Injured musician Rachel Barton is worried that a made-for-TV movie and instant book could be the unwanted outcome of her high-profile personal injury case.
Already, there have been three or four book inquiries and two made-for-TV proposals.
She is concerned that if she doesn’t agree to the projects, they’ll go forward anyhow, based on the long and full court record–and without her input or permission.
Meanwhile, her attorney, Robert Clifford, savoring the $29.6 million jury award for the accident that severed the violinist’s leg, says Barton has turned down interview requests from, among others, “Today,” “20/20,” “Inside Edition” and “Dateline.”
Clifford says she is limiting her interviews to music critics–an indication of how eager she is to get back to making music, not news.
After a vacation, she probably will sit down with advisers and examine publishing and video proposals–but is likely to say no to them all.
Linda Tripp’s dream job ends
For more than a year–since the Monica Lewinsky affair became public–the world’s worst best friend has been paid a government salary of $94,098 to “work at home.” Beginning Wednesday this “public affairs specialist” (you can say that again) has to show up at the office.
The office, however, is not the Pentagon where she worked before the scandal broke but exile in an obscure high-rise in suburban Rosslyn, Va., that houses the Defense Manpower Data Center.
Usually, that job title requires contact with the public, or, at the very least, reporters.
Her new duties, the Defense Department says, will not require her to talk to anyone outside the government. Instead, she will focus on “internal communications”–something, after her role in the Lewinsky drama, that she knows quite a bit about.
It’s a wrap
Normal movie directors, when they’ve finished toiling on their masterpieces, dump the finished product in a container and ship it to studio execs. If they’re feeling a little paranoid, a flunky hand-delivers the goods.
But there’s nothing normal about film folks’ favorite hermit, Stanley Kubrick. And, as anyone will tell you, he’s more than a little paranoid.
So Kubrick certainly wasn’t going to rely on FedEx to deliver “Eyes Wide Shut,” his hush-hush-don’t-tell-a-soul enterprise starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, to the big willies at Warner Bros.
So co-chair Terry Semel played messenger boy, hopping on a plane to London (Kubrick doesn’t believe in leaving home) to pick up the flick–after which he promptly hopped another plane and headed back to L.A.
The power of celebrity
With minutes to go until their long stint as emcees, director Edward Zwick and actress Virginia Madsen approached the bar in the ballroom of the snooty Ritz Carlton for a pitcher of water.
Nobody drinks for free, the Ritz bartender told the prestige duo.
But, protested Madsen and Zwick, we are co-hosting the event that is taking place in this very room–the Chicago Film Critics Awards.
Take it up with “The Captain,” sniffed the imperious drink slinger. Only The Captain can waive the water tariff.
Ten minutes later, the former Winnetkans Zwick (“Courage Under Fire,” “The Siege”) and Madsen (“Ghosts of Mississippi”) returned to their post. Still parched.
Short fuse, long memory
Texas Gov. George Bush Tuesday took the first step toward running for president and ex-New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu is going to do all he can to thwart his presidential hopes.
Inc. hears that Sununu, White House chief of staff during the Bush presidency, has never forgiven young George for his role in Sununu’s ouster from his cherished White House corner office–with patio.
The troll-like egomaniac Sununu is backing ex-veep Dan Quayle in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. The fact is that son Bush told Sununu what everybody in the White House had known for many, many months: Sununu’s high-handed style was hurting the president and that Sununu better jump before he was pushed. Sununu resigned from the White House the next day.
The good news for Bush II is that Sununu doesn’t have many friends left in New Hampshire.
Inc.-lings
Everybody say amen: “People say Chicago isn’t New York or L.A.,” says Joe Mantegna. “And I thank God every day that that’s true.” . . . Joan Cusack just signed on the dotted line for a 13-episode deal with ABC. She’ll star in an as-yet unnamed sitcom, which she insisted be filmed and set in Chicago. Apparently, Cusack agrees with Mantegna. . . . At the Chicago Film Critics Awards, Gene Siskel was saluted in a touching film video by Roger Ebert, while Billy Bob Thornton (Best Supporting Actor, “A Simple Plan”) and Steven Spielberg (Best Picture, “Saving Private Ryan”) dedicated their awards to our guy. . . . This postscript to the Utah bookstore that wouldn’t take President Clinton’s American Express card because it had just expired. Clinton now has a new card and, his spokesman says, “He won’t leave home without it.”
Air kisses
Tone-Loc, 33; David Faustino, 25; Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 37; Tim Kazurinsky, 49; Lee Radziwill, 66; Miranda Richardson, 41; Herschel Walker, 37.
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