He’s More Familiar With Unidentified Lying Objects

Sun., June 29, 1997

Compiled By Staff Writer Rick Bo

Today’s quiz: Which half of the political consulting couple, James Carville and Mary Matalin, believes in flying saucers?

Matalin, you say? Bingo!

“I am a big extraterrestrial believer,” she says. “How could you have any spiritual being whatsoever and believe we are the only life in the universe? James, of course, thinks I am insane. I think he’s already been abducted.”

Carville - who bears an eerie resemblance to the alien on the commemorative envelope for the 50th anniversary of an alleged UFO crash near Roswell, N.M. - has forbidden Matalin to talk about the subject to their 23-month-old daughter, Matty.

But Matalin plans to take the tyke with her to Roswell for the July 2 bash, from which she’ll broadcast her syndicated radio show that day.

Loose talk

Political pundit John McLaughlin, 70, on his new bride, 36-year-old Cristina Vidal: “The first part of marriage begins with procreation, and Cristina and I are devout procreators.”

It could be one of his blackest days yet

Richard Lewis turns 50 today.

At least, until the lawyers introduce their bill

Former California congressman Michael Huffington and his wife, Republican commentator and columnist Ariana Huffington, were divorced on Thursday. They agreed to share custody of their two children in what an attorney involved called “one of the most amicable” splits she’d ever seen.

Guess he’ll end up having his hour in court

When “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer got a speeding ticket a few weeks ago in Cornwall, N.Y., he mailed it in along with the fine - bur couldn’t resist writing “The idiots at” in front of the town court’s name on the form. Now he’s been invited back to explain exactly what he meant, or face contempt charges.

The media always jumps on a juicy tumor

Sam Donaldson didn’t ask for any special favors when he went to the National Institutes of Health to have a malignant lymph node removed in 1995 - considering that his “Prime Time Live” had run a story just four months earlier attacking preferential treatment for politicians at the center. “I said, ‘If we bend the rules in any way, never mind the melanoma, my colleagues in the press corps would kill me,”’ he recalled at a West Virginia cancer center.

We were hoping for a punchier response

Maybe you’ve been hearing how Ted Turner, 58, has been challenging fellow media mogul Rupert Murdoch, 66, to a boxing match in practically every public appearance he’s made recently. Finally, there’s come an answer, of sorts, from Murdoch - or, at least, from a spokesman for the Murdoch-owned Fox Sports. Said Vince Wladika: “It’s too silly to consider commenting.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

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

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