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Beating around a Bush
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Sept. 2, 1999 |
Speculation is sizzling in political circles as to just why the Forbes campaign has snapped up the rights to use some 19 domain names incorporating variations on the monikers Steve Forbes and ... Jeb Bush, Florida governor and bro of GOP presidential front-runner George W. Bush. (If you were interested in purchasing SteveandJeb.com, SteveForbes-JebBush.com, SteveForbesJebBush.com, ForbesandJebBush.com, Forbes-JebBush2000.com, Forbes-JebBush.com -- or the .net or .org versions of each of these -- or ForbesandGovernorJeb.com, why, you're plumb out of luck.) Nothing Personal contacted the Forbes campaign to see if we could locate its tongue in its cheek (it's a nasty job, but someone's got to do it). However, after confirming that the campaign had, in fact, authorized Hensley Segal Rentschler, the Cincinnati communications consulting firm that maintains the official Forbes2000.com site, to acquire the names, Forbes' deputy press secretary, Kendrick Ashton, would tell us only what he had already told the Politics1 newsletter, which broke the story via e-mail on Wednesday. "We feel there's always room for a Bush on the Forbes ticket," Ashton told us, just as he had told Politics1's Ron Gunzburger. "It just happens to be Jeb Bush." He wouldn't comment on who authorized the purchase of the domain names, why they did so or how the campaign planned to use them ("We'll see," he said, somewhat stonily). George W. spokeswoman Mindy Tucker pointed out to Politics1 that her candidate already had his brother's endorsement all wrapped up, calling the Forbes move "bizarre." Jeb's press secretary, Lucia Ross, told the newsletter that the Forbes campaign "must be playing a prank" and that her boss would never do anything to undermine his sibling's White House bid. And Gunzburger himself points out that the timing of the URL purchases -- just a day after his newsletter sent out word of the Gee-Dubya campaign's purchase of a bevy of URLs indicating possible running mates in May -- calls the sincerity of a Steve-Jeb political marriage proposal into question. Hmmm ... I wonder if NothingPersonalandGovernorJeb.com is still available. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Alzheimer's victims may forget, but will they forgive? "I said, 'The nice thing about Alzheimer's is you get to hide your own Easter eggs.'" -- Sen. John McCain citing the sort of "insensitive and stupid and cruel" remarks that get him into trouble even though, he maintains, "You've got to have humor in a campaign." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Playboy peeks at Kevin Spacey's private parts Kevin Spacey has a secret. (Are you listening, Esquire editor David Granger and scribe Tom Junod)? Amy Reiter Amy Reiter's column appears daily on the People site, Monday through Friday.
Got a hot tip? Tell Amy! In his first major interview since getting badly burned by the upwardly mobile magazine for man at his best (and most dirt-dishin'), Spacey denies the rumors about his personal predilections once and for all. "It's not true," he says of Junod's infamous 1997 Esquire cover story heavily hinting -- though never outright saying -- that Spacey is gay. "It's a lie." The actor tells Playboy that the piece was "a setup ... I felt betrayed. I gave the writer, Tom Junod, more access than I'd given anybody. I made it a point not to tell my friends he was a reporter so they would be comfortable with him. What I couldn't have known was that he had an ax to grind and an agenda." Junod, says Spacey, wrote the entire nine-page article based on three questions he asked the actor on the final day of the week-long interview: 1) Was he worried about playing a gay character in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"? ("No," Spacey recalls telling him.) 2) Did the actor know there were rumors about him? ("Yes. There are rumors about anybody if you listen hard enough.) and 3) "But even my mother hears you're gay." ("More power to your mom.") Spacey, who condemned Junod's article as "homophobic" when it came out, admits that the gay label can be damaging to a leading man, but says he tries to avoid the subject so as not to appear to be saying, "I'm not like them." He also objects to the media's prurient interest in private matters. "Excuse me if I don't want to take the entire public on my own personal journey," he tells the bible for men seeking airbrush-assisted uplift. "I choose not to give people a private tour of my experience." And ... uh ... speaking of private tours, Spacey will be letting it all hang out in the upcoming film "American Beauty." His main concern, he says, was "to make sure my willy wouldn't be seen. They had to find a really big prop to put in the way." Uh-huh. That's what all the guys say ... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Going for the gold "America is where the money is." -- Royal producer Edward Windsor on the rationale behind his Hollywood shmoozefest this week, during which he was treated like a real prince. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Monica's back -- everywhere Does Monica Lewinsky have a new PR agent or what? After months of relative silence, the Mon-ster has been all over the news lately. There she is renting a luxurious New York apartment. There she is selling her own line of handbags over the Net. ("What really excites me is that this has nothing to do with the president," she chirped.) Here she is giving makeup tips in the October Marie Claire; the key to keeping your lipstick smudge-free no matter what -- or whom? -- you eat, she explains to the magazine's hapless editorial staff, is "to open your mouth real wide." (Yes, she did demonstrate -- heartbreaking, no?) And now, she's become something of a satisfied spokeswoman for weight-loss guru Jenny Craig. (Move over, Fergie. There's a new fat fighter in town.) "Anyone who has struggled with excess weight knows that this is a very personal issue, and it's not an easy one to talk about," Lewinsky told the press -- via Jenny Craig PR -- on Wednesday. "I want to clarify rumors and news reports by saying that I'm on the Jenny Craig program, and I love it." Just so long as she doesn't pose for her "after" picture in nothing but a
thong and a lipstick-smeared smile.
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