With Friends Like These, Clinton Needs No Foes

As “Primary Colors” prepares to open, its cast is trying to portray the movie as more than a portrait of a charming, self-destructive womanizer of a presidential candidate.

Calling Bill Clinton “an amazing human being,” the movie’s star, John Travolta, says the movie is no attempt to portray the actual Clinton administration. Furthermore, he thinks the White House likes the film.

“From the feedback I get, there seems to be a cathartic feeling,” Travolta says. “Even for him. It’s bigger than the scandal. It’s about other things.”

Travolta insists he made no deal to soften his performance in exchange for Clinton taking up the Scientology cause. “This is a very sophisticated man,” Travolta said. “That would not be something he would do. Besides, I was in the middle of the movie.”

Loose talk

Kathy Bates on her new film, “Primary Colors” (in the Virginian-Pilot): “Making the film has, if anything, made me less cynical. By walking in someone else’s moccasins, you learn what they go through.”

It’s obviously a big day in his neighborhood

Fred Rogers turns 70 today.

We couldn’t make up something this bizarre

Straight from the Hollywood Reporter: “According to a report by German newswire DPA, pop star Michael Jackson went shopping Wednesday in Munich, Germany, disguised as an Arab woman.”

Question now is: Quiere Jose Jiminez Taco Bell?

Fresh from winning an Image Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition, “Jose Jiminez” creator Bill Dana is thankful that times have changed. “People have eased up,” he said, recalling the atmosphere of cultural sensitivity that cause him to retire the Jiminez character in 1970. “Everybody has eased up except those people who don’t want to take a chance, God forbid.”

It should liven up Thanksgiving dinner

Imagine bringing Fiona Apple home to meet the folks. According the US magazine, “She believes that spiders drop down in front of her when she is sad. She won’t use old bottles of shampoo because the smell reminds her of the past. (And) she thinks that paper clips follow her wherever she goes, especially pink ones.”

So, which would you cast to portray Monica Lewinsky?

Among those stars at the “Primary Colors” premiere, celebrity-watchers saw Sonia Braga, Annette Bening, Lauren Bacall, director Mike Nichols, “Primary Colors” author Joe Klein. And Uma Thurman.

Not the car, you understand, just the keys

What kind of a guy is Drew Carey? Fairly nice, apparently. Warner Bros. rewarded the sitcom star with a $100,000 Porsche. So when he found out that one of the show’s production assistants needed wheels (the car had been stolen), he handed over the keys to his Mazda Miata.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by staff writer Dan Webster