Humans aren’t the only primates fascinated by Julia Roberts.
Filming a PBS documentary, the actress spent a day in the jungle with a baby orangutan virtually glued to her neck. Then a 400-pound male named Kusasi pulled her in for a hug, and didn’t want to let go.
“My head was spinning and my heart _ my microphone was in my bra _ you can hear my heart going faster and faster. It was sort of sensory overload,” Roberts says in the May 16-22 TV Guide in New York about the experience during filming of In the Wild: Orangutans with Julia Roberts.
The movie star and Murphy Brown fan also makes a TV sitcom appearance this month, showing up in the show’s final episode for a sizzling moment with Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto), Murphy Brown’s co-worker. Regalbuto “was counting the days until Julia showed up,” said Diane English, the show’s creator.
Unorthodox diva rebuked
Glamorous Israeli transsexual Dana International conquered Europe with a song. But she hasn’t got a prayer with Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews.
“In order to win the Eurovision after 20 years, we had to send a gimmick,” complained Rabbi Shlomo Benizri after the singer, a statuesque brunette, won the annual contest on Saturday night in Britain.
“It’s a sign of the bankruptcy of Israeli song,” Benizri, deputy health minister from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said in Jerusalem. “God is against this phenomenon. It’s a sickness you must cure and not give legitimacy.”
Dana International, born Yaron Cohen, a male, underwent a sex and name change four years ago. With a catchy dance tune called Diva, she won the votes of television viewers across Europe, defeating musicians representing 24 other countries.
For once Israel’s shoot-from-the-lip President Ezer Weizman chose his words carefully. “I believe that it’s very nice the state of Israel won first prize,” he said.
Radio talk-show hosts on Sunday speculated, only half-jokingly, whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would risk the collapse of a government that includes ultra-Orthodox parties should he congratulate Dana International with a kiss. But his office wasn’t saying how he would act.
And the beat goes on …
Sonny Bono is gone, but he and longtime partner Cher are still close.
The singer-actress who gave a moving eulogy for the congressman who died last winter in a skiing accident says in the May 16-22 issue of TV Guide in New York that she communicates with the entertainer-turned-politician through spiritual medium James Van Praagh. “He told me things only Sonny could have known,” Cher said.
Before the funeral, Cher wrote 100 pages of eulogy preparation, but tore them up. “I had to wing it,” she said. “But there were so many things I wanted to say.”
Cher brings her memories of her often stormy life with her ex-husband and singing partner to TV this month in Sonny and Me: Cher Remembers, which airs on CBS May 20.
Medal honors Linda McCartney
Linda McCartney has been posthumously awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
McCartney, the wife of Paul McCartney and a longtime crusader for vegetarianism, died of cancer last month at age 56.
She was one of 120 people honored at a ceremony Saturday on Ellis Island, where immigrants used to be processed before entering New York City.
ALMANAC
It’s the 131st day of the year; 234 days are left in 1998. On this day:
* In 1858, Minnesota became the 32nd state.
* In 1981, reggae artist Bob Marley, 36, died in Miami.
* In 1996, an Atlanta-bound ValuJet DC-9 crashed shortly after takeoff into the Everglades, killing all 110 aboard. Thought for today: “No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not someday be antiquated.” _ Author Ellen Glasgow (1874-1945)
Today’s birthdays: Comedian Mort Sahl, 71; actress Natasha Richardson, 35; country singer-musician Tim Raybon, 35.
