People in the News for July 9, 1996

Tuesday, July 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Just because we here at People in the News are on the verge of evolving into beings of pure thought energy doesn't mean we lack sympathy for those moving in the opposite direction. Ronald Reagan, for instance. We can't help but feel sad for someone who has to spend his days in the smothering clutches of Nancy Reagan. Perhaps surprisingly, the Reagan boys agree, sort of. Sons Michael and Ron Jr. told New Choices magazine recently that Nancy can be overprotective. Both disagreed with her decision not to let him attend his 85th birthday a few months ago. "I don't believe Ronald Reagan is capable of embarrassing himself," Michael says. Little Ron insists big Ron is "maintaining a level of functioning that surprises a lot of people," but then, hasn't that always been the case? The article also describes Maureen Reagan doing jigsaw puzzles with her father. "I'm the one saying, 'Let's put the border together first, and then we can get to the picture.' And he says, 'I want to do the horse.' So I say, 'OK, you do the horse ..."'

Nice Surfer dudes

When you say "beings of pure thought," no two words leap to mind quicker than Butthole Surfers. But the hot band (current hit: "Pepper") lost its cool at a concert in Corpus Christi, Texas, the other day, when someone threw a wristwatch at singer Gibby Haynes. Tick-tocked off, Haynes urged the audience to rough up the next hurler. "I want to see somebody hurt," he said, adding that he didn't care if the offended crowd refused to buy the band's albums. "We've got your money already," he yelled.

Mine campaign

Normally the linkage of the word "celebrity" with the phrase "worthy cause" gets on our nerves -- we want to see someone hurt. But as soon-to-evolve beings, we're taking a highly enlightened view of Sam Waterston and Judy Collins' latest humanitarian effort: leftover land mines, the only cause not already claimed by Susan Sarandon. Waterston, star of "The Killing Fields," is off to Cambodia this week to push for the accelerated removal of the estimated 9 million devices still buried there after its civil war. Meanwhile, Collins is venturing into another mine-strewn wasteland, Vermont, for a Sunday concert and forum to raise awareness of the problem. "They now threaten children in 60 countries," she says, proving that not everyone is evolving at the same rate.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets