People in the News for September 16, 1997

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 1997 | 11:40 a.m.

The Funeral is over, the memorial flowers have wilted, the final refrains of Elton John's hastily revised Diana tribute number have faded from the world's ear. As the celebrity universe starts revolving again, there are thoughtful, clear-sighted individuals trying to devise the proper context for the tragedy. "It's a fabulous story for a musical," says composer Jonathan "Don't You Dare Say Livingston" Segal. He reports that he's "put some initial concepts together" for a show about Diana's life and death. In a Broadway climate that's about to see the debut of a musical about Jackie O, it makes a certain sense. A few zippy show tunes, some energetic tap dancing, a paparazzi chorus line and Mandy Patinkin as a singing Dodi al-Fayed -- it has slightly tasteless yet Tony-winning musical sensation written all over it. Bring in da funk, bring in da noise! "She's the classic tragic heroine," says Broadway director Aaron Frankel. "She was beautiful, she was good and she was flawed."

Let it Bleeth

"Baywatch" beauty Yasmine Bleeth is the classic tragic heroine -- beautiful, flawed, trapped in a sexy bikini she never wanted! Now, after three years of sand-covered servitude, she's finally stripping off her skintight safety-orange yoke of oppression, leaving The World's Most Popular TV Show. "I don't want to take money for doing something I hate," she says, immediately disqualifying her from a job here at People in the News. "I'm at the point where I can't believe I have to go save another drowning victim or do another montage in a bikini," Bleeth says. The obvious solution -- a montage without the bikini -- doesn't seem to have occurred to her. Instead, she plans to pursue a "film career." See you on USA Network, baby!

Musical tribute, Part 2

Despite their political and philosophical differences, Sens. Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy have a strong, strange-bedfellows friendship. Which recently got Hatch to thinking -- it's a fabulous story for a musical! So he wrote a sentimental song for the wide Massachusetts Democrat. Titled "Souls Along the Way," it's the lead cut on Hatch's new CD of patriotic numbers (he wrote them, someone else sings them). "I've been searching all my life -- then you came into view," the song goes. "I was scared to trust my heart -- your eyes told me you knew./ Promise me no lies and never patronize." Tender, confessional, straight from whatever virulent Republicans have instead of a heart. Now, Kennedy is one tough dude; he's got the scalps and battle scars from a thousand legislative campaigns, not to mention inflamed nose capillaries from years of punishing nightlife. Yet he got all "teary-eyed" when he heard the song, calling it "one of the nicest gifts" he's ever received, although undoubtedly he'd have preferred a Yasmine Bleeth bikini montage.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets