Washington’s power soirees, including the hallowed Gridiron dinner, are in danger thanks to the White House ethics police. Counsel Bernie Nussbaum said top staffers couldn’t attend the recent Washington Press Club Dinner as guests of journalists because of a rule against accepting gifts over $20. (Veterans of such dinners might question whether they’re worth 20 bucks.) The problem was finessed because the Press Club affair is run by a foundation. But media moguls who love to schmooze with the big boys at the Gridiron and other dinners could end up talking to the waiters instead of Mack McLarty and Robert Rubin.
Air wars
There’s no final word, but Jim Edgar’s troops are hoping the General Accounting Office report on a third airport will say Lake Calumet was chosen for political reasons and the best location would be one of the green-grass sites. Rep. George Sangmeister, who requested the report, wouldn’t mind that outcome either.
Willie’s World
Did Bill Clinton, who was so skillful at running his campaign, underestimate what it takes to run the government? It looks like it, says David Prosperi, the Board of Trade’s V.P. for communications, who was a deputy White House press secretary in the first year of Ronald Reagan’s administration. Clinton wanted to emulate Reagan’s fast start, but the new President has been sidetracked by the flap over gays in the military and appears caught up in minutiae. (No one could accuse the Gipper of being too involved with details.) In comparison, Reagan was on television his first week with his economic plan and got it through Congress by August.
A disarming report
Now that “The Fugitive” is being brought into the ’90s with a movie version starring Harrison Ford, the one-armed man is getting the advantage of the decade’s technology as well. The character is being played by Andreas Katsulas of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” who has been setting Trekkie hearts aflutter during his recent visits to Chicago’s Rehabilitation Institute. He’s been there for fittings for a myoelectric prosthesis, a medical device that wasn’t available when the TV series was filmed 30 years ago. The Rehab’s prosthetic shop also is creating a false “stump” that’ll be exposed in a fight scene when Katsulas’ prosthesis is torn off.
Techno trash part 2Clint Eastwood doesn’t need an electronic arm, but he does get a computer facelift in “In the Line of Fire,” the summer release in which he plays a Secret Service agent in the ’60s (just around the time “The Fugitive” was running on TV). Thanks to computer technology of the ’90s, Eastwood will look 30 years younger and will appear to arrive at the Dallas airport with President John F. Kennedy in actual news footage.
Reel news
A new special edition of “The Abyss” features some scenes that weren’t included in the movie’s theatrical release. . . . Jack Palancewill play a grizzled cop and Chevy Chase will play a frazzled father in “Cops and Robbersons,” a movie about a pair of police force veterans who are forced to live with a dysfunctional family in order to take out the suspected criminals who live next door. … Then there is one? A few months ago, there were three “Three Musketeers” movie projects in the works. Now Tri-Star has dropped out and Jon Peters’ “TM” project at Columbia is iffy, leaving Disney’s recently announced venture the only solid one of the bunch. It’ll co-star Charlie Sheen, Chris O’Donnell and Keifer Sutherland. . . . Go figure: “Blood In Blood Out,” a picture about gang violence in urban America, is getting its initial release in only three markets: Tucson, Las Vegas, and Rochester, N.Y.
Starbucks
Roll Call, the Capitol Hill rag, did a survey of which Hollywood stars gave what in the 1992 campaign. Some put their money where their mouth was. For instance, Dustin Hoffman gave $49,000 to Democrats. But Richard Dreyfuss, who was highly visible, gave $5,900. Candice “Murphy Brown” Bergen forked over $2,500 to a liberal PAC. And Alec Baldwin, who was at every inaugural party, gave $200 to the Dems.
Zoning, Chicago-style
At last week’s Chicago Plan Commission hearing on the Mayfair Hotel, Harry Manley called his opponent Jack Guthman, “the top zoning lawyer in the country”; former Chicagoan Richard Wade told the commission how they do it in New York; and Ald. Mary Ann Smith violated the unwritten rule and bucked Ald. Burton Natarus in his ward. No wonder the opponents lost.
INC.lings
Monday birthdays: Hildegarde, 87; Sherman Hemsley, 55; Princess Stephanie, 28; Don Everly, 56; Garrett Morris, 56; Stuart Whitman, 67; Renata Tebaldi, 71; Lisa Marie Presley, 25. . . . Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood connections weren’t lost on Caspar Weinberger. The former secretary of defense just signed on to be represented by the William Morris Agency in Los Angeles. And former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca just did the same.
