— Ernest Barfield, a protege of ailing mayoral chief of staff Bill Ware, may be slipping into Ware`s old spot, but it will be a different job. ”He`ll operate chiefly in an administrative, rather than an executive, capacity,” a source said. INC. has learned that Ware is in intensive care at a hospital in Washington, D.C., where his fiance lives. Mayor Harold Washington told his closest aides that Ware`s recovery period will be extensive. ”Bill was suffering from a chronic cough, but he had been gaining back some of the weight lost due to his illness, and we thought he was doing better,” the source said. Now that Ware is gone, will his old nemesis, former budget chief David Schulz, be back on track to City Hall? Ware had scotched a move to bring Schulz back to replace Public Works Commissioner Jerry Butler. But who knows now? INC. reported Ware`s condition and possible replacement months ago, but City Hall denied the item.
— City Aviation Commissioner Tom Kapsalis plans to cancel all police and security furloughs at O`Hare International Airport and to double details at all security posts to prevent the possibility of trouble during any United Airlines pilots strike.
— Chicago Park District chief Ed Kelly doesn`t want to give Mayor Harold Washington the power to dedicate the new Grant Park wildflower garden to Vietnam vets on Memorial Day because Washington never asked Kelly`s permission. ”Kelly isn`t against Vietnam vets. It`s just that the first he read about it was in INC.,” a source said. And Chicago veterans spokesman Joan Maiman said she was told by a city spokesman that Washington would dedicate the flower garden to the vets–though Kelly would probably be furious. ”It would be most unfortunate if politics became a factor in a long- overdue tribute to the Chicagoans who served and died in the war,” Maiman said. ”I just wish they`d all grow up.” So how about it? And how about a parade?
No biz like show biz . . .
Of course, People magazine will have Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Springsteen on next week`s cover. Of course, there`ll be a story about Monday`s wedding, gleaned from guests and friends of guests. And of course it was bedlam Tuesday night when, just before the magazine`s printing deadline, the magazine learned that a New York columnist was about to report that Monday`s wedding had been a hoax. The report turned out to be wrong. . . . Don`t be surprised if the long-awaited home video version of ”Ghostbusters” is finally released, with a major media blitz, this Halloween. . . . Tom Dreesen is developing a TV comedy pilot called ”My Man, the Mayor,” about a white man who accidentally gets elected mayor of a predominantly black suburb called Harrington, Ill., which sounds suspiciously like Dreesen`s hometown of Harvey.
The TV lunch bunch . . .
CBS head Van Gordon Sauter, filling in for Bill Kurtis at Thursday`s TV Academy luncheon, quashed rumors that Kurtis will jump from ”The CBS Morning News” in the next two weeks to return to Chicago, either to Channel 2 or 5. When asked why Phyllis ”The Hug” George was hired for the broadcast, he said it was because they didn`t have any ”Diane Sawyer clones” to use instead. Asked if anyone at CBS suggested to George that asking Gary Dotson and Cathy Webb to hug did not constitute her finest moment, Sauter replied with a one-word answer: ”Yes.” Sauter, whose CBS career began in Chicago, acknowledged his warm reception by quoting Eric Sevareid: ”It`s great not to be forgotten when you`re gone, as opposed to being forgotten when you`re not gone.”
. . . A show-bizzybody at the luncheon, telling her table mates all she knew about Dotson`s and Webb`s morning talk show blitz, revealed that ”NBC met them at the plane with an airport.” Talk about sparing no expense.
INC.lings . . .
Bob Sirott and Carrie Cochran`s final ”Late and Live” airs Sunday night. He`s taking a position on ”West 57th,” the CBS network`s new ”Yuppie news magazine,” which begins in August, but he`s not moving to New York. . . . Channel 2`s Peter Lisagor awards score: Pam Zekman, 2; Walter Jacobson, 1; news team, 1. . . . Channel 5`s score: Mary Laney, 1. . . . Channel 7`s score: 0. . . . Friday birthdays: Dennis Hopper, 49; and Sugar Ray Leonard, 30. . . . Saturday birthdays: Pope John Paul II, 65; Reggie Jackson, 39;
Perry Como, 73; and Robert Morse, 54. . . . NBC News information manager Bill McAndrew and Patty Dorado, an account exec, will be married Saturday in St. Patrick`s Cathedral in New York. . . . Tickets go on sale Saturday for the July 7 Al Jarreau/David Sanborn show at the Rosemont Horizon. . . . Eight-foot-tall Cubs and White Sox baseball caps will be hoisted to the top of 446 E. Ontario on Monday at the building`s ”capping-off” ceremony and will remain there till the end of the baseball season.
