Another chapter in the ABC`s of school reform: State Rep. Monique Davis
(D., Chicago) has emerged as the most outspoken voice on a House task force shaping a school reform bill. What`s she outspoken about? She`s leading the opposition to reform items like transferring authority away from the school board and down to the local school level. So? Rep. Davis has been a board employee since 1967. Does the word ”conflict” come to mind?
GRIDIRON GRIST . . .
– Nary a pol was spared a skewering Wednesday night at the 1988 Gridiron Dinner in Springfield, where members of the Illinois Legislative
Correspondents Association took to the stage and played the politicians they cover-for instance, Gov. Jim Thompson as the barkeep at ”Jeers Bar and Grill, where the elite meet to cheat,” and House Speaker Mike Madigan refusing to help Big Jim raise taxes and singing (to the tune of ”I am Woman”), ”I`m the Speaker, hear me roar, with numbers too big to ignore.” (Also hard to ignore: the bouncing motion of the $200 check Madigan aide Steve Brown wrote for eight tickets.) . . . Show stoppers: ”To All the Girls I`ve Hired Before,” a tribute to Cook County Board President George Dunne, and ”Born to be V.P.”-to the tune of ”Born in the U.S.A.”- a tribute to Thompson.
– The Golden Pickle Award, given each year in honor of a political faux pas, went to Jim and Brenda Edgar, ”The Ken and Barbie of State Politics.”
Mrs. Secretary of State was ticketed for losing her license plate renewal slip, and her husband, who`s in charge of such things, is such a straight shooter that he paid the $50 fine.
CAM-PAINS . . .
Jesse Jackson was 16 minutes late Monday night for his own $150,000 half- hour TV special the night before the California primary, and he didn`t do much better the next night. He got to the Los Angeles Hilton long after his alloted time for an interview with Tom Brokaw for NBC-TV`s election coverage, and he was two minutes late for Ted Koppel on ABC-TV`s ”Nightline.” Only CBS got him on time.
– So much for the classless Rainbow Coalition. While the masses were in the Hilton`s main ballroom for the Jackson election night party, and having a good time, a couple hundred of the Hollywood crowd and major contributors were in a separate, quieter room, personally escorted there by Jackson aides, so they wouldn`t have to mix with the common folk if they didn`t want to.
REEL NEWS . . .
In its first six days of release, ”Rambo III” brought in $21 million, so Sylvester Stallone`s salary is covered, anyway. . . . Bryan Brown and Tom Cruise slipped onto a Los Angeles soundstage late last month to re-shoot some footage for ”Cocktail,” the movie in which they play bartenders. . . . In
”Big Business,” which opens Friday, there`s a sight gag that happens so fast you may miss it if you`re not paying attention. So watch carefully when Bette Midler gets aggressive in hailing a cab and knocks a man to the ground; he`s financial columnist Louis Rukeyser. . . . Danny Aiello, who played a hit man in ”Radio Days,” will play a mafia don in ”Next of Kin.” . . . It`s CBS/Fox Home Video, not Lorimar, that distributes ”Friendly Persuasion.”
. . . Chicago`s Christopher O`Donnell, who just graduated from Loyola Academy, just got a three-picture deal for Warner Brothers. His first role will be as Jessica Lange`s son in ”Men Never Leave.”
TELE-VISIONS . . .
Pass the Valium at Fox TV: In the latest Nielsen ratings, the network`s shows came in at Nos. 59, 68, and 71 through 77. . . . The executive producer of the Aug. 28 Emmy awards telecast will be Lorne Michaels, former producer of ”Saturday Night Live.” He also coauthored and produced ”Three Amigos,”
but that apparently wasn`t held against him. . . . The winner of a local Emmy for children`s programming was a show that was aired by Channel 2 on the last day of eligibility-at 2 in the morning (when lots of kids are watching). The show: ”Nothing is Simple.”
INC.LINGS . . .
Thursday birthdays: Michael J. Fox, 27; Charles ”Stormy” Bidwill, 60;
Bob Cummings, 78; Nancy Sinatra, 48; Les Paul, 73. . . . Former Chicagoan Franne Golde and producer Paul Fox married last week in Los Angeles. . . . It`s Jim Krag, not Crag, who`ll appear in ”Burn This” on Broadway this month.
