If You Criticize Winona, She’ll Come Out Sssmokin’!
Go to any restaurant where smoking is still allowed and chances are you’ll see more people smoking than in any dozen movies.
Still that didn’t stop “60 Minutes” from doing a recent segment on smoking and the big screen, nor from condemning movie star Winona Ryder for taking roles that call for her to smoke.
Showing an uncommon grasp of good sense, Ryder responded to the charges directly. “As much as people want to call us role models, we’re actors first,” Ryder told USA Today. “It’s up to individuals to decide whether to smoke.”
Ryder, who says in real life that she smokes maybe four cigarettes a year, insists that watching movies did not affect her habit. “When I grew up, I did not smoke,” she said. “I was not influenced to smoke by watching 8,000 Humphrey Bogart movies.”
Loose talk
Tanya Tucker on her new, uh, autobiography: “To be honest, I haven’t read it yet. I’m not really ready to read it. I’m not really a reader.”
In Jefferson Airplane, they called him Hopalong
Jack Casady turns 53 today.
Spare the rod and spoil the ‘Hamlet’
Describing his father’s reaction to his becoming a writer, novelist Pat Conroy (“ThePrince of Tides”) recently said, “To him, that was an open admission that I was gay. He told me if he’d beaten me more, I’d be a better writer. I told him if he’d beaten me much more, I’d be Shakespeare.”
And Bennett’s husband? He’s serving time in prison
As an aftermath to the recent stories involving best-selling author Patricia Cornwell and her short-lived affair with former FBI agent Margo Bennett, let it be noted that Cornwell last year signed a three-book, $24-mil deal with G.P. Putnam, one of the best ever for a woman author. Bennett is now a police supervisor with a Virginia community college.
How many times did it take for him to pass the NY bar?
Looking around for someone to inherit John F. Kennedy Jr.’s former role as New York’s most eligible bachelor, W magazine points to 26-year-old Christopher Cuomo, son of ex-governor Mario Cuomo. The bankruptcy lawyer is pictured wearing torn jeans and a T-shirt.
Still, Martina Hingis has nothing to worry about
Walter Cronkite, 80 and recovering nicely from quadruple bypass surgery, is happy about something his doctors told him. “I asked them if I’d be able to play singles tennis and they said I could,” Cronkite said. “That made me very happy since I haven’t played singles in five years.”
Wait’ll Johnny Cochran hears about this
The question of O.J. Simpson’s innocence is a non-issue for rapper Ice-T. His latest song, “I Used to Love Her,” includes the lyrics, “How do you plead? Uh, Uh, not guilty,” Ice-T says. “Wait a minute. Not guilty? … What are you talking about? You got a bloody glove, bloody car, bloody knife, bloody, bloody carpet, bloody sock, bloody hand.” Meanwhile, a chorus sings, “I used to love her. She did me wrong. Now she’s gone.”
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster