People in the News for September 19, 1997

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 9:24 a.m.

Reserve us a seat on this Twain of thought: Something's wrong with country music, says singer Shania Twain. Of course, she's simply restating what's become a common gripe in Nashville. Sales are down; the product all sounds dishearteningly similar, like, well, product, the work of a hat squad of interchangeable country boys swinging to canned twang. Mark Twain's words, it's time for a change. "It's really up to the artist to come up with something that's original enough for people to believe in you and get behind you," she says. An example: Shania Twain. To demonstrate her commitment to the breaking of new stylistic ground, her upcoming disc, "Come on Over" (due Nov. 4), will feature a rock 'n' rollish sound not exactly like that of her 12-million-selling last album! Also, she says, stop cranking out the same ol' sleeping-single-in-a-double-bed cliches. "I like to approach real topics, real issues, with a sense of humor," Twain says. "Black Eyes, Blue Tears," from the new album, is a bouncy little number about a woman leaving an abusive relationship. Real-issue-like! Sense-of-humorous! Hurray, country music is saved!

Dino might!

That TV beams behavior-modification signals is no secret; how else would "Men Behaving Badly" have an audience? But PBS? The home of Barney? Yes, it seems, particularly Barney. Starting in November, the kiddie show "Barney and Friends" will transmit a signal that can be picked up by a special $109 toy Barney at home; the toy Barney will talk and sing along with the TV version. The effect is obvious -- an epidemic of parent-smashed $109 toy Barneys. The system was devised by PBS and Microsoft, which will implant software containing 14,000 words in each Interactive Barney. Also required: a $65 transmitter attached to the TV. The signal -- which Microsoft is paying PBS an undisclosed amount to broadcast -- starts Nov. 3 in 20 large markets, and in the rest of the country next year. Educational activists are worried the device will give rich kids a learning advantage. "The idea that you can buy something for a lot of money and make public broadcasting for children better is very disturbing," says one. Imagine: Purple-dinosaur-based class stratification on the playground, the Barney-haves vs. the Barney-have-nots! It might even result in one of those real-issues Shania Twain songs.

Baby fax

Few things in life are more real-issue, more real-topic, than having a baby. So it's not surprising that, for her upcoming childbirth, entertainment chipmunk Leeza Gibbons has reserved the luxury maternity suite at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai hospital, the first person to do so. Because when baby starts trying to head-and-shoulder past Leeza's unyielding cervix, she's going to want the 18th century-style furniture, the tasteful selection of art; it's going to matter greatly that the room has a computer and fax machine; it will be of utmost importance that a masseuse and manicurist are standing by, that -- hey, wait a minute, no singing Barney toys? What am I paying an undisclosed-yet-presumably outrageous sum for? Get me outta this dump!

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets