Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti has his ways to keep his voice healthy. He has banned strongly scented flowers ”because of the pollen” and strong disinfectant from his hotel room at Loch Lomond, Scotland. Journalists expecting to attend his news conference Tuesday are barred from getting any closer than 6 feet from the 300-pound tenor lest they pass on germs that could give him a throat infection and thus affect his concert Wednesday in Glasgow. PERFECT FOR THE GARDEN If you notice a half-ton, 3-foot-high and 18-inches-wide black granite statue of the ancient Egyptian war goddess Sekhmet in your neighborhood, call the cops. Until this past weekend, Sekhmet-depicted with a lioness` head and woman`s body-graced an open-air temple in Luxor, Egypt. Six night guards at the temple have been arrested, because a crane and a truck were needed to move the statue.
HERO`S WELCOME FOR `DUKE` Students at Bowdon High School chanted ”Duke! Duke” to welcome John Wayne Thompson, 18, back to classes Monday in Bowdon, N.D. Thompson`s arms were ripped off in a farm accident, then reattached by doctors. ”I`d just like to say thanks for letting me come back. It`s good to be here,” he said at a rally. The youth has regained partial use of his arms but still requires extensive physical therapy. His mom, Karen Thompson, says Duke has had a ”few rough nights” since returning home. ”The senior boys are kind of going to keep an eye on him for a while,” she says.
PRINCE CHARLES SAYS CHEESE Regulation is afflicting Europe ”like an uncontrollable bacteria,”
threatening Europe`s food and drink, says Britain`s Prince Charles. Visiting Paris to honor Anglo-French friendship, he complained about European Community proposals to regulate soft cheeses like France`s Brie de Meaux and Camembert, made from unpasteurized milk. ”The very phrase `minimum hygiene standards`
should strike terror” in the hearts of the French, he says in a speech prepared for the France-Grande Bretagne Association. And casting digestive caution to the wind, he goes on to say, ”Life is not worth living unless you have a choice of all the gloriously unhygienic things which mankind-especially the French portion of it-has lovingly created.”
COMING INTO MONEY, MAYBE In the latest phase of the trial involving columnist Art Buchwald and his partner, Alain Bernheim, versus Paramount Pictures, $10 million was suggested by the pair`s lawyer for their ”Coming to America” movie idea. No, no, says Paramount`s attorney. He says the studio will contend that the value of their 2 1/4-page idea was minimal and that Buchwald and Bernheim deserve no more than $300,000 combined. FYI, Eddie Murphy earned about $24.6 million for his work in the 1988 comedy about an African prince`s New York City adventures, and director John Landis took home about $6.2 million.
