The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 43

0 0 Tho Sun 'Indiana Jones' sequel sets recordsD6 'Zoot Suit' author to speak at Riverside conferenceD6 Former 'Vogue' editor starts new fashion magazineD2 VEDNESDAY May 31, 1989 -L Liza has a starring role as herself Southland is a novel setting for spy thriller By JOHN WEEKS Sun Staff Writer ho world is on the brink. America's deadly Stealth bomber has been stolen from its fortified hangar near Edwards Air Force Base. Iranian commandos, operating out of a secret base in Wright wood, have seized the plane in an audacious raid. They've taken the fully armed nuclear bomber to the skies and are headed for Washington, D.C. Their mission: to destroy the nation's capital.

A desperate, near-hopeless pursuit of the radar-invisible plane is mounted from Norton, March and Edwards air force bases. Legions of fighter jets roar to life. The Southland shudders. Whew Thank heavens this isn't happening in real life. It's happening in a new novel called "Target Stealth," a high-tec i 1 1 er by ac ere pu b-lished bv Warner Hooks (hardcover, Jack Merck is actually Dennis Anderson, a longtime aerospace reporter ho lives in Palmdale, the high desert community where the real Stealth bomber is being built.

"They're building it about eight blocks from my house," the first-time novelist said in a recent phone interview. "Actually, it's more like a couple of miles, but every time 1 go to the market I see the factory. It's right there." "Target Stealth," the first novel to feature the top-secret plane, is already on its way to selling out a first printing of 25,000 hardcover copies. A paperback printing of 250,000 copies is planned for Christmas, foreign rights have just been sold for a hefty sum, and a movie deal is being scouted. Anderson, 'M, who in his "day job" is night editor at the Los Angeles bureau of Associated Press, will visit San Bernardino on Sunday to autograph copies of his book.

I lew ill beat Waldenbooks, in Central City Mall, from 1 toll p.m. "Target Stealth" is a high-voltage tale of espionage and counter-espionage, set in Southern California's high desert. It tells how America's greatest secret the schematics and operating instructions for its revolutionary new bomber falls first into the hands of the KGB and then the Iranian government. General Scott Cartwright, re-t i red ast ronaut ar hero and CI A contract agent, is called in to probe the security breach. But events outpace his investigation.

An elite company of Iranian commandos arrives in Southern California, aided by American and Mexican outlaw mercenaries, and proceeds to a hideaway in Wrightwood. From there, the commandos launch a bloody attack on Plant 'Mi, the defense Sx. By JANE F.LANE Special to The Sun ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. When Liza Minnelli steps onstage at the Trump Plaza you get the funny feeling she isn't necessarily going to do anything but stand there in the spotlight. Eight hundred people gasp and stare at the trademark gamine hairdo, the saucer eyes fringed ith starfiower lashes, the face upturned in hopeful expectation.

In the audience the man with the diamond horseshoe pinky ring says it best: "What a star." It's the mystique of Minnelli her 20-year intrusion on our consciousness ith her drug and drink problems; three marriages and plenty of affairs; the looming presence of her tempestuous mother Judy Garland; her coterie of friends such as Halston, Marisa Berenson and the Rothschilds; "Liza with a "New York, New York" and "Cabaret." Time and Newsweek covers. At 43, Liza has never looked better. Her skin is clear and smooth, her fingernails, once bitten to the quick and pasted over with plastic talons, are tidy ovals lacquered clear. She wears a pretty diamond engagement ring and a slim gold edding band. She doesn't have the preternatural, axy youth of the typical overtucked and overex-ercised star, but she is fresh, robust and remarkably natural.

She has a certain class. This is a time of change for her. She's going to London to ork on a recording ith the Pet Shop Boys obviously a departure into mainstream pop rock after months on tour. There's a movie treatment. And she muses ishfully about a film remake of "Gypsy" with herself as Mama Rose.

She doesn't, however, focus on her past and its ferocious traumas, opting instead to recall her father Yinccnte Minnelli with immense affection. She does not volunteer although friends ill that she behaved ith extraordinary devotion and generosity to her own family and with equivalent ardor to friends and acquaintances ith abuse problems similar to hers. hat Liza the star loves to talk about is show business and style. "I look for something that I can wear that won't wear me, something that's comfortable and elegant. I look for line, especially in evening clothes, here the body moves and the clothes See LIZAD2 ods, if you make a purchase early in the billing cycle.

Like to "skip your monthly Sure, you can, but you'll also be docked 16 percent interest, or whatever the going rate is. Then there's the pitch for a lower interest rate if you open a checking account. The catch is that you might get a few points knocked off the interest rate, but you may have to pay big bucks, as much as $72 at one bank, for service fees on the checking account. Come Sept. 1.

however, the chances of falling into a trap are less likely. The Federal Reserve Board ill require credit card issuers to make fuller disclosure. All mailings and brochures ill have to state clearly the annual fee, grace period, balance calculation method and other details that now get left to fine print, if they're included at all. DETTS GRIFFCNEThe Sun resemblance to legendary test pilot Chuck eager. "Yea, he's frankly reminiscent of Yeager," Anderson allows, "but he's also like guys I knew in the Army." (Anderson served 1972-75 as an Army paratrooper in Europe.) The book's descriptions of Stealth technology are also based on reality, even though the Stealth project is secret.

