January 18, 2000

Third party cited in Trump-Knauss breakup

By ROGER ANDERSON Scripps Howard News Service

REVISIONIST HISTORY: Last week, the world was agog with news that real-estate billionaire/presidential candidate Donald Trump had summarily gotten rid of Melania Knauss, the beautiful supermodel whom he had publicly mulled turning into America's next first lady.

This week, the world is riveted by new revelations to the effect that the earlier thing wasn't the real deal - specifically, that Melania dumped Donald, not the other way around.

But why would she do such a thing? Because, reports continue, she supposedly caught her wealthy boyfriend in flagrante delicto with an old sweetheart of his named Kara Young.

Following are quotes from various players in the drama as gleaned from a two-page analysis in the New York Post.

TRUMP HIMSELF: "It's false. It's (expletive). It's not correct."

AN UNNAMED FRIEND OF KARA'S: "Kara and Donald are friendly. They are really tight. It hasn't always been that way. Whenever a man has an ex, the other girl's never happy the ex is around. Kara saw Melania once and Melania didn't exactly give her a big sloppy kiss."

AN UNNAMED FRIEND OF DONALD'S: "It (the story that he was caught red-handed with Kara) could have come from a hundred different places. Donald heard that one himself; he's heard 15 different reasons for the breakup. He doesn't care, it's not like he's married. But there's no Kara involved, there's no anyone involved."

LITERARY NEWS: Which reminds us that Marla Maples Trump, Donald's most recent ex-wife, is supposed to be getting ready to produce a tome about their relationship, to be shepherded through the rigors of publishing by celebrity editor Judith Regan.

"Marla has been working on this for a while," Judith explains. "She's also done a lot of work on herself, and she's not afraid to say she's made mistakes."

TRUMP HIMSELF: "Whatever she's going to write, she'll write," says Marla's ex-husband when his input is solicited by the New York Daily News. "I have no idea what she's doing."

DAVID COPPERFIELD'S LOVE LIFE REVISITED: Heaving a sigh of profound relief, we turn to the matter of magician David Copperfield, who, during the whole time he was keeping intimate company with supermodel Claudia Schiffer, was constantly barraged by media speculation that the relationship was some kind of sham.

Now that those two have gone their separate ways, and now that Dave is being linked to a Belgian model with the enviable if not very believable name of Ambre Frisque, our colleagues in the print medium for some reason are taking a different tack, merely quoting a “friend" of the pair as follows: "They're just having a great time together."

THE MARRIAGE RACQUET? Then there's recent gossip saying tennis deities Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf have gotten themselves hitched. So far, confirmation of the union is not forthcoming, but that doesn't stop bystanders from insisting that it has taken place.

“They played in the same arena for all those years,” a "friend” tells an inquiring journalist, "but only in recent months realized they were made for each other. I believe they have married quickly and quietly so as not to waste any more time."

(Everyone knows that the publication of "news" based on the beliefs of unnamed persons is the wave of the future.)

INCISIVE INDUSTRY ANALYSIS: One thing you have to say in favor of ABC talking head Chris Wallace - he doesn't try to capitalize on the fact that his dad is CBS talking head Mike Wallace. Also in Chris favor is the fact that he's approaching his new assignment at ABCnews.com with an attitude of sincere enthusiasm, buttressed by what appears to be a cogent grasp of the venture's true significance.

“I absolutely believe this is the future," Chris tells USA Today. "When you look at the AOL-Time Warner deal, it shows that TV-quality broadcasting on the Internet is not some distant dream, but right around the corner." After that, the anti-gravity belts they were promising us 40 years ago are sure to materialize, too.

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

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