Bono will give Christy away in the name of love
Christy Turlington is having Bono do more than sing at her wedding. According to Fashion Wire Daily, the supermodel, set to wed actor/director Ed Burns this summer, asked the U2 singer to walk her down the aisle as her father, Dwain, died of lung cancer in 1998. An honored Bono reportedly accepted the invitation immediately. Bono and wife Ali have been friends with Turlington for some time, certainly longer than the three months that the couple dated before getting engaged. Turlington and Burns will reportedly marry in June, either in San Francisco or Italy.
AND NOW, THE TARGET PRACTICE COMPETITION: Miss Israel will be going ballistic at the Miss Universe contest on May 11. Ilanit Levy, an 18-year-old soldier from Haifa, will show what fashionable women are wearing nowadays on the battlefield a bulletproof gown. Tel Aviv designer Galit Levi has dressed the two previous contestants with one dress featuring the faces of Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton and last year, for the first Arab Miss Israel, a dress with a red Star of David design.
This year’s number is silk, embroidered with diamonds and pearls and covered by an army-issue, diamond-decorated flak jacket. Galit explained that the dress sends out a message that everyday life should go on despite renewed violence in the region. What next, a Kevlar bathing suit? Accurate missile firing for the talent competition? We can’t wait to hear what Miss Israel says in the question-and-answer period.
SMACKDOWN, THE BALLROOM DANCE: When Frank Sinatra appeared at the 3,600-seat auditorium in Times Square’s Paramount Building, hysteria reigned. Now, hysteria of a different sort comes to the New York landmark thanks to the World Wrestling Federation Entertainment. WWF is spending $7.5 million to rebuild the marquee and arch of the 1926 five-story building, whose theater became a dull subdivision of offices after 1964. About 400 lights will spell out “Paramount” above the arch and the WWF logo will be stomped right at the crown of the marquee. The gateway, slated for June completion, will lead to the WWF’s store and restaurant.
“It will add to the entertainment value of the company,” said Kenton C. Jenkins, vice president and general manager of WWF New York. “We’re building it right, maintaining it right, and it will not come down again.” The marquee will be strong enough to hold a cantilevered stage, where Jenkins envisions Dick Clark standing at New Year’s Eve. Then, Chyna can leap from the giant descending ball and slam him into the next millennium.
HEY, PUT THIS ON “COPS” WHERE IT BELONGS: Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is once again rampaging in the china shop of the art world again, but this time not over liberties with religious or sexual themes. He and the police union are criticizing an exhibit of photographs and tape recordings of police brutality cases.
“Witness: Perspectives on Police Violence” includes pictures of the Bronx building where Amadou Diallo was gunned down by four officers and the Brooklyn station house where Abner Louima was tortured. Giuliani spokeswoman Sunny Mindel says the display ignores officers’ good works, such as cutting down the murder rate where the city-funded Bronx Museum of the Arts resides. Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association spokesman Joe Mancini puts it more directly: “It’s a disgrace that the Bronx museum considers these cop-bashing enterprises art.”
Au contraire, naysay the husband-and-wife art team Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry. McCallum insist the work isn’t “anti-cop” but speaks “to a community that can relate to racial profiling and feeling a more heavy-handed police.” The art criticism flared up after the museum party that featured the book “Zero Tolerance: Quality of Life and the New Police Brutality in New York City,” a collection of essays about alleged police brutality. “It’s not an anti-police book,” said co-author and NYU doctoral candidate and Andrea McArdle. “It’s an anti-police brutality collection This is what’s happening in our world. Artists’ jobs are to reflect the culture, to reflect the times.”
Birthdays: Actor Hugh O’Brian (76), actor Don Adams (75), actor-comedian Dudley Moore (66), actress Elinor Donahue (64), actor Tim Curry (55), pop singer Mark “Flo” Volman of The Turtles; Flo and Eddie (54), tennis player Sue Barker (45), actress Ashley Judd (33), pop singer Bekka Bramlett (33), actor Courtland Mead (14).
Today’s People Column was compiled by Vera H-C Chan from staff and wire reports. Comments? Write to us c/o the Times, P.O. Box 8099, Walnut Creek, CA 94596-8099. Or call 925-943-8262, fax 925-943-8362, or e-mail spin@cctimes.com.