People in the News for May 15, 1997

Thursday, May 15, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Eddie Murphy has become a boy named sue: He's filed a pair of $5 million lawsuits -- against the National Enquirer and the Globe tabloids -- claiming each ran false stories about his recent encounter with a transvestite prostitute. "Eddie Murphy's Secret Sex Life," blared the headline over an Enquirer story about alleged encounters between the nutty actor and two transsexuals. Hours of he-she fun! Except, Murphy says, the Enquirer's minds knew it wasn't true. Tabloid writers fabricating stories? You won't get very far pushing that theory, Mr. Murphy. Eddie says he was only being nice when he offered hooker Atisone Seiuli a ride in the wee hours of May 2. Hey, he'd have done the same for any 20-year-old male-female prostitute. It's just the kind of swell guy he is. Or was: The suits say the stories caused him "severe emotional and physical distress, requiring medical attention," perhaps even worse than he suffered after "The Golden Child." No comment from either tabloid.

Misc.

Imus wrong

Don Imus having second thoughts? Who knew he had first thoughts? Now, apparently, it's time for the animal's side of the story: Perhaps, the radio crock jock now concedes, he may have gone a wee, tiny, widdle bit over the line in his notorious, Clinton-bashing speech at a dinner last year attended by Bill and Hillary. The one where he called Clinton a "pot-smoking weasel," and said the president had eaten "an apple fritter the size of a baby's head." "It wasn't whether it was funny or not; it was whether it was appropriate," he says now, his throat bulging with swallowed pride. "Now that I've had time to think about it, it was hideously inappropriate." He must not have had enough time to think about it last fall, when he crowed about the speech being good for business. "That speech turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me." Now he's eating that crow. Hope it doesn't cause him severe emotional and physical distress requiring medical attention.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets