People in the news for Oct. 21, 1996

Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

It's not often we here at People in the News share the opinions of rogue Taiwanese city councilmen -- well, actually, it happens more than you'd think -- but that was the case this weekend. Michael Jackson was in the city of Kaohsiung to accept a "meritorious achievement" award from the mayor, prompting us to wonder, Does "meritorious achievement" translate into Taiwanese as "This guy hasn't done squat for our city, but maybe this'll get my picture on the wire services"? Councilmen Huang Chao-hsing and Lin Ti-chuan were of the same mind: They burst in and demanded to know Jackson's qualifications for the award. His "international contributions," they were told, to which Lin, that noted quipster, retorted, "His international contribution has been to molest little boys." So much for "We Are the World." Huang kicked over a tea table. "Is that guy all right?" Jackson squeaked from behind his shield of bodyguards. The two tried to block Jackson's exit, but were swept aside by his entourage.

Berle's fountain of youth

He may be 88, but Milton Berle doesn't look a day over 87. How do you keep that girlish figure, Uncle Miltie? "I'm working out, walking, cycling, doing all the things you're supposed to do," says Berle, who will receive some sort of meritorious achievement award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences next week in New York (note to the security forces: watch out for rampaging councilmen). He's also a longtime vegetarian and doesn't drink. He does make an exception for cigars, which he's puffed since age 12: "That's OK because you don't inhale cigar smoke." Unless, of course, you sit beside him at next week's banquet.

Pop rocks

Rock madman Iggy Pop has spent decades as the embodiment of the question Is that guy all right? and resisting the Milton Berle lifestyle. "The only thing I ever thought might kill me off was clean living," Pop says. "I thought, 'How am I going to listen to that horrible noise I make without a gram of coke and a couple of double Jack Daniels?"' Nonetheless, he's approaching his 50th birthday cleaned up and sipping mango tea and with his first career retrospective -- "Nude and Rude: The Best of Iggy Pop" -- due this month. It's a milestone he views with mixed feelings. "I'm real pleased," he says. "But ... I'm not ready to get boxed and shelved at this point."

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets