• March 02, 1987
• Vol. 27
• No. 9

Chatter

By Tim Allis

HOW LOW CAN HE GO? Investigating life-styles of the rich and famous, intrepid Robin Leach has flown in private jets and helicoptered onto sybaritic beachheads, but he has occasionally been brought low by circumstance. While he was interviewing Sophia Loren, the show's recording equipment broke down, and Loren went off to cook pasta for the crew. When Leach ventured into the kitchen, she insisted he get down on the floor for 20 minutes of stretching and flexing—her favorite exercise routine. Leach's other down-and-dirty episode was a bit trickier. Visiting Victoria Principal, he and his crew accidentally set off her security system. "Lasers came out of the walls," says Leach. "We had to lie on the floor under a crisscross of lasers while Victoria slithered across the floor to turn them off." Now that's a life-style.

DOES SHE HAVE A SISTER NAMED OHCUORG? It seems Oprah Winfrey's new company, Harpo Productions (Oprah spelled backwards), is designed to expand the actress and talk-show host's résumé" more than her purse. Winfrey told Adweek, "Right now I make a lot of money, and you can only buy so many towels and so many houses.... Money is not the issue. The purpose of the company is to invest in projects that we think are worthwhile." Winfrey wants to do something more challenging than the "black or fat" roles she says she is being offered now, although she is willing to make at least one exception. Says Oprah: "I'd like to do Dinah Washington...a great, great blues singer who had seven different husbands and used to sexually exhaust her men."

JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE: In his latest movie, From the Hip, Judd Nelson plays a freewheeling attorney. In real life the son of a lawyer, Nelson makes a strong case against being stigmatized as a member of Hollywood's Brat Pack, which he by now considers to be decidedly old. "Even the Indians have stopped talking about Custer's last stand," complains Judd. "The most reprehensible thing about it is that it portrays us as not being serious about our work. We're not ripping up bars, getting in fights, showing up late for work, then telling great stories about it on The Merv Griffin Show." Are there any veteran actors Nelson admires? "Ronald Reagan," he jokes. "He's got an awfully long-running show. But there are mixed reviews now." And like it or not, he has the part for another two years.

RUDE AWAKENING: Glitz-lit queen Judith Krantz, whose spicy best-sellers, including Scruples, Mistral's Daughter and I'll Take Manhattan, are too "adult" for many adults, discovered there are some things Mama doesn't know best. Prior to her death in 1980, her mother, Mary Tarcher, read and eventually enjoyed Krantz's second steamer, Princess Daisy, but not before receiving one of life's little shocks of non-recognition. "It took her a while to recover from the fact that her [then] 50-year-old daughter had sexual fantasies," explains Krantz. "When my book came out she had visions of leaving town. I'd been married almost 30 years, had two children, and she still didn't think I had any sexual experience."

BORN TO RUN: The 1988 presidential election is more than a year and a half off, but it's never too early for political endorsements. Perennial counterculture hero Abbie Hoffman is giving his to a guy with an already broad-based constituency. Sorry Gary Hart, but no. "We're going to hear a lot of talk about Lee Iacocca for President," Abbie told L.A. Style magazine. "But why not Bruce Springsteen? Let's draft Bruce. We don't need a President, we need a boss." According to the Constitution, Bruce qualifies: He is over 35 and was born in the U.S.A.