, but the boudoir secrets resemble nothing more than affirmation exercises from couples' therapy. "I came downstairs after working for a few hours and found lots of candles lit in our living room, with the dimmer turned way down and her Diana Krall CD playing" (Andre, 31, Bangor, Maine). "One afternoon my wife said to me slyly, 'The kids are napping, and I do not have a headache' " (Gary, 31, N.Y.). Anthony, 33, of Naperville, Ill., says he knows to get excited when his wife tells him, "The kids are staying at the babysitter's overnight."

From what heights of virtue did Redbook fall?

First published in Chicago in 1903, Redbook was a short-story magazine that claimed to be composed of "the best stories that can be obtained anywhere, from the authors of the highest fame and most conspicuous ability." But it was given to gushy overstatement even then: "Red is the color of happiness," Trumbell Well, the editor, announced. The magazine had high-minded intentions—the word "literary" appears four times in the first issue's statement of purpose—and a commercial side. Almost immediately it began printing a portfolio called American Beauties: voluptuous personifications of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

By 1925, the magazine was serializing novels that dramatized the adventures of the liberated woman. "Proven Pudding" guaranteed "the whole truth about those girls who would be 'free' in New York's art centers," and "Mated" warned that "thousands of readers are learning from this novel, as never before, all that divorce may mean." F. Scott Fitzgerald was a regular contributor, and jazz babies like Louise Brooks and Norma Talmadge had overtaken the American Beauties spreads. Over the next several decades, the audience shifted to young married couples—for a while it was subtitled "The magazine for young adults"—though more and more the articles were aimed at the one half of the married couple who would find the soft-core stories of modern marriage and romance sufficiently scintillating. Things coital were often featured on the cover, as in the alarmist headline from 1968, "Why Most Doctors Can't Help Women With Sex Problems." Better find out.

Redbook became the contented, ginghamy magazine we know today sometime in the '80s. (Hearst bought it in 1982.) The cover lines promised "The Secret Reasons Men Love Marriage"—not "His Secret Sex Turn-Ons." (The content of the articles, however, was probably closer to the latter than the teasers might suggest.) Everything changed again in the late '90s, when Lesley Jane Seymour (now the editor of Marie Claire) took over, putting sex back on the cover and aiming for a younger audience. "We are trying to pull away from the rest of the Seven Sisters," Seymour was quoted saying in a story in the New York Times. "We are moving it slightly younger, to fill that gap between the younger fashion magazines and the older, full-fledged Seven Sisters." (Circulation had fallen from 3.2 million to 2.8 million; today it is 2.35 million, but under Seymour, who was succeeded by Ellen Kunes in 2001, readership among women ages 30 to 39 increased 20 percent.)

The superficial sauciness of the latter-day Redbook notwithstanding, Wal-Mart's decision to chasten the magazine seems bizarre, but the chain's demonstrated desire to please Christian groups sheds some light. A month before cracking down on the women's magazines, the $244-billion-dollar-a-year chain—which is responsible for 15 percent of all magazines' single-copy sales—banned Maxim, Stuff, and FHM. The purported reason was "customer complaints," but the announcement came simultaneously with Wal-Mart's nomination to the Christian Merchants program run by Kingdom Ventures, a development organization that has established a private-label direct mail catalog and plans to launch free Web sites for every Christian church in the country. The Christian Merchants will be allowed to sell their wares through the Kingdom Catalog and through iExalt.com, the portal of the faithful. This means an open line to the hundreds of millions of church-going consumers, who spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year. "Our Christian Merchants initiative aims at providing approved companies with easy access to millions of Christians," Gene Jackson, the president of Kingdom Ventures told Business Wire. "Personally, I would feel much better buying clothes, gas, or computers, knowing that they help increase the church's positive influence in our country. In fact, the items purchased could remind us of our relationship with God," he said. He denies that Kingdom Ventures exerted any pressure on Wal-Mart to clean up its aisles.

Well, if the Kingdom didn't put the fear of God into Wal-Mart, maybe it was the vast sexual-discrimination suit filed by seven California women who complain of a pattern of harassment and unequal pay and promotion scales. The case, which could set a new record for civil-rights class-action suits and cost the company billions of dollars, comes to court at the end of July. Insiders have hinted that the sanitized stores exhibit the advice of a defense attorney, not an evangelist. "Judging by their covers, those covers might certainly be viewed by some as portraying women in a way [Wal-Mart] wouldn't want to reinforce, given their current problems," a plaintiff's attorney told Women's Wear Daily. (Might the policy to protect gay workers from discrimination, announced July 1, be part of the same legal strategy?) Whatever the reason for the censorship, the loss of the men's magazines and the diminished desirability of the women's titles makes room for a new women's glossy that Wal-Mart has just helped launch: American, a lifestyle magazine with a patriotic thrust. If American reflects the principles Wal-Mart has lately espoused—prescriptive religion, sexism, corporate strong-arming to prevent unionization—it is bound to be dirtier than Redbook.

