Gentlemen, start your gas guzzlers. Earth Day is barely out of reverse and already the Indy 500 is countering with a big wheel. Why, it`s Vice President Dan Quayle, the environmental president`s spare tire, who has agreed to serve as grand marshal for the Indy parade on Memorial Day weekend. Quayle, a Hoosier and fan of the 500, is the first VP to accept the honor.
SHILL SCREAM SQUELCHED The big stink over TV-like commercials on the big screen is beginning to turn fragrant. Warner Brothers has joined Walt Disney Studios in banning non- movie advertising at theaters showing its films. A spokesman cited viewer resentment, which has triggered prolonged booing in many theaters. Said Robert Friedman, Warner`s publicity president, ”It`s an appropriate time for the change.” The restriction takes effect with ”Gremlins II.”
AND WHERRRRE`S JOHNNY? With Johnny Carson earning an estimated $40 million annually, first ex-wife Joan thinks it is time to renegotiate the $13,500 in annual alimony she settled for in 1963. Saying she is unemployed and living in a small Manhattan residential hotel, she has asked a New York judge to boost her alimony to $120,000. ”I`m like many women of my age with no way of earning a living,” said Joan Carson, 63. ”I don`t want to get rich. . . . I am simply forced into this situation.” Her three adult sons each receive $50,000 a year from their father, she said, but she is not close to them and hasn`t spoken to her former husband and high-school sweetheart ”in many, many years.” Carson reportedly pays second ex-wife Joanne $75,000 a year; his third ex-wife, Joanna, won a $27 million lump-sum settlement. The entertainer currently is married to Alex Maas. He was served with court papers Friday in Los Angeles. He is to respond by May 1.
JIMI MISSED THIS ONE If you have any spare change left from your Ex-cesses, here`s music to your ears: For a mere $114,000 or so, you could be the owner of a genuine Jimi Hendrix guitar that somehow survived his smashing stage successes. The Fender Stratocaster, set for auction by Sotheby`s in London, was used by Hendrix to play the ”Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock in `69. A left-hander who played upside down and with his teeth, Hendrix was considered a musical genius of the psychedelic generation. His schtick included smashing or setting afire his guitars. Strung out on drugs, he died in 1970.
LIZ TAYLOR HOSPITALIZED In Santa Monica, Calif., actress Elizabeth Taylor remains hospitalized for pneumonia. Taylor, 58, entered Freeman Marina Hospital on April 10 with what was characterized as ”a severe sinus infection.” Over the weekend, her condition worsened. Wearing an oxygen mask, attached to several tubes and strapped to a stretcher, she was taken by ambulance to nearby St. John`s Hospital and Health Center, which is known for its alcoholism treatment program. The actress, in a statement released Tuesday by her publicist, said: ”I would like to dispel the plethora of rumors that have been circulating that I have an AIDS-related condition. I feel it is important that people should not be afraid to be tested for AIDS. I have an annual physical and have been tested for the disease and the test results are negative.”
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