In fact, Anderson started riting his book three years before the unveiling of the first Stealth prototype last N'ov ember. So how did he know Did he engage in a little espionage himself' No. "I just used public sources, hat I could find on library shelves and in aviation bookstores." he said. "When you SeeTHRILLERD2 crazy. You could still buy a home for something less than a hundred grand, and I just thought, if I don't do it right now, I'll regret it." The local scenes in Anderson's story are all "pretty real," he said.

The book's Plant 8(5 is based on the real Air Force Plant 42, just north of Palmdale, here the real Stealth bomber is under construct ion. The terrorist stronghold in Wrightwood is also an invention based on fact. "My ife and I were on a day trip up there, and I found out you can look (low into the desert and actually see Plant 42. 1 thought, hey, this is pretty good." The book's hero, General Scott Cartwright, is also fact-based, bearing more than a little dles most of AP's West Coast coverage of the space shuttle and ot her aerospace news. lie lives in the thickofthings, too.

The high desert of Southern California is one of the nation's aerospace hotspots. "When you live out here in the middle of nowhere, you have all this incredible stuff flying around all the time," hesaid. "For people living in tow ns, it's out of sight, out of mind, but out herethere's all this testing, strafing, bombing. It's going on all the time." Anderson, married with two children, moved to Palmdale from Los Angeles a couple of years ago. "I as going back and "forth on assignment so much, I knew the area," he said.

"And the place was building out like Apple Valley youngster is fearless when it comes to screen stardom Credit card deals are too good to be true plant at Palmdale here the Stealth is being tested. They manage the impossible. They seize the bomber and take to the skies with its deadly cargo. The nation goes on red alert. The world holds its breath.

A massive pursuit effort seems to be too little, too late. But leading the chase is Gen. Cartw right, hell-bent for the dogfight of his life. The story came naturally to Anderson, a former Army paratrooper and aircraft recognition specialist who ent on to become a career aerospace reporter, first for Los Angeles-area newspapers, then for United Press International and finally for Associated Press. Even now, as an editor, he still han "Mo iesare done in little tiny pieces," said Miko's mother.

"He's too young to know the story line," said John Hughes, ho has spent most of his life behind the camera as a special effects artist. "Yeah, I pretended to slash at Denise (Crosby, who plays Rachel Creed), but it was at the camera," Miko said shyly, clambering up on the couch to sit next to his mother. "He's fully cognizant that it's all pretend," John Hughes said. "He only sees his own parts." At a recent showing of the movie, John Hughes said they took their son out of the theater when the story turned spooky. Daddy," Miko said from his perch on the table, "I didn't like the scary parts." For Miko, the hardest scene if tc-l I was when he "bit off' the Adam's appleof Fred Gwynne.

His father said he showed the toddler all the mechanics of the scenes, breaking it down a step at a time so it wasn't frightening. "I bit him (Gwynne) on the neck and it went whoosh," Miko said as he flipped through a photo album his mother has put together. "I didn't like it," he said, crinkling up his button nose. "It as yucky." Miko Hughes got his start when he was 22 months old, appearing in a public service announcement against drug abuse for the Scott New man Foundation. Seeing the footage of this diaper-bottomed toddler running around in fuzzy feet pajamas, it's hard to believe he has spent hours and hours in front of the By LESLIE ELLIS Gannett News Service Credit card deals ith come-ons such as "no annual fee" or "powerful credit line" sound pretty tempting.

But they may not be the deals they seem. Here are some pitches to watch out for, according to Money magazine. "No annual fee" sounds great until you learn that the fee is waived only for 12 months, or that there's a monthly fee for every month you use your card. And that "powerful credit Well, it may come attached to a sky-high interest rate, as much as 2 1 percent. Tempted by "50 interest-free Well, that feature is basically available on all cards ith 25-day grace peri By SUZANNE ROIG Sun Staff Writer APPLE VALLEY The first thing you not ice about Miko Hughes is his round, doe-like brow eyes.

The second thing that strikes you is his ability to distinguish between hat's real and hat's pretend. That's important, because Miko is an actor. The Apple Valley youngster plays Gage Creed in the horrific "Pet Sematary," based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Miko's parents. Mary and John Hughes, are not concerned that in the movie their son rises from the dead, bites off an Adam's apple and slashes Fred Gwynne ith a scalpel.

Miko Hughes Stars in Pet Sematary' camera doing commercials for Johnson Johnson, and Kubota Law Mow er and Tractor. He has also been featured in Japanese soda commercials and a Colgate Palmolive commercial aired in Europe. Miko's friendliness and his well-behaved manner as a baby See MIKOD2.