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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

No Self-Discipline? You Hit The Nail On The Head

Compiled By Staff Writer Rick Bo

When it comes to celebrities, maybe money should come with an instruction manual.

People magazine examines some of the financial failures of the famous, from Burt Reynolds (messy divorce) to Susan Powter (legal partnership problems) to Kim Basinger (went broke and had to sell the small town she bought in Georgia).

Perhaps the biggest bust of all is rap artist Hammer, who made an estimated $33 million in 1990 but filed for bankruptcy last April and is trying to sell his six-bedroom home in Fremont, Calif., for $6.5 million.

Where did his dough go? For little things, really - like motorized bedroom drapes, racehorses, 17 cars and a home sound system requiring 22 miles of electrical wiring.

Loose talk

Matthew Perry (“Friends”), on his new L.A. digs (in InStyle magazine): “I bought this house because that’s the sitcom law. Your show gets picked up for a second season and you buy a house, or Bob Newhart comes and beats you with a stick.”

It’s about time to trade her in for a newer model

Cindy Crawford turns 31 today.

They just keep getting more Graf-ic all the time

Supermodel Tyra Banks, who last year shared the cover of Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue with Valeria Mazza, on Wednesday became the first black woman to claim that spot all for herself. Inside, the usual runway suspects are interspersed with such bikinied athletes as volleyball vixen Gabrielle Reece and tennis star Steffi Graf.

In other words, the biggest dips don’t take them

Speaking of swimsuits, more from “Friends” star Matthew Perry on that new house of his (in InStyle magazine): “I have no time for the pool. Besides, you get all wet when you get in there. Soaking wet. Nobody uses their swimming pools.”

The perfect crime: Where nobody knows your face

And speaking of Thursday night television legends, an autographed script from the final episode of “Cheers,” signed by the entire cast and donated by George Wendt (who played Norm), was stolen from a Boston charity auction over the weekend. Security videotape is being studied, but there’s a complication: In keeping with the “Carnival in Venice” theme, most of the guests were wearing party masks.

She’s not worshiped by the clowns she walks on?

Author Jerry Oppenheimer, who’s penned unauthorized biographies of the likes of Barbara Walters, Ethel Kennedy and Rock Hudson, has turned his attention to Martha Stewart. In “Just Desserts,” due out in July, Oppenheimer depicts the lifestyle maven as “a ruthless queen of mean, a Betty Crocker from hell who will stop at nothing in her desperate quest for fame and fortune,” adding: “She has trod over so many people that it became virtually impossible for me to find people to say positive things about her.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino