People in the News for January 12, 1998

Monday, Jan. 12, 1998 | 10:29 a.m.

Art Garfunkel must have thought back to Neil Diamond's hit song as the '80s began. While the rest of the world cast aside the '60s to make money, Artie figured he already had enough and spent the decade missing his better half, Paul Simon. He admits he went into a shell after he and Simon split. "I was quite reclusive in the '80s," Garfunkel says in the latest Entertainment Weekly. "I was really at home being an artiste." That meant writing poetry, doing a little singing, reading the dictionary back to front and perfecting his basketball foul shot. The 1990s have brought a creative resurgence for the curly-mopped singer-composer. He toured Europe last year to promote his 1996 album "Across America," released a Grammy-nominated children's record "Songs From a Parent to a Child," performed for President Clinton and voiced the singing moose on the PBS cartoon series "Arthur." The 56-year-old is also considering writing his life story. He may want to gloss over the '80s, unless he thinks the world is waiting to hear how many foul shots he made in a row.

Kentucky woman

Actually, Darlene Conley of "The Bold and the Beautiful" probably wasn't thinking of that Neil Diamond song when she agreed to become first American soap opera star immortalized in wax at Madame Tussaud's famed museum in London. "Over here, they know a REAL woman when they see one," says Conley, who probably isn't even from Kentucky. She waxes mirthfully in the Jan. 17-23 TV Guide. She plays fashion mogul Sally Spectra on the serial drama, which draws large viewing audiences in Europe. "The museum called and said they couldn't think of anybody more instantly recognizable than me, and who was I to argue?" Conley said. Of her day-long sitting for the wax sculpture, she recalled fondly: "I had this beautiful young man under my skirt for hours. They measure and photograph every single inch of you from every single angle. It's terribly intimate." What we at People in the News can't figure out, is how that beautiful young man took pictures with a skirt over his head and camera.

Cheery Cheery

This is what Neil Diamond actually meant to say but it came out Cherry Cherry when some editor from Uranus botched the lyrics. And we think Diamond was envisioning the day when cheery Martha Stewart would swamp America with her face and crafty advice. She's swamped us on TV and in magazines and newspapers and now she's swamping us in annual corporate reports. New England's Yankee Energy Systems decided she'd be the perfect cover for its 1997 annual report. "Martha Stewart warms up to natural gas," the headline reads. "If anyone epitomizes a good lifestyle, it's Martha Stewart," said Geralyn Johnson, Yankee Energy's spokesman. We wonder, however, if it wasn't the vision of Martha Stewart that also inspired Diamond's "Solitary Man."

Compiled by SUN staff.