People in the news for Feb. 7, 1997

Friday, Feb. 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

John-ny McCarthy

With Scott Dickensheets on the DL, I have been summoned from the bullpen to save the Friday edition of People in the News. It won't be easy. First up is the always dangerous Jenny McCarthy, who's been on a home-run tear since that breakthrough Playboy spread. But now it appears her career is in the toilet. In a series of ads running in 10 magazines starting today, McCarthy poses in a bathroom for a $2 million campaign to sell a shoe -- Candie's -- that's making a comeback. In the late '70s, Candie's sold 14 million pairs. McCarthy, 24, says that as a little girl she used to buy them at Sears for $3 a pair (suggested retail is now $35). Candie's CEO says the soon-to-be-former host of MTV's "Singled Out" fell in love with the bathroom ad concept. "Her natural personality gravitated her toward the bathroom." Hearing this, McCarthy flushed with embarrassment.

Will he or won't he?

That's what "60 Minutes" wanted to know when one its jugular-ripping reporters asked Jerry Seinfeld if he plans to make a decent woman out of his longtime girlfriend, Shoshanna Lonstein. The comedian's responses to questions focusing on their relationship will air Sunday, but People in the News has received a copy and feels a responsibility to share in advance all the salient moments from a revealing interview that affects every man, woman and child. "You know when I'll get married? I'll get married when somebody like John Kennedy Jr. gets married." Informed that Kennedy had indeed tied the knot, Seinfeld appeared shaken. "Really?" He laughed nervously. "Can we get some powder on my face? I'm sweating." Regaining his composure, Seinfeld said their relationship succeeds because "I'm so immature, and she's so mature that we meet in the middle." But he cracked again when pressed about his sexual maturity. "I am not going to talk about being sexually immature on '60 Minutes'. It's not '60 Swinging Minutes' you know."

Joplin once, Joplin twice

It wasn't bad enough that "The Rose," a movie loosely based on the tragic life of Janis Joplin, sent the People staff into paroxysms of depression. Now we get word that not one but TWO movies about the late rock singer are in the works. Call Charter Hospital now! Melissa Etheridge is in advance negotiations to star in the first, still untitled film. The other, to star Lily Taylor, is based on the book "Love, Janis," by Joplin's sister, Laura Joplin. Both films are expected to begin shooting this year. Maybe after they've shot them they can shoot us.

Compiled by David Renzi