One of the key developers welshing on his promise to preserve the facade of the landmark McCarthy Building at Dearborn and Washington Streets is Mayor Harold Washington`s good friend Bernard Weissbourd, the guy heading up the city`s plan to build a West Side stadium for the Chicago Bears. Weissbourd is getting a reputation for making promises he doesn`t keep. Folks are still waiting for the six-acre park that the city was supposed to get in return for helping Weissbourd build Illinois Center. Does the word ”pattern” come to mind?
THE DUMPY 43D . . .
Before things get out of hand (like they did on the South Side), Ald. Ed Eisendrath should check out the illegal dump in his 43d Ward. It`s right at the corner of Willow Street and Clybourn Avenue, and folks are wondering what may lay hidden besides the rusting cars and piles of trash.
POLITICAL SHORTS . . .
— The Bush bandwagon: Lt. Gov. George Ryan and U.S. Rep. Lynn Martin
(R., Ill.) will be introduced to the media Sunday as state co-chairpersons for Vice President George Bush`s presidential campaign. Meanwhile, Ryan`s boss –Gov. Jim Thompson–has been invited to Bush`s summer house in Kennebunkport, Me., next month so Bush can finalize the guv`s support.
— Neighborhood news: U.S. Rep. Marty Russo (D., Ill.) just moved into a fabulous new South Holland home that INC. sources say cost a cool $300,000. Minor problem: Russo`s new neighbors are very Republican, so he`s going to need to be real neighborly if he wants to carry his home precinct in his next election.
— Smoke signals: Cook County Commissioner Joe Mathewson will conduct a benchmark survey later this month to test the political vulnerability of Cook County State`s Atty. Rich Daley. INC.`s time–and money–saving answer: No sweat for Richie–if Mathewson`s the candidate Daley has to fend off.
STAR TRACKS . . .
INC. hears the original album cover photo for Michael Jackson`s ”Bad”
album had to be scrapped and reshot because it was decided that Michael looked too effeminate. Imagine that. . . . Tina Turner, who`s appearing at Poplar Creek and Alpine Valley next month, will probably be back in town for indoor shows before the end of the year. . . . Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep joined a small group (which didn`t include his main squeeze Anjelica Huston and her main husband, Don Gummer) for dinner at Morton`s in L.A. last week, and the fact that they left together didn`t help to quell rumors of an, um, relationship. . . . Joan Rivers reportedly has told friends that her late husband, Edgar Rosenberg, just wasn`t the same since his 1984 open-heart surgery, during which he`d had an ”out-of-body” experience that he had found extremely disturbing. Rosenberg committed suicide last week.
REEL NEWS . . .
Director Mike Hodges says he is unhappy with the way ”A Prayer for Dying” turned out (something about the editing and the music), and he wants his name taken off as director of the Mickey Roarke movie. Sounds like another project for Allen Smithy, a fictional character whose name has ended up as the director on more than one movie because the real director disassociated himself from it. . . . Sidney Pollack, whose directing projects run the range from ”Tootsie” to ”Out of Africa,” has purchased the movie rights to
”50,” Avery (”Kramer vs. Kramer”) Fisher`s story of a divorced custodial father who turns 50. . . . Ted Turner, the world`s all-time biggest ”Gone With the Wind” fan (one of his Atlanta theaters runs nothing else), just made a trade with CBS, which had the rights to run ”GWTW” until almost the end of the century. They`re trading for ”The Wizard of Oz,” which was one of the movies Turner got when he bought MGM for its film library.
NEITHER RAIN, NOR SNOW . . .
Congratulations to Suzan Rohe and Marianne Lombard of Chicago and Mike Mendrys of Highland Park: You had all the correct answers in the Tribune`s
”Beat Siskel” contest for the 1987 Oscars. Unfortunately, the post office didn`t deliver your letters (and 596 others postmarked March 26) until Aug. 18. Better luck next year.
INC.LINGS . . .
Milt and Judi Bloome-Pappas are getting married Oct. 25. . . . Wednesday birthdays: Willie Shoemaker, 56; Ed Kelly, 63; Jill St. John, 47; WLUP-FM`s Buzz Kilman, 41; composer ”Muddy” Mitch Donars, 35; producer Cindy Patrasso, 34. . . . Lt. Gov. George Ryan will be installed as chairman of the National Association of Lieutenant Governors at the group`s Aug. 28 meeting in Burlington, Vt. . . . Forget the names, because we`d hate to see somebody out of work just for being nice and folksy, but a Tuesday call to directory assistance for the office number of a state official elicited the following delightful response: ”Why, that`s my cousin! Here`s the number, and you just tell him I said hello.”
NO RESPECT . . .
When Republican National Committee political director Chris Bowman was in town last week to meet with his political operatives, he got a lesson in how local GOPers are used to being treated. His illegally parked car was towed by police.
