Actually, She Could Be Mighty Slim Pickings
Roseanne is getting less than a rosy reception from writers at The New Yorker in her role as a guest editor for an upcoming “women’s issue” of the magazine.
Ian “Sandy” Frazier, a staff member for 21 years, faxed his resignation to editor Tina Brown and told Time magazine: “The New Yorker is about writing. Is writing sitting in a room pitching ideas to some tyrannical TV star?”
Fiction writer Jamaica Kincaid threatened to quit. “Put me in a room with a great writer, I grovel,” she told the New York Times. “Put me in with Roseanne, I throw up.”
Ken Auletta, who promised in The New York Observer to tell Roseanne to “shove it” if she tried to edit his copy, later said Brown assured him she is only “‘picking Roseanne’s brain.’ All of us as journalists pick people’s brains all the time.”
Loose talk
Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Basketball Diaries”), on kissing another guy in the upcoming “Total Eclipse” flick: “I made sure our lips were clean and everything. I made sure I got a little disinfectant, and we both did that. It wasn’t fun, though.” Hopefully, he won’t be spending it alone
Clayton Moore turns 81 today.
Advertising trickery? What a surprise!
Credit the Observer with a scandalous scoop: those women in the “milk mustache” ads - Lauren Bacall, Kristi Yamaguchi, Gabriella Sabatini, et al - aren’t really wearing milk. “It’s a dairy-product drink,” acknowledged an advertising agency spokesman. “But it does have a little ice cream mixed in to give it body.”
Starring in cop shows was a natural link
Celebrity coupling alert: Tyne Daly, the second half of television’s “Cagney & Lacey,” is all cuddly with Clarence Williams 3rd of “Mod Squad” fame, who’s been a friend for the past 30 years.
Maybe there was some ring of truth to it
In the update department, on the eve of Tuesday’s scheduled hearing, boxer Mike Tyson reached an out-of-court settlement with ex-wife Robin Givens’ former publicist over a lawsuit claiming that he repeatedly sexually assaulted her and threatened to kill her.
Daddy soon will be back walking the line
Waylon Jennings has been cleared by doctors to resume concert appearances starting next month. Jennings, 58, who had triple-bypass surgery seven years ago, canceled 11 September shows after checking into a Nashville hospital complaining of disorientation and fatigue.
He should stay out of those cowboy bars
Clint Black is suing the mother of his out-of-wedlock, 5-year-old child, saying her interviews with The Globe and “A Current Affair” violated an agreement to keep quiet in return for child support. “She went to the rag media,” Black’s lawyer said of the woman, who met the country crooner in a Phoenix club. “Every time she wants a little pocket change, she tries to rattle his cage.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Rick Bonino