May 28, 1999 | It's now looking highly likely that, when the music stops, Hillary Rodham Clinton will rush for that U.S. Senate seat she's been circling for months. But one group is trying to lure the first lady into making a dash for an even bigger chair -- the one behind her husband's desk in the Oval Office. (Hope someone steam-cleans it first.)

"Hillary for President 2000," a Los Angeles grass-roots movement headed by 75-year-old German-born signmaker Max Rhodes, will open its headquarters June 5 and kick off a national campaign to collect 50 million signatures and raise at least $50 million.

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Although Clinton recently told CBS News' "60 Minutes II" that a presidential run is "not even in the universe of my thinking," Rhodes recently told Reuters that Clinton "as a human being and a politician, is the right person to lead our country into the next millennium."

The group plans to send every U.S. newspaper a press packet that includes a bonus motivational CD featuring Rhodes' plea to put Hillary "back in the White House." It's already one step ahead of most other presidential campaigns because it has its own campaign song, part of which goes as follows:

A grass roots call, that's what this is
Clinton for prez, not the Mr. but the Ms. ...
She knows the issues, she wheels and deals
Let's elect a leader who looks good in high heels.

Now, Max, that's not exactly fair. I'm sure Al Gore and George W. Bush would both look just delightful in a pair of shag-me pumps.

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Juicy bits

Is the new "Star Wars" film a phantom menace? The story may take place in a galaxy far, far away, but commentators from several major news outlets are accusing George Lucas of sneaking racial and ethnic stereotypes into his extraterrestrial characters. They single out, in particular, the computer-animated amphibian, Jar Jar Binks. Wall Street Journal film critic Joe Morgenstern called Jar Jar "a Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit on platform hoofs, crossed annoyingly with Butterfly McQueen." And the L.A. Times' Eric Harrison chimed in that Jar Jar's primitive tribe is lorded over by a "fat, buffoonish character, seemingly a caricature of a stereotypical African chieftain." Lucasfilm, of course, denies the charges, saying "kids are really loving" Jar Jar. Uh-huh. And kids really liked "Amos 'n' Andy," too.

Does the new "Star Wars" film uphold "the truth and strength of religion"? The Church of England's Bishop of Oxford, the Right Rev. Richard Harries, thinks it does. On Wednesday, he told the BBC, "I think that if people get reassurance that good will overcome evil through a film, that far from being a threat to religion, it is an echo of what religion, at least the Christian religion, is proclaiming." Hmm ... maybe the Right Rev. can help George Lucas turn the other cheek to all those Jar Jar jeerers.

If you needed further evidence that the Cold War really has melted away and left only a lukewarm puddle, here it is: Nikita Khrushchev's son is looking to become a U.S. citizen. "It is not so special or a political decision any longer," Sergei Khrushchev, who teaches international studies "with an emphasis on the former Soviet Union" at Brown and whose top-Stalinist pops once boasted that the U.S.S.R. would "bury" the U.S., commented this week. "I and my wife have been living here for eight years and we plan on living here longer. We like it here, and I believe that when you're living in a country like this, you have to become a citizen." Next thing you know, Fidel Castro will be suiting up for the Boston Red Sox.

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The definition of "Too little, too late"

"It was never our intention to spoil Sophie's joy over her forthcoming marriage to Prince Edward ... Don't worry Sophie. There will be no more revelations in the Sun that cause you offence."

-- An editorial in the London tabloid the Sun, apologizing for printing a 10-year-old topless photo of royal bride-to-be Sophie Rhys-Jones earlier this week

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