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Show — Associated Press A meak peek at a new fali show. See page 3. August 18, 1995 Seniceti Sink or Swim ABC newsman Sam Donaldson was scheduled to have surgery Tuesday at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., for cancer in a open node in his groin. An ABC spokesman said the cancer was “localized ... it hasn't spread.” Donaldsonis expected back at work a week after the operation. ™ The cancer is highly curable if caught early but can be fatalif it B spreads. $ ° INI — Unlike its heroine, the film “Divine Rapture” doesn’t look like it’s going to rise from the dead. The film starring Marion ee Brando, Debra Winger, and # Johnny Depp collapsed — midway through production — after its Paris-based backer withheld # funding, the producersaid. Brando was cast as a parish B priest who ancints a dead woman, B played by Winger. When she 4H walks out of the morgue, her apparent resurrection incites the Sam Donaldson religious passions of the Irish countryside, but attracts skepticism from a doctor (John Hurt) and a reporter (Depp.) * The whirlwind finally caught up with Christie Brinkley. Just seven weeks after the birth of their son, she’s separating from the millionaire she eee seven months ago. ‘After much thought and consideration, I have decided me to separate from my husband, the supermodel said. Brinkley, m 42, and real estate developer Richard Taubman,46, survived a helicopter crash during a Colorado ski trip in April 1994. They & were engaged soon after and married Dec. 22, exchanging a vows in a sunset ceremony on ™ Telluride Mountain. i — “Beverly Hills, 90210,” darling Tori Spellingis at the center S of a most bizarre blackmail scheme. A lawyer aud a former personalassistant have been ac# cused of threatening to spili all Ga her juicy secrets-to the tabloids ® and ruin her reputation unless she pays up! 5 a ae Tublitz, fired as Spell‘hristie ing’s aide in September 1994 aff pay ter less than two months on the job, allegediy inquired of a tabloid how much she would get for info about Spelling. But golly gee! says her attorney, Harland Braun: The whole thing was a joke! Tublitz later hired Frances Jones as her lawyer, but both were arrested after they tried to negotiate a confidentiality agreement for $30,000, Braun said. Speliing’s lawyers wanted to pay a mere $750. A hearing will determine whether Tublitz and Jones stand trial on felony charges, prosecutor Rhonda Saunderssaid. Just for Kicks Denpis Quaid says he never reads articles written about him. The versatile actor has stymied any attemptto label him during a 20-year career that includes more than 35 films, most recently aa 7: “Something to Talk About”with Julia Roberts. — Chuck Norris puts his muscles where his mouth is. Thanks to a motivational program founded by the tough-guytelevision actor and karate champ, troubiesome kids are getting their kicks from karate instead of crime A Houston boy headed for reform schoolafter beating up his teacher turned his life around when he joined Morris’ Kick Drugs Out Of America Foundation, a motivational karate program forinner-city youth. “They've got to change their § whole philosophy and karate can do that for them,” Norris said. — Actual written excuses given to teachers in Albuquerque, N.M., by parents: Dennis Quaid @ “Please excuse Blanche froin jim today. Sheis administrating.” © “Please excuse John from being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and also 33." © “Excuse Gloria. She has been under the doctor.” ‘My daughter was absent yesterday because she wastired She spent the weekend with the Marines.” # Please excuse Sara for being absent. She was sick and | had her shot.” Reports compiled from Tribune and News wire services. MOquUI Women's Whirlwinds Judymanial Minnesota Full of Munchkins! By David Hanners Knight-Ridder Newspapers GRAND RAPIDS, Maal yore on spending any time in this no thern Minnesota city that Judy birthplace, don’t speak of her, her family, the Munchkins or the movie from which most of us remember Gariand. They take their Judymania seriously here. “Yve liked her all my life. She’s the warmest entertainer I’ve ever seen,” said Laura Pilot, who with her mother, Mary Pilot, drove the 180 miles from St. Paul to the opening of the Judy Garland Birthplace. ButPilot didn’t just come to attend the opening of the reconditioned 1892;home where Garland — then known by herreal name of Frances Ethel Gumm — was born in 1922. She didn’t just come to meet three of the original Munchkins on hand for the festivities: Meinhardt Raabe, the coronor who pronounced the wicked witch dead; Jerry Maren, the head of the Lollipop Guild who handed Dorothy lollipop and welcomed her to Munchkinland, and Margaret Pellegrini, who had no speaking role but did get to wear a memorable flowerpotfor a hat. Pilot came several hours early to volunteerto help get the house readyfor the opening ceremony “This is a significant thing that is happening,” she said as she sweptdirt off the hardwood dining room floor into a makeshift cardboard dustpan. “It’s significant for Minnesota history, it’s significant for her history, and significant for women’s history.” Women’s history? Sure. “Of thehistoric houses in America, how manyinterpret thelives of women? Not many,” said John Kelsch, director of the Judy Garland Museum. This summer was the 20th annual Judy Garland Festival, a three-day event aimed at keeping the memory of Grand Rapids’ favorite daughter alive and well Rest assured they are succeeding. Garland first became known as a singer any imeey peron isginis ‘ond there were to be free showings of ‘‘The “NVEAET Ox” at a local theater, a public ‘Munchkins, ahd an cutoe nd musical tribute. = there. "The family nnoveal to California ae that so far, the orgaee onthat later — when Judy.96-4: c5 spent nearly $500,000 on the shé “only .reterned to Grand Rapids ~ home and museum coliection, which cononce, in 1938. -: After leaving Minnesota, she went on to tains a fair amount of Garland and Oz memorabilia ranging from originals of film stardom and became what Kelsch, a herperfermance contracts to one of the calm and serious man, calmly and seriously called, “probably the greatest vopaix of ruby slippers from “The Wizard calist of this millenium.” of.0z"" io the original work permit issued to her at age 11. All that success camecrashing down in the last years of herlife, though. as she The centerpiece of this weekend, got caughtin a spiral of drugs to get her though, is the restored Garland childup and drugs to bring her down. She died hood home, whichsits on the south edge ai this town of 8,000. It is a white, twoin London in 1969 from what the coroner flétermined was an “accidental” drug story woodframe homebuilt in the late overdose. Victorian Vernacularstyle, said Jim Sazevich, an architectural historian frora St. Paul who has researched the 103-year history ef the home. “The lasting appeal is, there's He has also spent time researching the no place like home, and that rumors ahout why the Gumm family left town in 1926. A few Garland biographers was the whole gist ofthe movie. have claimed the family moved to CaliIt’sAmerica’sfairy tale.” fornia when Mrs. Gumm became embarrassed over her husband’s “indiscre- Jerry Maren, one of the original munchkins in “The Wizard of Oz.” Although Garland's darker side is not shied aWay from here — her classy museum dowittewn is probably oneof the few museuus in America to includea placard describing the history of the drug benzedrine — neitheris it a community obsession. They'd rather remember Judy the Talented,mot Judy the Troubled. Her father was Frank Gumm, a Vaudevillian whko,ran the local theater. It was the day after Christmas 1924 that a 24- year-old “Baby/Gumm” madeherstage debut at her dad's theater, singing “Jingie Bells” as her mother, Ethel, played piano. The Judy Garland Festival, which is run by the non-profit Judy Garland Children’s Museum, is meant to keép her memoryalive. Aside from thefirst public showing of Garland’s childhood home, tions” with younger men. “Absoutely noevidence of that. None,” stresses Sazevich. “The people of the town had nine separate parties for the Gumms, including some church parties. Those people weren't sneaking out of town.” And what about the Munchkins’ alleged drinking and partying habits during their eight weeks’ of filming the movie, as chronicled in the film “Under the Rainbow’’? Also nottrue, the Munchkins said. “It was a concoction from someone who wanted to makea fast buck,” said Raabe After the brief ceremony attended by 100 or so townsfolk, the three Munchkins posed for photos with children and adults and signed autographs. Throughout the day, the trio fondly remembered Grand Rapids’ most famous exported commodity. See more Oz stories on page 3! |