Arianna Huffington, 44, the outspoken Greek-born, Cambridge-educated, New Age-influenced wife of defeated California senatorial candidate Michael Huffington, is out to land a weekly TV show. She hopes to produce and serve as host of a half-hour program called Beat the Press, which will, she says, "expose the [media] biases, bloopers, toupees and agendas of the most persistent class of pests to ever plague the Republic: the American press." She wants the show to be "fun and feisty," complete with a regular segment called White House Suck-Up Watch.
Not out to win any Miss Congeniality awards, Huffington dismisses political pundits already on the tube as "supremely self-righteous" and "profoundly out of touch." What they need, she says, is "a squirt of seltzer water, a whoopie pillow, a banana cream pie right between the eyes." Metaphorically speaking, of course.
Huffington already has one believer: Superagent Ed Hookstratten, whose client list includes such media establishment regulars as Tom Snyder and Bryant Gumbel, has begun pitching Beat the Press to the networks and syndicators.
CHABLIS WILL BE SERVED
Count Demi Moore among the fans of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt's best-seller about spicy doings in Savannah, Ga. Moore, in Savannah shooting The Gaslight Addition, recently rounded up husband Bruce Willis and costars Melanie Griffith and Rosie O'Donnell for a visit to a local nightclub to catch the Lady Chablis, a drag queen who figures prominently in Garden. (Pocket Books has signed the performer to write an autobiography: Hiding My Candy.) Moore was so enchanted by Chablis's performance that she hired the Lady to entertain at Gaslight's Jan. 22 wrap party.
THE WIFE STUFF
Rufus, the 1970s R&B-pop group that scored hits with "Tell Me Something Good" and "Once You Get Started," plans a reunion album due in the summer from MCA. But onetime lead singer Chaka Khan will be fronting the band on only a few songs. Producer Andre Fischer, who was Rufus's original drummer, says Khan's limited participation will allow him to bring in "guest divas." One he is assured of signing is Natalie Cole—his wife. Fischer is also trying to persuade Whitney Houston, Anita Baker and Vanessa Williams to join the project.
WHAT'S THE LATEST?
Getting louder is the rumor rumbling around Hollywood that the 12-year romance between Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal, housemates and the parents of son Redmond, 10, is over. One source says the couple's relationship is "not all hearts and flowers. [The split] may not be official yet, but there is a serious problem."
Fawcett's rep, however, continues to maintain that everything's fine, that Fawcett and O'Neal are together in Los Angeles, and that Fawcett "is concerned" about the rumors because she believes they are being spread maliciously.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
