Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 53

I "1 i 1 a Off CP .4 JSJI LI LI I 4 RON JAYE RETIRES AFTER 35-YEAR CAREER ON LOCAL TV By Rob Owen Post-Gazette TV Editor flllllillllll 5 I i il i i Fred ProuserReuters Helen Hunt plans to cast away her husband. authorities that Gordon received nearly $100,000 from Anderson but demanded another $250,000. Jit iPMlssilllilliiili Tomorrow, WPXI reporter Ron Jaye will sign off on Channel 11 for the last time, ending a career in Pittsburgh television that began in 1965. Since then he's hosted talk shows on WPXI), anchored news and weather (on WPXI and WTAE), read sports news (on KDKA), reported news for radio (WTAE-AM) and even hosted "Bowling for Dollars" (on WTAE). A Buffalo, N.Y., native, Jaye said the talk show and reporting were career highlights.

He said he was especially proud to be part of two first-time efforts: "Hotline" was the first show to feature telephone calls on television, and Jaye anchored Pittsburgh's first 5:30 p.m. newscast on WPXI. On "Hotline," viewers would call in with questions for guests, who included authors James Michener and Gay Talese. To create a seven-second delay, Jaye said, "Hotline" was recorded on one VCR and the tape would then run to another VCR that played it back. The travel time between GOSPEL BY CHAR Char, a Pittsburgh gospel performer, will sing and sign autographs from 10 a.m.

to 6 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday at Family Bookstores in Monroeville. She has a new Christmas CD, "Family Christmas." She will be featured in a Christmas television special at 6:30 p.m. Sunday on BET and at 2:30 p.m. Monday on the Inspiration Television Network.

Rebecca Sodergren Post-Gazette Staff Writer CALLING IT QUITS "What Women Want" star Helen Hunt wants a MADONNA'S WEDDING Madonna will sing a song she secretly wrote for Guy Ritchie right after they're declared husband and wife tomorrow in Scotland. But her brother, Martin Cic-cone, will not be among those who get to hear it. Madonna has banned him from attending. He's got a history of drinking problems, and supposedly she's paying for his latest rehab in a Los Angeles facility. "I'm a casualty of my own life," Cic- ittsburob )ost-6azcttc Thursday, December 21, 2000 PAGE D-5 'Vv im i mmMa unimtr it i cone said.

"I'm not bitter about missing the wedding. At times, my sister has been good to me. It would be nice to be there on her big day." Madonna has tapped Sir Elton John and Sting to perform at the reception. US Weekly reports the wedding will cost about $3 million. Retiring Ron Jaye says farewell to broadcasting tomorrow.

divorce. Hunt filed a divorce petition citing irreconcilable differences as the reason to end her 17-month-old marriage to actor-husband Hank Azaria. They've been separated about six months. AMERICA'S FIRST FAMILY "Today" show morning host Matt Lauer can expect to get up even earlier next year with the arrival of a new ba iffy 3f.S i 'V- 1 do not know if it is good forever, but I 'think it lasts a very long time. I will go get it, that's for sure, I told my mother.

Celine Dion, expecting her first kid on Valentine's Day, has another one of her eggs also fertilized by husband Rene Angeli in frozen storage at a New York clinic. HI, ROB Suzanne Pleshette, 63, who played Bob Fred ProuserReuters Suzanne Pleshette will tie the knot with "Newhart's" handyman. the two VCRs was seven seconds. "Look at the kind of technology we have today," Jaye said. "In that light, it's quite humorous to use two tape machines next to each other." Jaye was once encouraged to apply for a talk show host job by his cousin who worked at a TV station in Dayton, Ohio.

Jaye procrastinated in getting the tape to him, and by the time he did, the station had hired someone else. His name was Phil Donahue, and his show was soon syndicated nationally. But Jaye has no regrets. He got to do pretty much everything a person can do in television. Once he did it all at in the same day.

"One night on Channel 11, at this time of year when people were sick or on vacation, I did the news, sports and weather," Jaye said. "I was the whole show. Of course, we only had a half-hour, so it wasn't quite so bad, but the preparation was hell." Jaye turned 66 in October, but decided to stay at WPXI "one more year, probably to their chagrin. You know the youth movement in TV. They're being very gracious and nice, but I think they're thinking, 'Get rid of the old That's only natural." Most recently, Jaye has been Channel ll's BeaverButler bureau reporter (Amy Marcinkiewicz will take his place).

Before that he was a morning and noon anchor on Channel 11. Jaye said losing his anchor seat felt like a demotion at the time, but ultimately he was glad for the change. "Every anchor is a reporter, and if they aren't, they don't belong there, and obviously we know there are many who don't belong there," Jaye said. "Going back to reporting was the best thing I ever did. I've been all over Western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio and parts of West Virginia.

You get a chance to talk to people. It's so different you're not sitting in a studio. You get to meet so many people and see so many different things." Jaye said economics are the biggest change in TV news since he started in Pittsburgh 35 years ago. "When television found it could make money on news, journalism went out the window," Jaye said. "Not completely.

They still try to do a factual, good story, but it must have bells and whistles now. During the '50s and '60s and on into the '70s, we were making it up and we were allowed to use our imagination. Now with so much money involved, you can't use that much imagination. You have to package things in what television stations perceive to be the most palatable manner." Jaye and his wife, Jane, plan to stay in Pittsburgh, where three of their four children live. And Jaye's distinctively raspy voice may be heard again.

