Radio daze
A float sponsored by the Score (WSCR), originally scheduled to be 100th in line in the St. Patrick’s Day parade, wound up dead last-but at least not dead. The radio station’s entry almost didn’t get to participate because of a dead battery, but the day was saved when a bystander helped out by coming up with a pair of jumper cables. The bystander: Steve Crocker of WBBM-AM.
Fair’s fair
U.S. Rep. Cardiss Collins is so supportive of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament that she delivered remarks Tuesday on the House floor encouraging equality in men’s and women’s sports, urging that colleges be willing to spend the same amount of money to promote women’s and men’s teams. To that end, it seems only fair that staffers in Collins’ Washington office also have a $1-an-entry pool for the men’s tournament-as long as one is in place for the women’s playoff.
How about doofus testing?
When state Rep. Shirley Jones (D-Chicago) reintroduced a proposal Wednesday that Illinois House and Senate members undergo drug testing, the resulting Judiciary Committee interchanges could have been carried on the Comedy Channel. Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Troy) argued that test results could become a political tool (“I can see the direct mail now”) and declared Jones’ proposal “heinous.” She responded by suggesting that drugs might have been involved in a fight that broke out in the General Assembly chambers last year, adding that it isn’t fair that lawmakers are exempt from testing. Stephens retorted: “Why don’t we give IQ tests?” Jones shot back, “I think you need one!” Chairman Lou Lang (D-Skokie) offered his opinion that the 1992 fight was not because of drugs, but “the pictures were great.” No vote was taken. God bless America.
Musicmania
The folks associated with this year’s Lollapalooza 3 festival apparently are counting on the past to sell the future. Tickets for the July 3 event at the World Music Theatre go on sale Saturday, even though the eight or 10 bands that’ll make up the show haven’t been announced. But INC. hears that two are definite: Alice in Chains and Grammy winner Arrested Development. Sources say this year’s festival will be “much more alternative and less poppy” than last year’s.
The ratings game
When a restored director’s cut of the 1969 film “The Wild Bunch” was submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America for a rating, it got an NC-17. But since director Sam Peckinpah has been dead since 1984, someone else will have to make the cut on his cut. . . . The script for “Sliver,” the movie that Sharon Stone and Billy Baldwin are filming, originally called for some degree of your basic full-frontal male nudity. Sources report that the degree of FFMN (which can be problematic in terms of ratings) has been cut to zero.
News commentary
When the ABC-TV network needed a local reporter to file a Tuesday night report on the Paxton Hotel fire for “World News Tonight,” Jim Rosenfield was called in on his day off to handle the story. The payoff: a personal post-newscast phone call from anchor Peter Jennings, complimenting him on the piece. . . . Over at Channel 2, where the cosmetic overhaul continues, a highly placed news guy was recently overheard extolling the credentials of a new female hire. Said he: “Just wait till you see her in leather.”
Cops and cowboys
Double duty: A company called Nu-Image did the old filming-two-movies-at-once trick and offered “Cyborg Cop” and “Cyborg Cop II” for sale at the American Film Market. With minor changes, the movies even had the same advertising poster. . . . What Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” hath wrought: After a decadeslong dry spell for movie westerns, several dozen are in the Hollywood pipeline. Among them: “Hell and High Water” (a script that has been around so long the screenwriter is now dead), “Tombstone,” “Pancho’s War,” “Bitter Roots” and “Geronimo.”
Dueling fundraisers
The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence’s Second City fundraiser, with Jim and Sarah Brady as special guests, will be April 19, not next Monday. . . . In the meantime, that event has the folks at the Chicago-based (and similar-sounding) Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence feeling that the CPHV is trying to steal its thunder. For several years, the ICAHV has held its annual fundraiser at Second City (and even honored the Bradys one year), but this year’s event will be a Palmer House dinner April 22 honoring Cook County State’s Atty. Jack O’Malley on April 22.
INC.lings
Thursday birthdays: Marie Schoop, 101; Irene Cara, 34; Kevin Dobson, 49; George Plimpton, 66; Charley Pride, 54; Wilson Pickett, 52; John Updike, 61; Peter Graves, 67. . . . Jerry Lewis is taking his act on the road and will stop May 21-23 at the Drury Lane Oakbrook.
