The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 31

BEST BET "Best of Banff" film festival, 6:30 and 9 p.m. Friday, Billings Theater, University of Vermont. Burlington. The Ski Rack Living SECTION Horoscopes: 4D Ann Landers: 5D Comics: 5D sponsors this showing of mountain and adventure footage. General $6, students with a valid college ID Friday, February 11, 1994 1 Features Editor: Joe Cum, 660-1865 or (800) 427-3124 Dee Tom Hardie grandparenting A 1 Roseanne: Kiss off her show? Retirement pregnancy considered -4na I ABC censors gay bar scene By Tim Kiska Gannett News Service There may be more than meets the eye in the latest television brouhaha over Roseanne Arnold and hubby Tom.

And it may only be the latest example of both TV viewers and the media being used by a couple of TV stars battling a network. Over the weekend it appeared that narrow-minded ABC executives were picking on poor, beleaguered Roseanne Arnold again. The flashpoint this time is a "Roseanne" episode taped last week, which was to be aired March 1, in which Arnold goes to a gay bar with bisexual friend Nancy (Sandra Bernhard). Roseanne dances with Nancy's current girlfriend, played by Mariel Hemingway, makes a wisecrack that is misinterpreted and they end up in a smooch. A shocked Roseanne then has to explain what happened to her TV husband (John Goodman).

ABC has reportedly refused to air the episode, or at least that's what Tom Arnold executive producer of "Roseanne" says. Arnold told the Los Angeles Daily News that ABC officials told him: "A woman cannot kiss a woman. It's bad for kids to see." The flap really began two weeks ago, when "Roseanne" producers submitted the story line to ABC, which rejected it. Tom Arnold reportedly was told by Steve Weiswasser, ABC's general counsel, that bisexuality was not a lifestyle most people led. ABC officials, who are negotiating to keep the high-rated "Roseanne" for three more years, refused to comment.

So what's really going on here? Could this be a new power play on Roseanne Arnold's part? Could Tom Arnold be looking for publicity, given the fact that he has a new CBS sitcom coming out? Well, Tom Arnold's CBS sitcom debuting March 2 is similar in format (the lead character is a TV star) to the sitcom that died on ABC. So Arnold needs all the help he can get. Christy Beltrami will be among 51 women vying for the title of Miss USA tonight on CBS. Miss Vermont is 6boni and raised. By Molly Walsh Free Press Slqfj riter Christy Beltrami hopes to be a runway success on the beauty circuit Miss America competition in that it has no talent competition.

Beltrami pooh-poohs the rivalry between the two, but she can't resist a dig at the Almost since she could walk, Christy Beltrami has dreamed of wearine A good friend, a woman of 56, lost her only child, an 1 8-year-old daughter, two years ago in a tragic accident, and has been overwhelmed with grief. She has read about the 59-year-old British woman who recently produced test-tube twins, using eggs donated by a younger woman and fertilized by her husband and implanted in her in a Rome fertility clinic. My friend's 62-year-old husband has the money and eagerly approves. I think he also likes the idea of having another child at this stage of his life. He claims they're both in "super shape." They're seriously thinking about going to Rome.

What do you think? Wilmington, Del. It is true that recent developments in modern medical research have introduced so-called "retirement pregnancies" for post-menopausal women, using in vitro fertilization. But motherhood is certainly not retirement. Ask any mother of any age. A woman who has a baby at 56 or 57 isn't having a child; she's having a grandchild.

Maybe that's what your friend really wants. She could be at least at first a far better mother than many of today's unwed teen-agers. However, is she prepared for sleepless nights, adolescent traumas and all the other responsibilities of modern-day motherhood? And when her child is 1 8 she will be at least 74 and her husband 80. Is that fair to the child, and, in fact, to all of them? We think your friend should stop and carefully consider all the problems, emotional and medical. To us, losing a child is the most devastating of all losses, especially at 18, the beginning of an adult life.

We know. We think your friend should seek professional counseling about her loss, rather than thinking about bringing a new life into this world. Many experts also very strongly feel the world is already overpopulated. Since she and her husband have lost a life, they should both consider helping out others with their lives. There are so many children in this world who need help! This is a very complicated issue.

We welcome comments from our readers. Poem of the month: "Worthless Treasure" She was not rich, not in silver or gold. Her treasure was a drawer and all it did hold. In the top of her dresser she once showed it to me. She laid it on the floor, and knelt on one knee.

She told me a story as each piece she'd hold. Remembering times before she'd grown old. Building blocks and my Dad's old toys. Things she'd saved when her children were boys. I watched as my Grandma's eyes turned to tears.

In that drawer were memories of long lost years. And I realized that in that old drawer Were all the memories she so adored. Memories as trinkets, more precious than gold. Memories she shared in the stories she told. She was not rich, no, not in silver or gold.

She had a "Worthless Treasure" more precious than gold. Nancy Dentler Johnson, Mathews, Va in memory of my grandmother Eve-lyn Dentler Tom ami Dee llardie's column appears Fridays in the Living section. They welcome questions or siiKxcstions short, about 100 to ISO words with a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Send to: PO. Box Charlotte, Vt.

0H4S. other Miss Vermont, Jacqueline Quirk, whose Vermont-resident status was questioned last September at the Miss America pageant. Because of the controversy, people often ask Beltrami if she is a Vermonter. "I tell them I was born and raised here," she said proudly. Beltrami's ancestors were among the wave of Italian stonecutters who moved to Barre around the turn of the century.

In the 1940s her grandparents started a photography studio that now has four branches, including one in Burlington. Beltrami hopes one day to run the business, where she has worked on and off since graduating from Spaulding High School. And for critics who say beauty pageants exploit women, Beltrami a veteran of three contests has a ready response. She still remembers the protestors who picketed the Radisson when she won the Miss Teen Vermont contest in 1987. "These women that are putting the pageant down, they are standing up for their rights, yet they are putting my rights down for competing," Beltrami said.

For her the experience is a dream, a dare, and a delightful vacation from everyday life. "This is something I've always wanted to do, and if I hadn't done it I'd regret it." the Miss USA crown. "I've always watched the pageants. They were the only shows my parents would let me stay up to watch past my bedtime," the 24-year-old Barre native said. So tonight she'll step with confidence onto the stage of the Miss USA pageant and into the homes of millions of television viewers.

"In a way I've always been preparing to do it," Miss Vermont said. Vermont is known for its shortage of pageant contestants neither the Miss USA system nor the rival Miss America system drew more than a dozen state contestants this year. And until Bennington beauty Charlotte Lopez won the Miss Teen USA pageant last year, no Vermonter had even placed in a major national pageant since the 1950s. Even so, Beltrami thinks she has a shot at being a finalist, and a long shot at winning the crown, which comes with a $250,000 prize package and a chance to compete in the Miss Universe pageant in the Philippines. "I would love it," said the Williston photographer.

With a Linda Evangelista nose, a widc-as-the-Mississippi smile and a lolla-palooza figure poured into a purple evening gown drenched with 10 pounds of sequins and sparkles, Beltrami hopes to stand out tonight at the pageant in South Padre Island, Texas. The competition is stiff. So stiff that this week in rehearsal, the misses were starting to snap at one another. "People are getting nervous," Beltrami said from her hotel room. The front-runners: Miss Hawaii, Miss New Jersey and Miss Georgia, she thinks.

All four are professional models, and like the 5-foot-10 Beltrami, a good deal taller than most of the contestants. Judging by the flesh- and flash-filled commercials that have been airing to promote the pageant, the contestants are all quite fit. That's a good thing, since for the first time this year, Miss USA contestants will wear bikinis instead of one-piece suits. After training for the pageant with Burlington body builder and former Mrs. Vermont Maryann Ficociello, Beltrami is ready to bare her midriff to the judges and the nation.

"They really want a girl who is physically fit and toned," she said. The love affair between pageants and plastic surgeons is well known, but Beltrami's body is 100 percent real. "I haven't had anything done," she said. Miss Vermont did spruce up her speaking skills in a Dale Carnegie course for the interview portion of the contest. The Miss USA pageant differs from the On TV tonight 4 iuW-ivL-'VL Jill Tom Arnold's new show on CBS is set to premiere March 2.

The Miss USA Pageant will air live from 8 to 10 tonight on CBS, hosted by Bob Goen of Entertainment Tonight and Arthel Neville of Entertainment Television. Vermont's own Charlotte Lopez the Pawlet-area girl who won the Miss Teen USA title last year will appear as a special guest. Safo sledding Don't let safety slip away Safe Kids has these safety tips for parents to pass on to their downhill daredevils: Only sled on terrain that is free of obstacles. I Make sure the bottom of the slope is far from streets and traffic. Always use a sled with a steering mechanism.

Avoid riding downhill In a prone Never ride In a sled that Is being pulled by a motorized vehicle. Make sure children wear bright clothes, so they're visible in the snow. see neck injuries, fractures. If someone hits the top of their head hard enough it's the same thing as if they dove into shallow water." The type of sled matters, he said. "If it's a sled that has runners like the old Flexible By Lawrence Proulx The U'ahinaton Post A child with knit cap, mittens and runny nose, pulling a sled up a snowy hill it's one of winter's most heartwarming sights.

But, according to the National Safe Kids Campaign, sledding accidents prompted about 27,000 visits by children to hospital emergency rooms in 1992, the last year for which figures are available. Dennis Whitehead, an emergency physician on Michigan's snowy Upper Peninsula, reported that the injuries he sees are often "head injuries, primarily in younger children or preteens. They tend to sled in the head-first position, and if they don't have adequate steering they can easily run into a tree or other stationary object. We will occasionally exciting the thrill of getting on and letting go and seeing what mischief gravity can make of it all. Flyers, you get better control.

With the new plastic sleds you don't have good steering control." And soft, fluffy snow is less hazardous: "If it's hard and icy, you do see more injuries." The tricky thing is, danger is part of what makes sledding.