Princess Stephanie's Hollywood Babylon vacation is something not to write home about. It seems the Grimaldi Girl had created more scenes than Louis B. Mayer. The latest one took place at Spago, the super-chic eatery, where the Princess was seen locked in a passionate embrace with Frenchman Mario Oliver, co-owner of L.A.'s Club Vertigo. But in the Hollywood spirit of "Don't look—book!" Bill Sammeth, Joan Rivers' manager and executive producer of her talk show, lunged for the phone to try to reach Rivers; he wanted Joan to drop by mid-embrace to ask the Princess to go on the show. Meanwhile, it was a Lowe blow for Rob, who had expected to escort Stephanie to a Tom Hayden political do. (Neither wound up going.) One person who is happy is paparazzo Phil Ramey, who is selling shots he took of the unsuspecting Princess as she sunbathed nude in a Beverly Hills backyard. Is there a series in this, or what?
While network censors in the U.S. concern themselves merely with sex, drugs and violence, it was the sight of a fully exposed can of V-8 juice and other brand-name products that forced British TV censors to ban David Byrne's Talking Heads video song Love for Sale. The clip, from Byrne's movie True Stories, cannot be shown in Britain because of laws prohibiting the highlighting of commercial products in something other than a commercial. An exec with Byrne's record company says, "Knowing David, I doubt he'll make a new video for it."
Bruce Springsteen is apparently the No. 1 singer among Italy's criminal element. Last Oct. 30, a truck carrying 15,000 copies of Bruce's new five-record live album was hijacked near Lake Como. The truck was on its way from Holland, where the records were pressed, to Milan, where they were to go on sale Nov. 10. Italian police are mum, but Bruce's record distributor says another 15,000 were shipped "by a different means of transportation."
Sir Laurence Olivier's role as a faded Edwardian music hall comedian in the PBS miniseries Lost Empires was more pathetic than he thought. In an attempt to lighten up his character, 79-year-old Olivier—to the surprise of cast and crew—dropped his trousers during one of his scenes. "He was trying to find a way to be funny," says director Alan Grint. The bottom line? Olivier's interpretation ended up on the cutting room floor.
It may not be exactly a May-December romance, but Robert Wagner's knockout daughter Katie, 22, feels compelled to explain her romance with Dweezil Zappa, newly 17. "I've never gone with a guy who was more together, and I've always gone out with older guys before this," says Wagner. "I'm crazy about him." Zappa is no novice with older women: He has dated Molly Ringwald, 18, and Virginia (Electric Dreams) Madsen, 24.
Hollywood animal handler Jim Picciolo, 34, who tamed the reptile on the cover of Alice Cooper's new Constrictor album, says he was done in by a snake in the grass. Summoned to the office of MCA records head Irving Azoff, Picciolo says Azoff's assistant asked him to present a gift-wrapped boa constrictor "as a practical joke" on behalf of Azoff and his wife, Shelli, to Michael Lippman, who manages Melissa Manchester. The oversize card read: "Happy Birthday, Michael. Now you have two of them. Love, Shelli and Irving." The delivery was to occur during Lippman's 40th birthday party at his Beverly Hills estate. Picciolo arrived at the party and told Lippman that he had a present from Azoff. Picciolo realized it was no laughing matter when Lippman "flipped out. His wife looked at me in horror. Evidently, Lippman has a morbid fear of snakes and the card was meant to refer to Mrs. Lippman." Says an embarrassed—and infuriated—Picciolo: "I didn't know they would use somebody like me to hurt others." So this is where Jackie Collins gets her material.
Have you heard the one about Sally Field and Tom Hanks? They will co-star in Columbia Pictures' Punchline, in which both play stand-up comics.
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