At its big year-end luncheon, the Hollywood Women's Press Club gave 1979 Golden Apple awards (which honor the year's personalities or performances of greatest impact) to Alan Alda and Jill Clayburgh, who beat out the likes of Burt Reynolds and Donna Summer. Top new discoveries, the Tinseltown mavens said, were Dudley Moore, for years a leading British comic, and Mariette Hartley, most celebrated for her Polaroid spots with James Garner. The 1979 Sour Apple for the star who "most believes his or her own publicity" went to John Travolta, who snatched victory from Chuck (The Gong Show) Barris. Previously awarded to Jane Fonda and Frank Sinatra, among others, for poor cooperation with the press, the Sour Apple comes with its own built-in compliment. It goes only to stars, says a club member, who are "big enough to take it."
A Loan Together
Barbara Walters was flying from Washington to New York when she bumped into former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Arthur Burns, who asked the million-dollar newscaster for a $20 loan because he was short on cash. He got the dough and a little guff too. Teased Barbara: "So that's how tight money is these days!" She demanded interest. Burns replied: "You'll receive the highest percentage return plus the 2 percent assigned to bad interest risks." A week later he mailed her a personal check for $25.50.
Glitterati
Panic might strike the world's chic watering spots once composer Carol Connors' story gets out. Carol went swimming in posh Cancun, Mexico wearing a bikini and a gold chain around her waist that best beau Bob Culp had given her. Barracudas, she discovered, were attracted by the sparkle and began circling around. "I was terrified," she says. "I never thought I'd ever want to take that chain off—but I wanted to then." Later she swam again, with the keepsake pushed down into her bathing suit bottom. "But that didn't work," she says. "It was a string bikini and it didn't hide the chain." Or much of Carol, either.
A-Courting
Singer Mel Tormé's new flame is lady lawyer Ali Severson and they met in the most Hollywood way. Mel was struggling through one of the 22 hearings leading up to his divorce from third wife Janette Scott. "I was feeling terribly distressed and depressed, when this woman handed me a card and said she was divorced too and if I wanted someone to talk to, the card had her phone number on it." Severson was in court observing; she has since passed the bar. From Tormé comes a warm thought for the new year: "Even out of bad comes good."
Furthermore
•After suddenly switching her support from Carter to Kennedy, Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne is heading an Illinois-for-Kennedy campaign that's a shambles, and even the insiders are snickering. Whispered one Byrne aide: "It's the only campaign operation in town with an unlisted number."
•It wasn't just concern over his image that made Leonard Nimoy reluctant to return to his old TV role as the pointy-eared Spock in Star Trek—The Motion Picture. Says William Shatner, who plays Admiral Kirk in the film, "The very act of putting on those plastic ears is very painful. They have to be glued to the back of the head—and he has the scar tissue to prove it."
•With just one starring role ("10") under her tiny belt, fresh new sex goddess Bo Derek has upped her price to a million bucks a movie. The realistic Bo doesn't speak of the art of acting. "My ambition," she says, "is to make as much money as I can in the next three years. Then I'd like to quit films and retire to a ranch with [hubby] John [Derek]-and have a baby."
CELINE’S INFERTILITY STRUGGLE: MY PRIVATE HEARTBREAK
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