Will the defense of New York`s ”subway vigilante,” Bernhard Hugo Goetz, rest on two little words: ”reasonable force”? ”In order to prove self-defense, you have to show that an individual is in fear of death or bodily harm and that he used `reasonable force` to protect his life,” said attorney Allan Ackerman, who described the Goetz case as a ”defense lawyer`s dream.” Ackerman said: ”The legal defense probably will be a combination of self-defense and demonstrating to the jury that Goetz showed the kind of conduct needed to thwart robbers from riding the transit system. I`d want a jury made up of people who ride the transit system–women, older folks, relatively defenseless people, the kind whom muggers and robbers prey upon.” . . . Two issues keep coming to the front in this case; one is race (Goetz is white, the four young men he shot are black), and the other centers on the fact that Goetz shot two of his victims in the back. ”The racial issue means nothing,” Ackerman said. ”I would welcome a jury of 12 blacks. I think they`d be more prone to acquit because they`re the ones who are victimized by gangs on a daily basis.” And as for shooting some of the men in the back, Ackerman said: ”They could have turned away for a minute to see who was coming. That`s possible.”
DEMS AND DOES . . .
Terry Sanford, former governor of North Carolina, has agreed to enter the battle for head of the Democratic National Committee, waving the Confederate flag. Sanford heeded the call of the Southern DNC members who were unhappy over the candidacies of Paul Kirk, a former aide to Sen. Edward Kennedy, and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi.
— Celebration on Tuesday of Martin Luther King`s birthday is dividing Chicago city employees into the haves and the have-nots. Employees who are paid ”the prevailing rate” receive 7 paid holidays, and King`s birthday is not one. Salaried workers get 12 paid holidays, including that date.
STREEP SAYS . . .
Meryl Streep, the thinking man`s sex symbol, discusses in a two-part interview beginning Monday on the ”Today” show why she doesn`t like to do nude scenes. ”I don`t usually love the way nude scenes are done in the movies,” Streep tells Gene Shalitt. ”I feel that half the time they focus on the woman as an object in an unequal way. We don`t see that many of our male stars doing frontal nudity. It makes me uncomfortable to be in an unequal position.”
DANCE FEVER . . .
Greetings from New York, where the press came to meet those dancing feet
–a few blocks north of 42d Street–and just a week before the release of
”That`s Dancing,” the history of dance in film from the 18th Century to Michael Jackson`s music video ”Beat It.” The movie includes never-released footage of Ray Bolger and Judy Garland from the ”Wizard of Oz,” dozens of Busby Berkeley`s great ”kaleidoscope” production numbers and rare footage of Isadora Duncan. . . . Most important no-shows: Donald O`Connor, Liza Minnelli and Sammy Davis Jr. . . . Coproducers Jack Haley Jr. and David Niven Jr. already are making noises about a sequel. They have six hours of film left over.
— Everything you never realized that you didn`t know about dancing: You know that Marine Jihan did most of the dancing for Jennifer Beals in ”Flash Dance,” but did you know that a male dancer wearing a wig substituted for Jihan in the break dancing and leaps for the audition sequence? . . . Buddy Ebsen claims that Michael Jackson stole the moonwalk from him. . . . Gene Kelly disputes Debbie Reynolds` claim that when he was teaching her to dance, her feet actually bled. ”She is a fun gal and she tells those things, . . . but it`s a straight-out lie.” Then, he added for emphasis, ”She is a marvelous girl and we are great friends.” At least until now.
PSST . . .
Dateline, Palm Springs–House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R., Ill.), who is here for the Bob Hope Annual Desert Classic, will name his pick for U.S. attorney for northern Illinois soon, and he is not focusing his search on an anti-Thompson candidate. Michel told INC. that he will begin scheduling interviews with all the top candidates for the post on Monday. ”I want to give everyone a hearing and then narrow it down to the top three.” So who are the top three? When asked if Tony Valukas, former aide to Gov. James Thompson, was on the list, Michel nodded and then profferred another name: Chicago attorney Jim Montana, another Thompson pal. . . . By the way, INC. hears that David Gilbert, Thompson`s press secretary par excellence for the last 10 years, has told the governor that he will be leaving his job in a few months. Gilbert is sorting through several top job offers.
POSTSCRIPTS FROM PALM SPRINGS . . .
It`s ”mind your tees and q`s” time at the Bob Hope Classic, where men wearing white hold ”quiet please” signs as golfers pad around the links, smelling of strong cologne. Where else can the finest pro golfers in the world get to match shots with some of the finest used-car dealers in the country?
INC. spotted hotel magnate Barron Hilton, zaftig in puce pants, smoking a stogie between holes. . . . Golf great Lee Trevino claims that there are only two things he fears on the golf course: ”Lightning and the clubhouse buffet.” . . . Former President Gerald Ford spews a little exhaust at the exit-poll system in presidential elections by stating: ”If I`m ever asked, I will say quietly, `It is none of your damn business,` and I hope all Americans will say so too.” . . . Golf pro J.C. Snead admits that his initials stand for (gasp!) ”Jesse Carlisle.” . . . Singer Glen Campbell concedes that he has as many golf shoes as Jack Nicklaus has golf clubs. . . . Actor Fred MacMurray grumpily refuses to sign autographs and leaves actress/wife June Haver behind to soothe his ruffled fans. . . . Defending champ John Mahaffey compliments the pride of New Albany, Ind., Fuzzy Zoeller, when Mahaffey hit a great bunker shot: ”It was a Fuzzy Zoeller shot. You know, you close your eyes and swing as hard as you can.” P.S.: Zoeller is deer hunting in southern Indiana while nursing his injured back. He`s not due back in action until March. . . . And last but not least, old timer Buddy Rogers, husband of the late Mary Pickford, tells his fans, ” . . . Buddy is kind of a silly name for a man who just had his 50th birthday, dontchathink?” as the 80-plus-year-old ambled down the green in his white outfit.
INC.LINGS . . .
Sunday birthdays: Robert Stack, 66; Hyman Kwiat, 100; Gwen Verdon, 60. . . . They`re going to call this one the take-this-charge-card-and-b urn-it decision: On Christmas Eve, attorney Marshall Auerbach, author of the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act of 1977, won a whopping 86 percent of the marital assets for his client, a Downstate doctor, after showing that the doctor`s wife blew $410,000 of her husband`s money in personal charges over a five-year period. Some guys just can`t take a joke.
