People in the News for April 11, 1997

Friday, April 11, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Where there's smoking there's ire, on both sides of the Zippo. To wit, the minor hoo-ha over Winona Ryder. "I'm sick of this 'Winona smokes' thing," says the uneasy Ryder. She's been in the cross-hairs of the butts-out crowd for months, since a "60 Minutes" piece on smoking in movies singled out her roles as damaging to young women. This week, busybody teenagers in Ryder's hometown, Petaluma, Calif., sent Ryder a many-signatured letter advising her not to make smoking look Kool. "We'd like to see her cut down -- preferably quit -- smoking in movies and real life," one said. After that, the kids will no doubt help her shape up the rest of her life. "I smoke, like, once in a while socially," Ryder insists -- maybe four cigarettes a year! She also says her nonsmoking roles outnumber the smoking ones. The kids, however, note that Ryder is clearly puffing stuff in her youth-oriented films like "Heathers," "Reality Bites" and "Boys." Note to teens: Ryder is an actress. "As much as people want to call us role models, we're actors first," she says, and if the character smokes, Ryder smokes. She's not asking anyone to join her. "It's up to individuals to decide whether to smoke. I was not influenced to smoke by watching 8,000 Humphrey Bogart movies."

'Ellen' again

Mere days ago, bored with the minor hoo-ha over her televised closet cleaning, we here at People in the News were fully aboard the anti-Ellen backlash. Now, we're starting the anti-backlash backlash. Go Ellen! This comes up because the ABC affiliate in Birmingham, Ala., has decided not to air the celebrated/derided lesbian episode of "Ellen." "We do not think it is appropriate for family viewing," says the station's president. He's probably on the right track; if there's one thing we've learned from 8,000 Humphrey Bogart films, it's that parents in Birmingham, Ala., are incapable of choosing appropriate family viewing themselves. Gay rights groups are making the pro-forma noise about censorship and Big Brotherism. Meanwhile, the Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, always eager to celebrate the closing of the American mind, applauded the station. Next week: the anti-backlash-backlash backlash.

Acting like himself

When you hire John McEnroe to lend his fading star power to your promotional event, don't be surprised if he acts like ... John McEnroe. Promoters Bruce and Leah Bibbero are suing the petulant former tennis whiz for his behavior at a recent tennis exhibition in Atlanta. They say he swore at them, tried to hit them, and tarnished the image of their business, and they want $1.1 million for it. The couple says they secured tickets to a Chicago Bulls-Atlanta Hawks basketball game before the event and set up a gig for his band afterwards ... and still McEnroe was abusive and physically threatening. McEnroe's agent calls the allegations "a gross overstatement of the situation and an attempt to get money from a celebrity." We're not sure whether public sentiment is for or against McEnroe, but once that becomes clear, the backlash starts here.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets