Phase One: Bobby Rush: Blank Panther Party leader, `60`s radical, urban militant.
Phase Two: Bobby Rush: 2d Ward alderman.
Phase Three: Ald. Bobby Rush: New chairman of the Chicago City Council`s Energy, Environmental and Public Utilities Committee.
Memo to Chairman Rush: Don`t you think you oughta pay your gas bill, now that you are City Hall`s new energy czar? The gas bill for $2,500 sent to you by Peoples Gas? INC. hears the bill is composed of a $1,900 nonpayment resulting in your gas being shut off April 14 at your house on South Calumet Avenue–and $600 in additional fees caused by the culprit who turned your gas back on without Peoples Gas approval. The gas company wants to know who tampered with your gas line.
THREE-ALARM FIRE . . .
— Alarm One: Media exposes a shocking shortage of city fire ambulances.
— Alarm Two: Chicago Fire Department places an order for new fire ambulances with the city Purchasing Department.
— Alarm Three: INC.`s ear to the City hall walls hears the purchasing department cancelled the order due to lack of minority participation in the contracting process. And that info comes via a top fire dog.
THE CAPONE PLOT . . .
Mama Miaaaaa!!!! Scoopsville: Guess who will be chopping off his ponytail, shaving his beard and hightailing it to Chicago in October? Aren`t you waiting with anxious and/or malodorous breath? It`s enough to make Meryl Streep weep. INC. hears that actor Robert DeNiro has just been signed to portray mobster Al Capone in Paramount`s film ”The Untouchables” currently being filmed here. And director Brian DePalma can`t wait to get his hands on him. DeNiro is currently playing a drug dealer in a New York play. Should slip into his next role easily, huh?
THE HARRISON SAGA . . .
INC. hears actor Rex Harrison, who has been living in London`s Ritz hotel, is ending his vagabond life and looking for a house on English soil. Sexy Rexy, of ”My Fair Lady” fame, claims he never has spent more than three months in one place in the last nine years, packs 42 suitcases–including a kitchen–wherever he goes, and wants a home with a fireplace where he can warm his slippers. Shades of Pygmalion? Nope. He told writer David Lewin his
(ohsomuchyounger) wife, Mercia, looks after his money, invests it and writes the checks. Oh, Professor Higgins.
THE POL MAUL . . .
— Budgetary battles–Isn`t Mayor Harold Washington guilty of the budgetary highjinks he laid on his predecessors? His 1987 preliminary budget shows $36 million for fines from parking and moving traffic violations. Yet, the 1986 budget has a $30 million budget estimate in the same category with only $6 million actually collected for the first half of 1986! So how are they gonna raise $24 million in the next six months? Could there posssibily be some fluff in the 1987 preliminary budget? Stay tuned.
— Didchanotice Dick Devine, longtime pal and associate of the Daley family, is the attorney handling challenges to the nonpartisan election referendum proposal? The proposal which, if passed, will enable everyone to run in an open primary. The drive which could enable Richie Daley to run for mayor and avoid being the spoiler for the second time. Isn`t Devine`s presence a little insurance for Daley to do just that? You bet.
FLUFF AND STUFF . . .
Sorry-To-Hear-It Department: Peggy Lipton and Quincy Jones are divorcing after 14 years of marriage and two children . . . Mark ”The Hunk” Harmon suffered a fractured arm when a horse fell on him during the filming of a Coors Beer commercial . . . Sean Penn and Dustin Hoffman have agreed to star in a film about a corrupt cop and his rookie partner. And who better to direct than Marty Brest, his first film since his super smash ”Beverly Hills Cop”
. . . INC. hears Penn`s pal/wife, Madonna, is so impressed with director Jim Foley, who directed her hubby in ”At Close Range,” that she has committed to star in his next flick without even reading the script. Wonder if there will be a part for poison Penn? . . . Actress Jodie Foster, a Yalie, has decided to make her first movie in years. She`ll star in a `60`s nostalgia piece . . . Are you a former prison guard or warden at Alcatraz? Well, David Copperfield wants you. The magician is planning to attempt an elaborate escape from the world-famous prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay . . . and he wants former guards to witness the escape and verify its authenticity.
INC.LINGS . . .
Pssstttt!!! A new tour of ”Camelot,” starring Richard Harris as King Arthur, will play the Chicago Theatre for a week beginning Nov. 11, replacing the Ben Vereen revival of ”Pippin,” which is shutting down on the road due to bad reviews. Subscribers to the Chicago Theatre three-play season will automatically get ”Camelot” tickets . . . Friday birthdays: Valerie Harper, 46; John Callaway, 50; Cindy Williams, 39; Little City`s Bob Dachman, 60;
restaurateur Tom Tunney, 31. . . . Saturday birthdays: Vera Miles, 56; Gene Kelly, 74; Barbara Eden, 52; Rick Springfield, 37; Shelley Long, 37; and Mark Russell, 54.
