Money matters
For all the doomsaying you`ve been hearing about the city budget, INC. sources say that when an audit of city finances is finally released it will show a surplus, not a deficit. The audit was due out last week, but was delayed. And you don`t suppose the fact that the state legislature was pondering new moneys for the city and schools had anything to do with the delay, do you? Nah.
Legislative lunacy
Profiles in courage, part two: Democrats who favored a bill requiring that primary candidates for governor and lieutenant governor run together as a ticket (to prevent another LaRouchie candidate upset as occurred in 1986) are not speaking fondly of Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan, who worked hard to tube the bill. They`re noting that gubernatorial wanna-be Hartigan apparently thinks it`s better to avoid making a tough decision now than to risk having another looney on the ticket. Then again, he might feel real at home in such company. Shot and a bill
After both the state Senate and House adjourned Thursday evening, a number of legislators wandered over to a Springfield watering hole for some post-session libations. At least that`s where staffers, in need of signatures on conference reports, tracked them down to tend to business. . . . If Dick Orkin is looking for an understudy for his ”Chickenman” radio serial, he might ring up former state legislator and lobbyist Jim Houlihan, who was spotted clucking, flapping his arms and tipping his rear end toward the ceiling in the Springfield saloon owned by former State Rep. Sam Panayotovich. Who says government is serious business?
Say what?
Channel 7 political editor Hugh Hill was covering the final days of the legislature in Springfield when he got a little mixed up with his acronyms. Hill was overheard on a press room telephone telling his Chicago office last Thursday that he didn`t think the proposed gun ban would pass because ”You got to understand the IRA is awfully strong downstate.” And he was right-the ban didn`t pass, thanks to the NRA.
T-elling the T-ruth?
Whatever Mr. T paid (or was willing to pay) in parking ticket fines to get his Rolls-Royce de-Denver Booted was well worth the publicity he got out of it. Newspapers across the land carried T`s protestations-bolstered by a mayoral spokeswoman-that the unpaid parking tickets were not his. That means the big guy must just pay off his tickets right away, because INC. gets an awful lot of calls reporting T`s vehicles illegally parked.
TV tidbit
”Chicago Week in Review,” which premiered 12 years ago on Channel 11, is about to undergo two major changes. On Aug. 5, the show moves from Friday evenings to a new timeslot-actually two new timeslots. The first will be at 6 p.m. on Saturdays-where it`ll follow the well-rated ”Frugal Gourmet” and precede the well-rated ”McLaughlin Group.” (Bumped: the not-so-well-rated
”Sneak Previews.”) ”CWR” will air again on Sunday mornings at 11:30. The second change? The show will no longer be live; it`ll be taped at the regular Friday night time.
Reel news
Eddie Murphy showed up at the Los Angeles premiere for ”Do The Right Thing”- a magnanimous gesture, we think, since producer/director/star Spike Lee once said of Murphy that he hadn`t really done anything for blacks except to give jobs to some of his relatives. . . . Drive-in movie reviewer and good ole` boy Joe Bob Briggs must have a terrific agent. Although his role in
”Great Balls of Fire” is a small one (as a Nashville disc jockey who has only a few lines), his is the first name on the cast list in the printed credits for the movie-even before Dennis Quaid.
The career corner
Things could be looking up, career-wise, for Dick Van Dyke if everything falls into place on a project in the planning stage: a sequel to ”Mary Poppins”
with the original stars, Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. . . . INC. hears Cloris Leachman is being somewhat difficult in negotiations for ”Texasville,” Peter Bogdanovich`s sequel to ”The Last Picture Show.” Hard to figure what she`s using for leverage. . . . According to Monroe Anderson, former Mayor Gene Sawyer`s press aide, Sawyer`s latest possible job offer is some kind of deal as a trade representative for a company that sells gasoline on the
international market. And no, it didn`t strike us as making much sense either. INClings
Sunday birthdays: Maggie Daly, 73; Polly Holliday, 52; Ahmad Jamal, 58; Jimmy McNichol, 28; Ron Silver, 43; John Sununu, 50. . . . Channel 2`s Terry Savage just closed the deal with Longman Publishing for spring publication of a book on personal finance-”Money Talk: The Language of Bulls, Bears, and Chickens.” . . . Ed McManus will be leaving his post as an assistant financial editor at The Tribune to start work Aug. 1 as State`s Atty. Cecil Partee`s press secretary.
