June 29, 1999

KATHIE LEE'S EYEWEAR EXCITES ISLANDERS' IRE

By ROGER ANDERSON Scripps Howard News Service

COMMUNITY STANDARDS: Some of Kathie Lee Gifford’s neighbors on Nantucket are displeased enough with her public comportment to make certain withering remarks to the Boston Herald.

“She jogs around wearing her lime green sunglasses trailed by at least four bodyguards," an unnamed "source" tells a Herald reporter. "It's quite a scene. And there are a lot more important people over here and they don't run around with bodyguards." On the other hand, those important people don't have neighbors who criticize their choice of eyewear in the public prints.

COMPLICATED MAY-DECEMBER RELATIONSHIPS: You probably know that Kimberly Conrad Hefner, who became famously married to septuagenarian Playboy playboy Hugh Hefner a few years back and later bore him two or three children, took a hike from the union last year.

In a parallel universe, a beautiful model named Rachel Hunter got spliced to Rod Stewart - a rocker who, though not quite as superannuated as Hef, is way up there in terms of years. A while back, of course, Rachel took a powder from Rod.

Matters became mildly interesting when Rod and Kimberly started keeping romantic company with one another. But now there's word that Rod recently came back to the Manhattan hotel room he was sharing with Kimberly to find that she had checked out and left for the airport - and not, one presumes, because she had suddenly conceived a hankering for airport food.

HOPE FOR TOMORROW: But a happy ending may be in the works as Kimberly borrows the ear of a USA Today columnist the better to disseminate the information that she still thinks Rod is quite a guy, and that her sudden leave-taking from their love nest was nothing personal.

THE SUBPLOT: Meantime, a New York Post columnist has it on good authority that Rachel Hunter - that's Rod's estranged missus, in case you mislaid your scorecard - is "pursuing an acting career."

ONE-SENTENCE NEWS (1): Ted Turner recently took time off from being one of the biggest broadcasting entrepreneurs in the history of the world to purchase a 34,187-acre ranch on the Nebraska-South Dakota border to the tune of $6.8 million, according to the New York Daily News.

ONE-SENTENCE NEWS (2): Kyle MacLlachlan, the actor whose romantic breakup with supermodel Linda Evangelista a while back garnered a fair amount of ink, is now purportedly pitching woo with a publicist named Desiree Gruber who works for such high-profile gals as Naomi Cambpell and Lisa Marie Presley, again according to the Daily News.

ONE-SENTENCE NEWS (3): Sarah, the Duchess of Fergie, still struggling to find herself and pay her bills in the wake of her divorce from Britain's Prince Andrew, is said to be in line to appear as a regular monthly contributor on NBC's "Today" show, according to USA Today (no relation).

ONE-SENTENCE NEWS (4): Sylvester Stallone was a guest at Jean-Claude Van Damme's wedding to Gladys Portugues, to whom Jean-Claude was previously married, according to the Annual Report of the U.S. Agriculture Bureau.

REVERSE GENDER-BENDING: Some members of the entertainment community can't help but wonder if it's really appropriate for an openly gay actor like Rupert Everett to portray a straight man in an Oscar Wilde scenario, as Rupert currently is doing in the new film "An Ideal Husband." Accordingly, one reporter gets Rubert's co-star, Julianne Moore, to offer her thoughts on the subject.

"I don't think it matters what an actor is personally," says the "Boogie Nights" star. "The point is that we are who we play. Think about Rock Hudson, think about Montgomery Clift." OK.

THE BLABBERMOUTH ORACLE: We feel not just honored but chastened at the opportunity, the second week in a row, of passing along impromptu remarks made for the record by CBS news deity Dan Rather, who here says pooh-pooh to rumors that he's spreading himself too thin with his ancillary assignments for "48 Hours" and "60 Minutes II."

"But I don't know anybody who thinks I am," Dan tells a reporter. "Most of that I don't pay any attention to." Neither do we, Dan, especially not when we're dutifully thinking about Rock Hudson and Montgomery Cliff.

Roger Anderson is arts and entertainment editor at Scripps Howard News Service.

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