Amid Atlanta`s 50th anniversary hoopla over ”Gone With the Wind” comes news that the Soviet Union has made piece-of-the-action overtures for the 1939 Civil War saga. The piece initiative portends a new movie audience of ”a hundred million people,” said a Turner Broadcasting spokesman. Gee, maybe afterward they`ll be ready for a celluloid version of ”War and Peace.”
JACKSON: DOPE IS THE WORST Drugs are more of a threat to blacks than the Ku Klux Klan ever was, says Rev. Jesse Jackson, who urged teens in Kansas City, Mo., to pay more attention to education to get ahead. ”The Ku Klux Klan and their rope don`t threaten us like people do with dope,” Jackson said at Westport High School. ”What difference does it make if the doors are wide open and you are too drunk to stagger through the door?” The school at which Jackson spoke is the site of an offer by Marion Laboratories founder Ewing Kauffman, owner of the Kansas City Royals, to pay college costs for 500 students if they stay off drugs, avoid parenthood, attend school regularly and graduate. Said Jackson: ”No one should have to beg you, no one should have to bribe you, no one should have to give you an apple to make you save yourself. Opportunity just gets you on the court, it doesn`t make you win.”
LOW-DOWN IN MOTOWN? If art lies in the eyes of the beholder, it is equally true that beholders can experience ”vision enhancement” after a telephone call from one to whom they are beholding. That`s what filmmaker Michael Moore is saying after Detroit`s Institute of Arts scheduled the movie premiere of his acclaimed ”Roger and Me.” The movie`s subject is the biggest of Motown bigwigs, General Motors chairman Roger Smith. He also is a trustee of the institute`s Founders Society and is a heavyweight donor. Moore`s comic documentary focuses on his three-year quest to convince Smith to visit Flint, Mich.-an ailing GM city that was to the Heartbeat of America what Chernobyl was to Ukrainian energy production. The institute denies it, but Moore thinks he became less after Smith suggested that ”Roger and Me” is a minimalist artistic expression.
NADIA FINDS THE HEARTBEAT A twist of fate evidently has Nadia Comaneci doing somersaults in Florida. The refugee gymnast from Romania was observed in Pompano Beach plopping down $20,000 in traveler`s checks to buy a new Chevy. ”She fell in love with it. In her country, all they have is stick shifts,” said salesman Thomas Martin, who steered Comaneci from a used Corvette to a new Camaro convertible on his first day on the job. Speaking of love, Comaneci remains shingled to married roofer Constantin Panait. They`re staying in a $130-a-night resort motel in Pompano. Where`s the money coming from? A British tabloid, say motel employees.
NEW `FAR SIDE` IS NEAR He`s back! He`s back! Gary Larson is back! Whoopdeedoo, the creator of
”The Far Side” is drawing again. Having recharged his batteries of the bizarre on a 14-month sabbatical, Seattle`s Steve Dahl of cartoonery begins work Jan. 1 for 900 newspapers, with new ”Far Side” cartoons five days weekly. ”I currently feel fresh and recharged, and a reduced workload I`m sure will play a big role in maintaining that feeling,” said Larson, who is scratching a workday from his workload. And what was the master of animal behavior and nerdy humor doing to recharge his batteries? He and his wife visited three highly-regarded animal parks-Africa, the Amazon and New York
(where he also studied jazz guitar).
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NEW YAK, NEW YAK Bumper sticker spotted on the back of a Coney Island garbage truck:
Double Your Rubbish Back If Not Satisfied. (Satisfied? In New York? They gotta be kidding.)