Chatter - People Magazine

Published: June 18, 1984 Author:  MICHAEL SMALL

Twinkle, Twinkle You too can be a star just like Bette Davis. So says the Northfield, III. International Star Registry, which charges $35 to name a charted star for you and sends a map showing the star’s location. Brooke Shields ordered one for her mom, Teri, and mom reciprocated. Shirley MacLaine got one for her 50th birthday from a fan. A California physician who said he once treated a royal star named Charles later put two up in heaven as a wedding gift for the Prince and Diana. Victoria Principal named one after her mother. One M*A*S*H fan from Texas sent enough cash to name stars after 10 cast members. In 1982 Jamie Lee Curtis gave them as Christmas gifts to 13 people, including her dad, Tony. So the next time you look up at the midnight sky to wish for fame or fortune, you might as well make a wish on Lucille Ball or Dolly Parton. Yessir, they’re up there somewhere.

Frozen Idol “I don’t like the idea of people blowing themselves up,” said Matt Dillon, who showed up with pal Vincent (Alphabet City) Spano at a Manhattan dance club to benefit Freeze Voter ’84, a nuclear freeze group that works to increase voter registration. Matt doesn’t like the idea of some people shaking themselves up, either. “I’ve been watching you, and you haven’t danced all night,” an attractive woman told the 20-year-old movie star as he leaned against the bar. “Would you like to dance?” “No thank you,” he replied. “Why not?” asked his persistent new friend. “You know, I’d just make a fool of myself,” answered Matt. Then he glanced quickly at the huge mirror over the bar, apparently to make sure he wasn’t already looking foolish, smiled, nodded to his female fan and leaned back to watch and be watched.

Universal Language As rumor had it, Jackie Bisset and ballet star Alexander Godunov married secretly some time ago. Jackie says that’s a bunch of baloney. Although she and Alexander have been together for three years, they don’t need wedlock to keep them true. In fact, Jackie says she’s over a hurdle most married couples face for years: She likes the equivalent of her mother-in-law. Recently Alexander put through a call to his mom in Riga, Latvia. Says Jackie, “I didn’t even know how to say hello. She had only five words of English, and I had only five words of Russian. So we giggled and laughed over the phone at each other. I think she was as shy and embarrassed as I was, but she sounded very sweet.”

A World of Difference In the Chinese city of Xian, they used to think Walter Mondale was a real swinger. After Mondale’s 1979 Vice-Presidential visit, a story rapidly spread that he had shopped at the free market where peasants sell their wares and had come away with two concubines. “No one could quite believe it,” says Mr. Meng, a local tour guide who remembers the incident. “We didn’t know you could buy concubines in the market.” Eventually people found out that the source of the rumor was one of Mr. Meng’s fellow guides who showed Mondale around town. Recounting his experience in English to a Xian Jiaotong University class a while back, Mondale’s guide mistakenly mixed up the words concubine and cucumber, and somehow the faulty rumor spread. Adds Mr. Meng, “Until it was straightened out, we shook our heads and said, ‘These Americans!’