People in the News for May 14, 1997

Wednesday, May 14, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

These days, if the big bad wolf wants your house, he doesn't do the huffing and puffing himself; he gets government agencies with eminent-domain power to blow it down for him. The wolf in today's scenario is Donald Trump, breaking from his normal casting as one of the pigs. He's won a legal round against property owner Vera Coking, whose three-story building in Atlantic City the Donald wants to knock down for an expansion of his Trump Plaza. The state supreme court has declined to hear Coking's appeal of a decision by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority to seize her property on Trump's behalf. Her lawyer is still shouting, Not by the hair of your chinny chin chin! "It's not even close to being the final chapter," he says. "This is just one round in a 15-round fight." We're confused: Is it the unfinal chapter of a heavyweight fight or the first round of an epic novel? Either way, Trump wants to get on with things, and perhaps he's correct. Clear out those unsightly properties (Coking owns a former boarding house) to make way for a casino expansion that will result in desperately needed jobs, right? Wrong. He wants Coking's land for a limo parking lot.

Wedded blitz

Is it Wednesday? Larry King must be on the verge of marriage again. And he is, for the seventh time. You'd think six times bitten, once shy, but this is Larry King we're talking about. Actually, he has sworn off marriage before, but you know how it goes -- just one half-his-age hair-product inventor turned infomercial star turned aspiring country music singer is all it takes to nudge a guy off the wagon. "I never counted on meeting her," King, 63, huffs and puffs. "I've never been happier." The future ex-Mrs. King, Shawn Southwick, says, "I can't think of being with anyone else. ... He's the most gentle, tender, kind-hearted person I've ever met" -- a sentiment, coincidentally, shared by guests on his CNN interview show. "We meld on sports, show business, humor." The two met in January outside Tiffany's. "I wasn't ready for a relationship," says Southwick, 37. "Then I fell madly in love." They plan a December wedding, but we're sure this isn't the final round of King's book of love.

Roseanne talks?

The latest chapter in the heavyweight battle of daytime huff and puff may soon be joined by a real big, bad wolf: Roseanne is said to be readying her own talk show. Yikes! How many little piggies can TV handle? Everyone is mum on the subject -- Roseanne, King World Productions (the rumored producer) -- but sources say the show will debut in the fall of 1998. Her manager will only say, cryptically, "Her career has been about defining herself." Speculation now centers on Oprah Winfrey. Would a Roseanne show, combined with Rosie O'Donnell's huge success and a planned chat show starring Howie Mandell, finally blow her house down? Oprah has to let King World know by fall whether she wants to renew her contract. Says a spokeswoman, "It will not influence Oprah's decision." She can always invent hair products or sing country music or wed Larry King instead.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets