The Orlando Sentinel from Orlando, Florida • Page 35

if il The Orlando Sentin THURSDAY, December 28, 198 Year in review from Andy Rooney's perspective, E-8 tfL" i fa it Blaze Starr takes off again -1 r. -A Ex-stripper back in the public eye with new movie Greg Dawson ft nit i V1 1 TELEVISION By Julia M. Klein 1 4s PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Is fit ELDERSBURG, That great auburn crop of hair looms into view first. Teased and ample, it crowns a body still graceful and buxom, capable even now of exciting the envy of other middle-aged women. At 57, Blaze Starr, the beautiful onetime burlesque queen, is stripping no more not for the moment, anyway.

Her fame has faded but, in her prime, she herself will tell you, she was unforgettable. Enveloped in a shimmering hand-sewn gown, Starr would re rix- Thfp it 'XL' 1 cline languorously on a couch that exploded to the screeching of fire sirens. On occasion, she coaxed a trained panther into removing her garments one by one, and submitted to arrest, at the very least, at the hands of a young Phila- t' S-V, Ik Mt delphia policeman named Frank Rizzo. Now, clad rather more simply in a peacock-decorated purple sweatshirt, black jeans and Reeboks, she submits to an interview in the central court of a Baltimore suburban mall. She spends the Christmas season here, selling her line of Showgirl Creations from At 57, Starr is capitalizing on the notoriety of her 1950s affair with Louisiana Gov.

Earl Long. Paul Newman and Lolita Davidovich play the pair in two white carts. "AIDS changed me from sex to jewelry," she half-joked, saying she had given up not only stripping but one-night stands. Now, she said, she aspires to be "the McDonald's of the jewelry business." This year, sales of her hand- the world she once knew, said Starr, wno naan yet seen tne nnisnea rebecca bar3ERphila product. Its opening had her "pretty excited," but, she said, "it just keeps getting scarier and scarier," too.

hh Directed by Ron Shelton, who made his mark with the sexy baseball comedy the shoulder. On the set, she showed -Da- -vidovich how to take her clothes off; to-music. "They say she talks like me, acts like! me, walks like me, the whole shebang. I-hope so," said Starr. "She is gettfng raves from the ones who count.

I sajd-'Remember, I taught her everything "she The recent onslaught of publicity, hoiv-I ever frightening, seems not exactly ini-; welcome to the former Fannie Bell'ev Fleming of Mingo County, W.Va. After! i Please see BLAZE, Ef cut and polished gemstones have been particularly brisk. The release of Blaze, a movie chronicling Starr's long-ago and unlikely love affair with Louisiana Gov. Earl Long, lured curiosity seekers to the Carrolltowne Mall in droves. "They were all lined up to the pizza place Saturday," she said.

"I panicked." Filming what she calls "my movie" was like looking through a window on They say she talks like me, acts like me, walks like me, the whole shebang. Blaze Starr on Lolita Davidovlch's portrayal of her In 'Blaze' Bull Durham, Blaze opened this month around the country. It stars Paul Newman as Long looked like Gov. Long he even sounds like and Lolita Davidovich as the young Blaze. Starr herself makes a cameo appearance as an older stripper who says, "Hello, Governor" as Newman kisses her on Channel 9's new digs: Station has 'every tool' If you want to see what $20 million buys in state-of-the-art TV stations, you'll have to go to the corner of South Street and Eola Drive because you won't see a dime's worth of difference on the screen when WFTV-Channel 9 does the news from its new home for the first time on New Year's Day.

That's the goal, a transition so smooth and seamless that viewers won't notice a thing, said Channel 9 general manager Merritt Rose during an informal tour of the building this week. "I guess the only effect as it relates to the news is a slightly larger set," he said, "but it's expanded in areas not visible to the viewers. I don't think you'll be able to tell at home unless you have a really sharp eye." There's an admirable modesty and lack of ostentation surrounding the move from WFTVs cramped quarters on Central Boulevard to the gleaming, modernistic white-and-blue structure sandwiched between South Street and the East-West Expressway in downtown Orlando. On the other hand, maybe Channel 9 is afraid that showcasing a state-of-the-art studio would spark viewer demands for a state-of-the-art newscast to go with it. In any case, it's a knockout of a building a high-tech wonder inside and a dazzler on the outside, an actual-size version of something your kids might build with Legos.

"There's certainly nothing in the Southeast to compete with it maybe in the country," Rose said. "Cox corporate gave us every tool imaginable," said Paul Warnock, the station's chief engineer, who's been acting like a kid himself with a new toy. Cox Enterprises, the Atlanta-based company that owns WFTV, could have gotten off for less than $20 million. "They could have bought land outside the city limits for much less, but they've made a commitment to stay in the city," Rose said, adding, "Our intent is to be a good neighbor in terms of architecture and landscaping." The centerpiece of the handsome brick courtyardparking lot in front is a fountain the "water feature" required by city codes for all such institutional buildings, Rose said. The color scheme features several shades of blue, with high windows lending the front lobby an atrium effect.

The overall look is plush, if not palatial insurance-office Florida provincial. A circular stairway leads to the second floor and Rose's office. When the building was under construction, some Channel 9 staffers called it "Conley's Throne" after then-GM Cliff Conley, who resigned unexpectedly this year before he had a chance to occupy the throne. "This is the only non-oak furniture in the building," Rose said, entering his office. Every other office has lovely blond-oak desks and cabinets, but the throne room is done in dark, sinister mahogany.

"My predecessor chose it," said Rose, surveying his dreary digs. The move, however, was not made primarily for aesthetic reasons. "We're simply running out of space in the existing location," Rose said. "We can't walk two abreast in the hallways. In here we can do four or five.

We can have a parade." At 67,000 square feet, the new facility doubles the space available in the rabbit-warren-like quarters on Central Boulevard. (But Pat Clarke will still have to share an office.) Rose, who came to Channel 9 from a Cox station in North Carolina, took the job site unseen. "It was a shock to me when I got here and learned we had one studio and one control room." The new place has two of each, plus amenities such as a locker room and showers "for reporters who might want to clean up after a tough live shot," Rose said. (Was he serious? I think so.) It's the sort of facility you would expect of a station that has dominated the news ratings in its community for most of past decade, a decade in which Orlando was the fastest growing TV market in the country jumping from No. 41 to No.

25 on the Nielsen roster. WCPX-Channel 6 moved into its foot facility on John Young Parkway in 1984, and WESH-Channel 2 has a under construction just south of the Maitland interchange on 1-4 that's due for completion a year from now. Now about those state-of-the-art newscasts Wedding ring on resume Cast enriches cheap laughs of Fine performances save the day for Neil Simon's empty comedy some find jobs By Keith Bradsher NEW YORK TIMES When Michael McCartney, 26, was looking" foV a management job last year he had no intef est in finding a wife too. But interview'efst interest in his personal life prompted him to tejllj them that he was engaged to be married. "If you appeared as a single young buck, thijv looked at you differently," said McCartney, who) now the international marketing manager of a Ta wanese company and recently did become engager to the manager of a modeling agency.

Despite three decades of sweeping social including later marriage, a rising divorce rate alHC a wider acceptance of alternative living By Diane Hubbard Burns OF THE SENTINEL STAFF Gussied up friends of Charlie and Myra Brock have gathered to celebrate the couple's 10th anniversary in the stately living room of their upscale, suburban New York home. Symbols of status (Brock is deputy mayor) prevail, ranging from the rich ivory and moire upholstery to the male guests' occupations and their wives' lack of them. Theater review menis many better, and go home. But something is askew at the party that brackets the shallow shenanigans of Neil Simon's Rumors, which opened Tuesday at Carr Performing Arts Centre in Orlando. Myra, half of the anniversary couple, is missing.

Charlie, the other half, is upstairs in the bedroom with a bullet hole through his earlobe and in a Valium stupor that prevents him from corporations still expect men on the management track to marry by age 30, according to executive search concerns and career consultants. Being married com tributes more to porate success for: men than for womerfc Lynnda Ferguson (left), Peter Marshall and Patty McCormack catch breaths between 'Rumors' jokes. Being married contributes more to corporate success for men than for women, the consultants say. Recent surveys have found that while half the top executive women were single, less than a tenth of the men were. Staying single may give women of all ages a career advantage by allowing executives the impression that they can concentrate fully on their work, researchers said, Many career advisors contend that the people who make hiring and promotion decisions many, of There is Charlie's short, hypertensive lawyer, Ken Gorman, and Gorman's giraffe-legged wife, Chris; Charlie's uptight accountant, Lenny Ganz, and Ganz's blonde bimbo wife, Claire; Charlie's vaguely European analyst, Ernie Cusack, and Cu-sack's eccentric, overweight wife, Cookie.

Just when you think Charlie has no friends for whom he isn't a paying client, in comes political hopeful Glenn Cooper, his Kennedy-waved hair shellacked in place, and his feline, neurotic wife on his arm. All would gladly lift a toast or two to the Brocks, exchange the small talk of mutual acquaintances who prefer not to know each other any explaining. And the guests, who arrive a couple at a time and all have personal stakes in Charlie's reputation, are busy trying to hide the oddities of the situation from those who arrive after them. Such is the setup for this Simon farce, which opened a year ago on Broadway and is brought here by a sterling national touring company. The actors breathe life into these cartoonish roles, and the result is a pleasant evening of theater despite a play that needs embalming.

Rumors is rife with opportunities for sharp comedy about the breaking of social barriers between uptight, disparate people who find themselves in an extraordinary situation. But Simon overlooks the potential for social satire, opting in- Please see SIMON, E-4 them older men tend to perceive married men, as more stable, more dedicated to their careers, better able to get along with others and less likely to cost the company money by changing jobs. Such managers sometimes have prejudices against Please see MARRY E-2.