And You, Sir, How About This Ford Bronco Model?
So why are O.J. Simpson’s attorney so concerned about obtaining legal protection for the trademark “O.J.”? Because, observers say, they’re certain that he’ll be acquitted and that the trademark will earn big bucks.
According to a Knight-Ridder report, New York University’s Melvin Simensky, a trademark lawyer, says the legal action “is just a way of setting up the mechanism for going into gargantuan licensing deals all over the world… (that) are going to be worth tens of millions. The lawyers will probably make more on the licensing deals than they have on their defense fees.”
Besides being able to earn up to a $6 million advance for a book, Simpson may endorse a series of retail items. “We can expect a line of O.J. clothing including gloves and shoes,” Simensky says.
Loose Talk
Daddy-to-be Alec Baldwin on the shape of his wife, Kim Basinger (in USA Today): She’s “as big as a mailbox; she’s huge!” < You’d be mean, too, if you lived behind the steel curtain
“Mean” Joe Greene turns 49 today.
Because, he might have added, mine will be soon behind
Reports of Johnny Carson’s friendliness, or lack of, seem to depend on who’s doing the talking. All we can say is that the retired “Tonight” host recently sent a note to his grade-school teacher on the occasion of her 99th birthday. “Have a very happy birthday!” Carson wrote to Norfolk, Va., ex-teacher Fay Gordon. “And remember, I expect to be invited to your 100th birthday.”
And, of course, she knows exactly how to love Him
Pamela Des Barres, who wrote about her days as a groupie in “I’m With the Band,”is working on a novel about Mary Magdalene whom, not surprisingly, she calls “the original groupie.” Producer Beverly Camhe of the forthcoming “I’m With the Band” movie (starring Drew Barrymore), says Des Barres researched for the holy epic. “She just went to the Holy Land and walked in Mary’s steps,” Camhe told USA Today.
Next, she’ll do a cover of hits by Counting Crows
Kathy Mattea has a way of finding the songs that no one else has ever heard of. “I see myself as a song scavenger in many ways and I love doing that,” Mattea told The Orange County Register.
Yeah, we hear he’s a pinup boy in Walla Walla
Complaining that television ratings numbers don’t reflect a realistic view of his audience, “Late Late Show” host Tom Snyder says, “I don’t believe you can sample 250 million people with 1,200 (Nielsen) families. I don’t care what kind of science you give me, I say the sample is wrong. Do they measure college dorms? People on the road at Motel 6? Prisons? I’m probably big in prisons.”
And each is delicious, according to your appetite
So how do you turn a novel into a film script? “It is something like trying to turn an ox into a bouillon cube,” says novelist John Le Carre.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster