Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 37

PPit.t rrrr rnT'rr rrrr BEPHBirC THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC MftliJiry 27, Laura and the Gentleman Caller Actors Lab Arizona stages The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams drama about strong-willed mothers and accommodating and dominated adult children. C7. Calendar C7 James E. Cook C7 Clnemafare C8 Comics C9 Television CIO C5 EJte Short takes Reader in the rye r- i i hum umvvMttammat Jil i44 MM J.D. Salinger biography may join spring flood of publishers' offerings POLLY KAREN KUSKA, better known for the moment as Miss Colorado, takes a pie-in-the-face payoff from Constance Lynn McCullough of New York for her home team's Super Bowl loss.

The blow came in Albuquerque, N.M., where the two will be among the contestants in the Miss USA pageant Feb. 17. News briefs i WATERMELON DIET LEAVES LIBERACE ANE MIC Entertainer Llberace on Monday left Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, where he was admitted Friday for treatment By JOHN SWAGERTY Arizona Republic Book Editor Not much has been heard from J.D. Salinger since the author of The Catcher in the Rye disappeared into the New England woods a couple of decades ago. The last time anything of Salinger's appeared in print was in June 1965, when 77ie New Yorker magazine published Hapworth 16, 1924, a long story in the form of a letter written by 7-year-old Seymour Glass at summer camp.

Nevertheless, the reclusive Salinger remains a literary curiosity. In recent months Salinger has received so much attention that, in the words of Annik LaFarge, publicity manager at Random House, "I'm sick of hearing about J.D. Salinger." Most of the current fuss over Salinger is the result of J. D. Salinger: A Writing Life, a biography by Ian Hamilton that Random House originally scheduled for publication last fall and now hopes to release in the spring.

According to Random House, Hamilton reveals in his biography the previously clouded details of Salinger's New York City childhood, his early education at a New York prep school and at Valley Forge Military Academy, his attempts to write for the "slicks," his remarkable military career, his early association with Ernest Hemingway, and his romance with Oona O'Neill. As Salinger refuses to participate in such projects, Hamilton gathered most of the material for his biography from letters and documents and interviews with Salinger's acquaintances, Army buddies and friends. Salinger went to court to stop publication of the biography, charging, according to LaFarge, that Hamilton's use of letters written between 1940 and 1965 is a violation of copyright. Last October, publication was halted by a temporary restraining order. In November, a U.S.

District Court set aside Salinger's bid to enjoin publication. But the restraining order was then extended by a federal judge. Random House is awaiting the results of an appeal. "All this is very frustrating," LaFarge said a few days ago. "We desperately want to publish this book.

For the last three months I've been receiving an average of three calls a day from people wanting to know about the Salinger biography. I'm sick of talking about it. There is nothing more to say except that it is very unlikely that the best-selling series of historical rof mances, wakes up one1 winter day in a strange place, a secluded farmhouse in Colorado. He is in unspeakable pain (a shattered pelvis, a crushed knee, two. broken legs) and is greeted by the woman who saved his life: "I'm your number one fan." Annie Wilkes is a huge woman! arj ex-nurse, handy with controlled sub stances and other instruments of abuse, notably an ax and a blowtorch.

Her favorite character in all the world, Misery Chastain, has been killed by her creator. She locks the wheelchair-bound Sheldon in his room with a typewriter and tells him to bring Miserj back to life. In May, Bantam will publish The Haunted Mesa, by Louis L'Amour', L' Amour purportedly unravels an enigma that has baffled historians and anthropologists for ages: the disppeari ance of a race of cliff-dwellers whr) vanished from the face of the Earth, centuries ago. Novels by Anita Brookner, Isabel Allende and Erica Jong, authors of previous best sellers, will also appear on the spring list. Brookner, author of Hotel du Lac, tells in The Misalliance (Pantheon) the story of a strong-minded woman with the wit, courage, and means to attempt to grasp what has previously eluded her to turn a middle-age crisis into a midlife celebration.

In Of Love and Shadows (Knopf), Allende, author of The House of the Spirits, returns to an unnamed Latin American country in the grip of a military dictatorship. Irene Baltran, a daughter of the upper classes, is a naive reporter for a woman's magazine. Francisco Leal, son of Spanish exiles, is a photographer and clandestine worker in the resistance. Sent on a routine assignment, the two uncover a hideous crime. Serenissima (Houghton Mifflin) is Jong's story of popular Hollywood actress Jessica Pruitt, who finds herself at loose ends in Venice awaiting the start of her new film.

An aficionado of Shakespeare, she is enthralled by the intrigue and cruelty of her Venetian setting and feels herself drawn closer and closer to the poet. Jong transports Jessica from the narcissistic world of the present to the 16th century, where she becomes at once the model for the Dark Lady of the Sonnets and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice. She also finds the great love she has always been seeking. of anemia. "He was released about 10 a.m.

and we believe he returned to his home in Palm Springs," a spokesman said. Seymour Heller, Liberace's personal manager for 36 years, said the 67-year-old entertainer was living from her extraordinary abilities as a clairvoyant, but the focus of her life is her daughter, Lizzie, now 19. The local police ask Fay to help in solving a horrifying case; 27 children have been kidnapped. Fay embarks on a grueling nightmare of dangerous detective work. "This is a fascinating, rich book.

I can't compare it with anything I've ever read. I'm so crazy about this book I could talk about it all day," LaFarge said. Other Random House spring releases of note as described by the publisher: TTie Free Frenchman, the eighth novel by Piers Paul Read, also the author of the non-fiction best seller Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors. The Free Frenchman is Bertrand de Royjay, a Catholic aristocrat who, when France falls to the Germans, escapes to England and joins Charles de Gaulle and the Free French. Racing Through Paradise by William F.

Buckley Jr. The author of Airborne and Atlantic High, Buckley is back at sea, musing about everything from his friendship with David Niven to the flavor of a certain chocolate bar. He writes of sailing trips to Canada, the Azores, the Galapagos, and Tahiti. In the second half of the book, Buckley sails from Hawaii 4,500 miles across the Pacific to New Guinea with six companions, including his son, Christopher. Everything to Gain, by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, who offer inspiring as well as practical views on how Americans can make the most of the second part of their life.

Empire by Gore Vidal. A rich, exciting, prodigiously detailed portrait of Theodore Roosevelt's Washington spanning the years 1895-1906. Empire re-creates a time when America, having embraced the Philippines, was reaching toward China and Siberia, a time when the backwater town of Washington, D.C., was reborn into a center of blazing ambition, action and promise. A new Stephen King novel will be published by Viking this spring. In Misery, Paul Sheldon, the author of a suffering the aftereffects of spending two months on a watermelon diet and needs rest.

Heller denied a published report that the entertainer has AIDS. "We are going to postpone appearances for six or eight months because he wants a long rest after 43 years on the road, Heller said. Heller said the entertainer contracted anemia some time ago while on a watermelon diet to lose weight. "He ate watermelon for a couple of months. We got worried.

Doctors told him watermelon did not have enough proteins required by the body and Marsha Norman that he would have to stop (the diet), and doctors told him he had a slight case of anemia, Heller said. RIVERS' HUSBAND LEAVES HOSPITAL Comedienne Joan Rivers' husband, Edgar Rosen berg, has been released from UCLA Medical Center after treatment for a mild heart attack, a hospital spokesman reported Monday. Author of the play 'night Mother takes on a novel with The Fortune Teller, to be published by Random House. book will appear in March." Another book on Random House's spring list that LaFarge much preferred to talk about, she said, is The Fortune Teller by Marsha Norman, a novel scheduled for May release. The Fortune Teller is the first novel by Norman, the author of a hit Broadway play, 'night, Mother.

The fortune teller is Fay, who earns her Rosenberg, 58, who underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery in November 1984, suffered the latest heart attack Thursday, said Rivers' press agent, Richard Grant. Rosenberg was released in good condition Friday after spending the night in the hospital, said hospital spokesman Richard Elbaum. Flirty fashions to warm up summer MR. whose mus-cles carried him to fame in The A-Team, is getting his own action series, titled VT. He will play a crusading street lawyer and public defender.

The show should debut in syndication in January 1988. Designer Christian Lacroix steals show in Paris with saucy, lighthearted line '4 Our daily quote "She must have a brain, even though she doesn't have to use it. She must be nice looking, interesting, and not necessarily in our business. I'd like her to know how to cook, because I really find it romantic to watch a girl cooking for me, even my helping her in the kitchen, then eating what she cooks, out of the kitchen in another room, just the two of us!" Actor Steve Guttenberg (The Bedroom Window, Police Academy), describing what he looks for in women. Compiled from Knight-Ridder, Los Angeles Daily News, Associated Press and United Press International by Michael Maza.

