The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, after admitting that it had "failed miserably" at persuading TV and movie sources to cough up $250,000 to rebuild the famous HOLLYWOOD hillside sign (slated to be demolished unless repaired), got a partial reprieve—from rocker Alice Cooper. Cooper pledged $27,000 (and promised to buttonhole other musicians) on the condition that the money be used to rebuild the second "O"—washed out by winter rains—"in memory of Groucho Marx."
Fizzle
Truth-in-advertising laws won't be invoked, but Britishers are chuckling about new TV blurbs in which straw-thin model Twiggy coos that she's become so skinny as to be almost invisible, thanks to Schweppes Slimline Shandy beverage. The irony: Just as the $800,000 campaign hit the airwaves, Twiggy discovered she was preggers.
In the Pits
Much of the counterpoint during the London Royal Opera Company's rehearsals wasn't called for in Verdi's Luisa Miller score. American conductor Loren Maazel, upset with what he considered the orchestra's lackluster musicianship, barked (fortissimo): "This isn't music-making—this is no damn good!" To which an orchestra member rejoined (sotto voce): "If you got off your ass and conducted properly, we might play better." Returned Maazel (con moto): "I am one of the four greatest conductors in the world, and I will not be spoken to like that." At that, the orchestra stalked out. Coda: Miraculously, harmony was eventually restored, and Luisa Miller opened to resounding bravos.
Gross Encounters
Jack Webb, the former gumshoe who now puts out NBC's Project UFO series, keeps up the morale of his Mark VII production staffers by drinking with them a couple of hours a day after work. "It's a way for us to cross-pollinate ideas," he says. Has he ever seen a UFO? "I've seen all sorts of things coming out of bars on Saturday nights, but never a UFO." When NBC-TV President Bob Mulholland asked him why UFOs are sighted only in rural areas, Webb, whose research is impeccable, replied, "If they tried to go into New York, they'd end up stacked over JFK for three hours."
Dr. Dealgood
Acerbic economist Eliot Janeway has a novel plan to lower OPEC oil prices, which he estimates are eight times their market value. At an American Medical Association luncheon in St. Louis, Janeway advised members to hold an emergency convention with health representatives from oil nations and warn them, " 'We're going to charge you seven times what we charge American people.' Rub it into them by over-billing them. You'll watch that price of oil go down, you'll see that dollar go up."
X-Posed
Well, what about nudity in Hollywood? "I'll tell you this about nudity in Hollywood," huffs Coming Home's Bruce Dern. "Whenever there's going to be any, they put up 'Closed Set' signs so that anybody who isn't involved with the scene isn't permitted on the set. Well, I go and take the signs down." Uh, why? "I got into this business because I wanted to be a communicator, and to be a communicator you have to entertain, and to entertain you have to have people there. If you're an actor you do what's valid—or else you'd better get into another business."
Furthermore
•The tersest and most famous acting advice may be Spencer Tracy's ("Just know your lines and don't bump into the furniture"), but Michael (Alfie) Caine—soon to be seen in Hollywood's bee movie, The Swarm—says his most useful tip came from pal John Wayne: "Talk low, talk slow and don't say too much."
•If it's the thought that counts, then even Debby (You Light Up My Life) Boone is in trouble. Introduced to 150 honor students convened in Owensboro, Ky. as a Bible-believing Christian who neither drinks, smokes nor swears, she was quizzed about the last. "Well," ' fessed Debby, "at least I never swear out loud."
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