Entertainment/People 95 In Review

1. O.J.: Media superstar

O.J. Simpson’s trial gets gavel-to-gavel coverage on three cable networks and dominates the late night comedy of Leno and Letterman. Then he backs down from a live no-holds-barred interview on NBC. And his book, “I Want to Tell You,” tops the bestseller list.

2. Beatles fly again

The three living Beatles reunite, dub their voices over John Lennon’s on “Free As a Bird,” pull out some dusty old stuff and slap a double CD together. “Anthology 1” rockets to the top of the pop charts. Although their much-hyped six-hour ABC documentary fares less than spectacularly in the Nielsen ratings, the Fab Four pocket more than $150 million from the two projects.

3. Connie

Connie Chung (who’ll be 50 next year) gets fired as “CBS Evening News” co-anchor. But first, she assures Kathleen Gingrich that a whispered comment would just be between them, and then Chung tells the world what son Newt thinks of Hillary Rodham Clinton (it’s a word that rhymes with “witch”). Not satisfied, she honks Oklahomans by proclaiming that criminals are free to wreak havoc since all the cops are at the bombed federal building.

4. Di’s dish

Princess Diana admits to adultery in a TV interview. Then the queen agrees that she and hubby the bonnie prince should get a divorce.

5. Hall rocks on

The $92 million Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opens in Cleveland with a seven-hour concert by dozens of top stars, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan.

6. ‘Gump’ romps

While “Forest Gump” dominates the Academy Awards, host David Letterman guffaws his way through a banal “Oprah-Uma” gag. There will be no Letterman ‘96. Plus, for the first time, Dave starts to take a pounding in the ratings by archenemy Jay.

7. Jerry’s gone

Revered Grateful Dead guitarist and singer Jerry Garcia dies, and a couple months later, Deadheads everywhere mourn again as the band decides to breek up.

8. Michael falters

Michael Jackson’s double CD of hits and new stuff, “HIStory,” plummets from top 10 after a few weeks, selling a paltry 1.8 million copies despite the most expensive promotion in pop music history, The gloved wonder gets a softball interview from Diane Sawyer on “PrimeTime Live.”

9. Selena slaying

Tejano singing sensation Selena is shot to death by the founder of her fan club. Some fan. Later in the year, her first English album, “Dreaming of You,” tops the pop charts, and five of her albums end up on Billboard’s chart of top Latin albums for 1995.

10. Patty plunges

Patty Duke’s locally filmed NBC series, “Amazing Grace,” had some folks dreaming that Coeur d’Alene and Spokane would become a mini-Hollywood. The dream was short-lived as the show had abysmal ratings in its April premiere and was yanked after only four episodes.

, DataTimes