People in the news for Aug. 28, 1996

Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

It's been a year since an operation on his bad liver made a good liver out of Larry Hagman, but he doesn't credit the actual surgery for his revitalized life as much as a "spiritual" experience he had while unconscious in the hospital. In Salt Lake City this week for the U.S. Transplant Games -- one of his many new charity activities -- he recalled what he believes was a brush with death: "I was able to look over the edge. I got a little glimpse into what was the next step," he said, and although it must have looked a lot like Salt Lake itself, he wasn't put off. "I had a wonderful feeling of bliss and warmth. The bottom line was love. That sounds so corny, (but) it was just lovely, uplifting." This touching, warm-glow story brings to mind a single word: anesthesia.

Briefly

*Organ transplants aren't the only way to achieve a Hagmanian sense of spiritual uplift. "I feel as though I've been reborn," Sylvester Stallone said after the birth Tuesday of his daughter by fiancee Jennifer Flavin. The baby's name: Sophia Rose, meaning she got off better than her big brothers, Sly's two sons by a previous marriage. Their names: Sage and Seargeoh.

*Paste a gold star on the forehead of ABC newsman Brit Hume. Covering a speech by President Clinton in Bowling Green, Ohio, Hume saw that the media were blocking out a crowd of camera-toting residents. Since he'd already heard the speech, Hume let them pass their Instamatics to him and, from his nifty vantage point, snapshot the prez for them. "They may think I'm a nice guy now, but wait until they see some of the shots," he said, in what can only be called a quip.

Waning support

Perhaps a quick liver transplant and brush with death would impart to Oprah Winfrey a Hagmanian zest for helping others. In 1994, she started Families for a Better Life, a poverty-relief program intended to hoist 100 families off public aid. Winfrey promised $3 million to fund the program. So far, however, Oprah -- who could paper the Great Wall of China with C-notes -- has come through with about $840,000 (other donations boosted the total raised to $1.3 million) and only five families have completed the program. The program is in limbo, and reports on Tuesday Oprah's continuing sponsorship is uncertain. Says one administrator, "We're not sure how this is going to happen again."

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets