People in the News for Dec. 26, 1997

Friday, Dec. 26, 1997 | 12:24 p.m.

It's been a wretched year in the hallowed annals of Walt Disney Co. history: Ellen came out and and the Southern Baptists were there to greet her. They also vocally boycotted Disney's "gay-friendly" company benefits. The skirt-chasing Pirates of the Caribbean were declared hopelessly un-PC, and were revamped to chase legs of ham instead. A newborn baby girl was found stuffed in a Tomorrowland toilet at Disney World. Even Walt's widow, Lillian, couldn't take the state of affairs -- she passed away on the anniversary of Walt's death before she could see the completion of her pet project, the Walt Disney Concert Hall. In a grand finale for the year, last week, parents gasped (and kids ogled) when seven seconds of a steamy sex scene somehow aired on the Disney Channel here in Las Vegas. All of which, naturally, means to Disney's board that it sounds like a good time for a raise for Mike Eisner! The Disney CEO will get an extra $2 million bonus in his stocking this holiday season, based on the company's strong performance, bringing his annual take to $9.9 million. If it's any solace, his base salary remains a relative lump of coal: $750,000 per year.

Briefly:

If politics makes for strange bedfellows, political fundraising makers for even stranger ones. In the holiday spirit of forgiveness and giving, Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan and Councilwoman Laura Chick, who were at each other's throats a year ago, ("demagogic," she called him, "lacking guts," he slung back.) will be making kissy face next month in the play "Love Letters" by A.J. Gurney to raise $300,000 for the soon-to-open Madrid Theater in Canoga Park. Tickets are already sold out, with Angelenos eager to pay good money for the rare chance to see politicians making stuff up. Of course, one must emphasize that lovey-dovey legislators are just acting -- but hopefully they'll save their real histrionics for future city council meetings.

He's played a boxer, a pool shark, and a hockey player, but it's doubtful Paul Newman will be starring in Tiger Woods' life story anytime soon. The actor is standing up to national Fairways, Inc., a developer who wants to turn 740 acres of Connecticut land into a golf course. Newman is donating $500,000 towards the land's estimated $10 price tag from his Newman's Own organic food products. "I've hiked this land," he pleaded to the zoning committee this week. "Fifty years from now, the people who worked to save this land will be remembered as heroes." And, maybe, have their life story immortalized on the silver screen?

First Lady Fundraising

Do you remember Dr. Seuss? Did you like to read his books? Did you like Green Eggs and Ham? Don't you think he was a remarkable man? Did you like the Cat in the Hat? Would you like a memorial for all that? For only $4 million, not too much. It'll have bronze statues of the Grinch, and such. Will you, will you, Barbara Bush? Will you give our cause a push? Would you, would you help us out? Would you toss your clout about? Can you raise money for Dr. Seuss? Can you do it from a caboose? Can you do it from a plane? Can you do it from a train? Yes, oh yes, I will, I would. We'll honor Theodor Geisel, it will be good. We'll build it in Springfield, Ill., where he's from. We hope the children will want to come. I'm all for getting kids to read.

-- Compiled by Melissa Schorr