By SUZY PATTERSON Associated Press PARIS Unbridled flirts, saucy Creole girls and naughty Edwardians won the day Monday in the Patou couture fashion show for next summer. Designer Christian Lacroix brought the house down with his sense of fun, fabulous fabrics and saucy, bustled skirts. Other couturiers turned out beautiful clothes, many of them influenced by earlier Lacroix ideas, including acres of ruffles and stiffened miniskirts under cinched waists. But Lacroix kept the most bouncy sense of fun throughout his lighthearted, yet carefully executed collection. Topped by wild and huge hats of all shapes, the clothes often looked exaggerated.

Enormous sunhats, sometimes perched on large head wraps or on cone shapes, came out with ribbons and bows. One wouldn't want to wear most of these outfits in Barbados cited as Lacroix's source of inspiration. It is usually too hot there for all the volumes of taffeta and lace. But the bare-midriff, two-piece print dresses looked cool enough for tropical nights. The flirty skirts with their poufs, bustles and bows all over the place would look outstanding at any fancy cocktail party.

Good legs are required for the shorter standout skirts, which would be a nightmare to pack for a holiday, much less sit on at a dinner party. Yet there were some wearable ideas, especially for the younger set Polka dots and flowers vied for attention with elaborate lace and big flowered prints. Strapless dresses were often high-waisted, almost empire style. Pants included lace bermudas under fitted pin-stripe jackets. One outfit of long pants in beige with an empire look" dress.

It had a full skirt, small waist and fitted jacket in homage to the line that set the fashion world on fire 40 years ago, designed by Christian Dior. Bohan kept up with the ultrafitted idea, with wasp-small waists. But skirts were short, pleated, tiered and flirty in what was certainly Bohan's most feminine and sexy collection in many seasons. His best jacket idea, carried throughout the collection from day to evening wear in hot colors, was very decollete with lapels, and sometimes had a draped strapless or halter top peeping out underneath. Sleeves were ample and short, and buttons were big in the suit outfits that varied from gray to black and white with plenty of pink and red thrown in for good measure.

Hot colors and black dominated evening wear, with plenty of sparkling embroidery and stiffened flounces of gazar a big item in Paris couture for next summer. His flame-red belted gazar dress with big bowed, short sleeves and flared hem would stand out in any ballroom. Pierre Cardin used a lot of ruffles and pleated effects with flair, in hooped, knee-baring silk numbers in bright, flowered silks. Stern, supermini dresses were worn with cagelike hats some dead-ringers for lampshades but were surprisingly appealing for a woman with great legs. Jean-Louis Scherrer went overboard for an "ole-ole" Spanish idea featuring black Chantilly lace on bright satin or taffeta evening dresses.

Here, too, there were all the puffy skirts, tiers, puffed sleeves or strapless numbers. All the couturiers used fabrics from quilted silks and piques to striped taffeta, chiffons, with sparkling embroidery. The couture dresses will be pricey starting at well over $10,000. But for those who want to have a work of art or two to wear or just admire in the wardrobe between parties, there is a big choice of extravagant numbers. Los Angeles Times The rankings for hard-cover books in the tos Angeles area as reported by selected bookstores: Fiction 1.

Night of the Fox, by Jack Higgins, 2. Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy. 3. It, by Stephen King. 4.

Whirlwind, by James Clavell. 5. Bandits, by Elmore Leonard. 6. Death Quest, by Ron Hubbard.

7. Shan, by Eric Van Lustbader. i a. A Taste for Death, by P.D. James, ft, The Eyes of a Dragon, by Stephen King 10.

The Counterlife, by Philip Roth. Non-fiction 1. Fatherhood, by Bill Cosby. 2. His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra, by Kitty Kelley.

3. Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them, by Dr. Susan Forward and Joan 4. A Season on the Brink, by John Feinstein, 5. The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes.

6. The Reckoning, by David Halberstam. 7. City of Nets, by Otto Friedrlch. 8.

The Frugal Gourmet Cooks with Wine, by Jeff Smith. ft The Rotation Diet, by Martin Katahn. 10. The Wise Men, by Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas. 1 waistline could be worn by just about anybody, topped with a lovely beige and white striped chiffon blouse and stole.

Meanwhile, Marc Bohan at Dior Two models present supermini dresses worn with cagelike hats as part of the spring-summer hute couture collection by Pierre Carcjin in Paris on llondayi opened his show witli a typical "new.