[i]While taking a walk near Central Park in New York City, a frantic woman approached Paul Newman and told him that her purse had just been snatched. She pointed to the man who had her purse and was running. Newman told her that 30 years ago he would have chased the guy, but would let her call the police on his cellphone...


? ? ? ? GUESS WHO ? ? ? ?

This actress is a hit again after playing a much older woman on a TV show years ago and now reprising it for a touring nightclub act. Her show is so popular that she's already booked solid for the next three years.......

Guess Whoooooooooo..........

Answer Below




Michael Jackson and his children caused quite a stir at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills when they stayed in a presidential suite on the eighth floor. Michael was tossing water balloons and buckets of water out of the window. Three well-dressed guest complained to management that they had just got soaked. Jackson was warned to knock off the pranks or get out.....

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Comic Marty Ingles made an ass out of himself at a recent pre-party celebration for Tony Curtis. Curtis was in Las Vegas to accept the Legends of Hollywood Achievement Award. At the pre-party, Ingels jumped up on his table and started telling jokes that were not only unfunny, but rude. Ingels'wife, Shirley Jones, was visibly uncomfortable and Ingels was finally stopped when event promoters turned off the lights and sound equipment so no one could see or hear him.....

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Christina Aguilera's new neighbors aren't unhappy about having the songbird living in their neighborhood. Aguilera keeps her voice in shape by doing vocal exercises every night. Her neighbors open their windows to hear what they consider a "free concert" every night...


*-*-*Guess Who*-*-*-


The actress who is a hit all over again?

Vicki Lawrence......

Hollywood by the Bay for screenwriters

PALO ALTO, Calif., -- Film industry educators, literary agents and producers will head for northern California for the first annual Hollywood by the Bay screenwriting conference. The three-day event Sept. 12-14 will offer regional screenwriters an opportunity, generally unavailable outside of the Los Angeles area, to learn the craft and business of screenwriting from top industry insiders.

HBTB attendees will have an opportunity to meet and learn from 20 working professionals . The faculty roster of film and television industry professionals includes Richard Walter, who chairs the screenwriting department at the University of California-Los Angeles, script consultant Michael Hauge, author of "Writing Screenplays That Sell," writer-director Michael Tierno, literary manager Paul S. Levine, story consultant Pamela Jaye Smith. whose credits include "Austin Powers," and screen-writer and author Richard Krevolin of the University of Southern California.


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'East of Eden' tops best-seller list

NEW YORK, -- The John Steinbeck classic, "East of Eden," heads back to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list Sunday, half a century after it was first published.

Ophra Winfrey sparked renewed interest in the book, first published by Viking Press in 1952, by making it a selection for her book club. Penguin books, which now owns the title, has ordered five press runs since June 18. To date, there are 1,175,000 copies in print. "The cash register sales are higher than any other Oprah pick we have had,"
said Norman Lidofsky, president of paperback sales for Penguin.

'The Bachelorette' to wed for $1 million

LOS ANGELES, -- When "The Bachelorette's" Trista Rehn and her sweetie Ryan Sutter tie the knot in a few months, they will receive $1 million for the TV broadcast rights. The couple had to give ABC the final say-so on all the arrangements, the Smoking Gun reported. The nuptials are expected to be a "high-end" affair. The wedding is expected to produce four hours of prime-time programming to be aired later this year.

"The Bachelorette " was television's 13th highest -rated show. Rehn, 30, and Sutter, 28, were paid $100,000 on signing the contract in mid-May, Smoking Gun said. They are to receive $500,000 after exchanging vows and the balance in installments during the show's production. If the wedding is canceled, the couple will have to return the $100,000. Rehn, a physical therapist and Miami Heat dancer, received $15,000 for starring in "The Bachelorette."

Bernie Mac Had Hots For WHO?

Bernie Mac lusted after Doris Day.

Who says so?

Bernie himself.

And that's not all. The Associated Press reports that he also had the hots for Sally Field in "Gidget" and '70s movie actress Pam Grier. But DORIS DAY? Yeah, Mac describes himself as a "young freak" who thought Doris Day was "my woman." He can even sing "Que Sera Sera," a song that the actress made famous (for those of you too young to know).

So the young Bernie Mac fantasized about much older women.

