Elysian Fields
Sally Field, named Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for Norma Rae, won't appear in the upcoming sequel to Smokey and the Bandit, thanks to her sweetheart Burt Reynolds. How's that? "It was my decision," says Burt, "and a very unselfish one. She'd probably do it if I asked her to, but after Norma Rae she should only do important things. No one should take a backward step." So why's he doing the sequel? "I promised," says Burt, and besides, "Sally's got the stuff to wait it out three years for the right project. I'm not built that way."
The Last to Know
Although only last year Washington party girl Tandy Dickinson was still singing the praises of her vanished lover, Korean influence peddler Tongsun Park ("He showed me fascinating things—I respected him"), she's changed her tune. She's suing him in Washington, D.C. superior court to recover a $190,000 loan. "Frankly," she told Washingtonian magazine, "he brainwashed me, just like one of those pathetic Moonies. I want the women in Washington to know that they can be conned by the likes of a Tongsun Park. I should know—I was closer to him for five years than to anyone in the world."
Resting His Case
Even in the riotous '60s, when he was president of embattled San Francisco State, S.I. Hayakawa was known for his remarkable ability to fall asleep at staff meetings. Later, after being elected senator, he dozed off during an orientation meeting for freshman legislators in 1976. Now maybe he's at it—or out of it—again. California's other senator, Democrat Alan Cranston, says that during President Carter's Senate briefing on SALT, "Hayakawa's eyes were closed and his head was nodding. Others present allege he was snoring." Others also allege that he snoozed during the President's conference on the gas crisis with Gov. Jerry Brown. Hayakawa, a 72-year-old semanticist, denies he was sleeping—but says he closed his eyes for a few minutes at the energy meeting because he was bored.
Award Wieners
At a Washington luncheon for one of the products he plugs—this one a video cassette reading-improvement program for adults—comedian Bill Cosby passed up the filet mignon and asparagus vinaigrette while waiting for a driver to appear with his food. No, it wasn't seaweed soup or alfalfa sprouts with ground ginseng. It was semihot smoked sausages from the local Ben's Chili Bowl, links with the comedian's past. "I was stationed here with the Navy 22 years ago and every payday we'd head for Ben's," Cosby explains. "I still love them."
A Lesson Learned
Earlier this year, amid a flurry of tears and fond farewells, The Waltons' Ma, Michael Learned, quit after seven seasons, citing the show's exhausting schedule. Now, after only one five-week job (a play, Dear Liar) in six months—"I've been cleaning my closets out a lot"—Learned has re-enlisted for another 10 Waltons episodes next season. "When my kids were young," says Michael, 40, "I could look forward to seeing them when they came home from school. Now I just sit around and think myself to death. 'Mind bleep' is another term for that." Certainly not one that Ma Walton would use.
Childhood Memories
Roman Polanski says he'll return to America to face a possible prison sentence for seducing a 13-year-old, but does not deny that young women still interest him. (He insists, however, that his relationship with 18-year-old Natassja Kinski, the star of his upcoming Tess of the d'Urbervilles, is strictly professional.) "Young girls are more beautiful," says Polanski, 45. "I've had this fascination since I was 8. Back then it was more dramatic because when I was 8, the girls who interested me were even younger."
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