Turns out American women--Demi Moore aside--also seem to have a thing for much older men.

According to a poll conducted by Date.com the No. 1 man with whom women would like to be stranded on a desert island is...ta-dum! Sean Connery. Coming in behind the gray-haired sex symbol, who got 32 percent of the votes, were Johnny Depp with 25 percent and Ashton Kutcher with 21 percent.

And whom would the men like on that desert island?

Top choice was a tie between the newest "Charlie's Angels": Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, and Cameron Diaz, followed by Jennifer Garner from "Alias" and Reese Witherspoon of "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde."

Sarah Jessica Parker: On Showing Skin

Sarah Jessica Parker has changed. And you can blame it on a man.

Specifically, her 7-month-old son James. The "Sex and the City" superstar who once inspired millions of women to flaunt what God gave them in skimpy little outfits now tells Vogue magazine that showing skin after you're a mom is just not done. "A mother shouldn't run around in low-slung jeans," the new, very proper Parker says in the August issue of Vogue, which is called "The Age Issue." It's a fashion-lover's delight and also features the likes of Beyonce Knowles and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's girlfriend, Diana Taylor.

"I know we live in America and the Taliban aren't running this country, so the young mother or the old mother, if she wants to wear low-slung jeans, that is her right," generously allows Parker. Now 38, she says her belly-baring days ended on James' birthday. "I think it's a combination for women when they've had a baby: how they feel, how they want to feel, the truth," she told Vogue. No doubt this will set a whole new fashion trend. The skimpy stuff will end up in the back of the closet.


So what will happen on the final season of "Sex and the City"?

Parker told www.Zap2It.com that even she doesn't know what will happen to her character. "Of all the characters' endings, Carrie's is the one that's not really defined yet," she explained to Zap2It. "The other women have very specific endings in place, but Carrie's depends on whether she makes a certain decision, and how that matures. She is approaching her life in much the way the city feels right now; it's recovering, and similarly, Carrie feels optimistic and very hopeful."

Schwarzenegger Raises Cash for Campaign
By DON THOMPSON

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Arnold Schwarzenegger is displaying formidable fund-raising skills as speculation mounts he is planning to make a bid to replace Gov. Gray Davis in a recall campaign.

In twin ``Terminator 3'' events last month, Schwarzenegger used his star power to help raise $421,000 to erase campaign debts from an after-school programs initiative he championed, records show. Political analysts say the feat could serve him well if he decides to run for Davis' job.

``If there were a looming campaign debt, that might be a distraction from a gubernatorial campaign. By settling the debt, he removes the distraction and demonstrates his fund-raising ability,'' said John Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College.

The $463,092 debt stems from an education initiative launched by Schwarzenegger called Citizens for After School Programs, Yes on Proposition 49, which pushed for state money for before- and after-school programs. Voters approved the initiative in November.

Groups pushing to oust Davis say they've turned in 1.6 million signatures from recall petitions, almost twice the number necessary, and are hoping officials will certify a fall election as early as next week.

George Gorton, Schwarzenegger's political adviser and the campaign manager of his education initiative, said none of the money collected at last month's two ``Terminator 3'' fund-raising premieres will go to the recall effort or a potential Schwarzenegger campaign.

But Gorton said he is pleased Schwarzenegger can raise buckets of cash almost overnight. ``I've never seen so many people anxious to give money,'' Gorton said.


The take, campaign contribution, records show, was $202,981 on June 25 and $218,750 on June 27. The total is enough to pay off most of the debt owed a pollster, an attorney and Gorton himself. If there is money left over from the premieres, or if more money is raised, it could go to repay an additional $450,000 Schwarzenegger loaned the campaign, said Gorton.


Schwarzenegger came in second among five possible Davis opponents in a poll released Wednesday, with 15 percent of respondents saying they'd back the actor if the governor were recalled. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan finished the strongest with 21 percent.


On the Net:


http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Campaign/Committees


www.joinarnold.com/

THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Eliot Wald.

A comedy writer, Wald worked on "Saturday Night Live", writing sketches for Eddie Murphy and Billy Crystal. He worked on a number of TV and feature screenplays, but he'll be remembered most for what he did while working at the Public Broadcasting System's Chicago affiliate WTTW in 1975: he thought it would be interesting to create a TV show where the movie critics from two different newspapers discussed upcoming movies. His budget: $500. Paying the two critics cost $400; the balance went to the set -- a row of theater seats. "Coming Soon to a Theater Near You" with two local newspaper critics, Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times. It grew into a smash hit, and "Two thumbs up" entered the lexicon.

Wald died July 12 in Los Angeles from liver cancer. He was 57.