"I'm going to let people know I'm available for free-lance, but I'm not going to push it," Jaye said. "I'd like to do voice-overs, documentaries, that kind of thing. I'll make myself available. If they call, fine." Newhart's wife in "The Bob Newhart Show" in the '70s, and Tom Poston, 79, who played George in the '80s "Newhart," are engaged to be married. RICKY AND CHRISTINA Grammy-winning pop sensa- tions Ricky Martin and Christi- na Aguilera are recording a duet of Martin's single, "Nobody Wants To Be Lonely." The single was recorded in Las Vegas.

The hot stars are filming the song's video in Florida this week, followed by cameras from MTV's "Making the Video," which will air the spe- cialJan. 16. From wire reports by. Lauer's wife, Dutch model Annette Roque Lauer, is expecting in July. LIFE WITH LOUIE An Arizona man was sentenced to prison for extorting money from "Family Feud" host Louie Anderson by threatening to tell tabloids that the comic had asked him for sex.

Richard J. Gordon, 31, of Mesa, pleaded guilty to a federal blackmail charge and was sentenced to 21 months in prison. He also must pay $4,000 in restitution to Anderson. Anderson's lawyer told federal lies my father told me From Indian princesses lo Santa, what's wrong with tall tides? Advice was to compromise pn sex schedule DEAR ANN: Apparently, you said in a recent column that couples should have sex three times a week. Thanks a lot.

My husband read that and announced triumphantly, "Ann Landers says we should have sex three times a week." I looked him in the eye and said, "How nice of Ann. When is she coming over?" by jean martin have two grandsons, ages 12 and 7. My daughter has not let me see them for four years. I have no idea why. She won't tell me.

When her sons ask why Grandma and Grandpa don't come to visit, she tells them we live too far away. They know we have traveled to Mexico and Canada, which means we are perfectly capable of getting to their house. I do not want to put these precious children in the middle of their mother's conflict with her parents. I send photographs and write letters, because that is all I can do. There is no way to tell my grandsons that our absence is NOT our choice.

Saying so would only make things worse, and I might lose all contact with them. How can I let my grandchildren know I love them dearly and would like nothing better than to spend time with them? I don't want them to grow up like "Looking Back in Sadness," believing we don't care. GRIEVING IN ST. LOUIS DEAR ST. LOUIS: There will be no healing until your daughter gets into therapy and finds out why she has such hostile feelings toward you.

Apparently, a healthy mother-daughter bond was never established. The problem may go back to your relationship to your mother. I hope I have opened some doors of thought for you and your daughter and that she will consider counseling to help her resolve the problems she has had with you all these years. Only then will she realize how important it is for you to be allowed to see your grandchildren. Send questions to Ann Landers, Box 11562, Chicago, 1L 60611-0562.

My father was not a liar. Anyone who knew him will tell you how appallingly truthful he was. If you asked his opinion of something, you got it, for better or worse. Even his income tax return was an honest accounting of his income and expenditures over the past 12 months. But, every now and again, my father would, well, I wouldn't call it stretching the truth.

I would call it telling the most magnificently resplendent whoppers in the history of prevarication. Dad never fought in the Civil War. He just liked to say he did. Calmly, without cracking a smile, as though he were telling you what he'd had for lunch that day. I am not an Indian princess.

Dad knew that there wasn't any such thing. He just liked to say that I was. Dad was a history buff. Most of his fictions involved some aspect of our country's origins. But we knew better than to repeat them in social studies class.

Even my sister, who never knew any history, knew that Ceasar Rodney didn't ride a Cattawampus Hoppus when he went to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence. But it was a good story. My friends knew Dad was exaggerating. Most of my sister's friends did, too. The notable exception was a little airhead who shall remain nameless.

I will say only that she liked to tell mother what a mess our house was. Dad told the airhead we weren't allowed to laugh at the dinner table. I don't think he ex- Kected her to believe him, but she was an air-ead. She took him at his word. Every time she came for dinner, Dad told jokes.

Nobody ever set her straight. It was just too much run. I never lost faith in my father. He was always truthful where it counted. I never doubted him when he told me that my compositions were good, if I could just get my spelling up to par.

This does not mean I gave any credulity to weren't any Dying reindeer. There weren't any elves at the North Pole. Santa Claus was the joy of giving, which is part of the Christmas season. I didn't understand that in the third grade. I do now.

This time of year, there are all manner of long-faced discussions about whether it's right to tell children that their presents come from Santa. All I can say is that the guy in the red suit was the tamest of my father's prevarications. I never resented the Santa story. I never resented being an Indian princess either, even' though I always knew I wasn't. I would never deny a child Santa, as I would never deny a child picture books.

There was a joy in believing, for just a little while, that there was magic in the world. I remember waking up one morning, and coming downstairs, to Christmas, entirely unexpected and unanticipated. It just happened, suddenly. There was the tree! There were the presents! That's about the closest thing to real magic any sane person can expect. Eventually, I got too old to believe.

It was one of those things, like learning to write cursive or reading books that had no pictures, that meant I was growing up. I have a funny feeling that those who claim to have been traumatized when they learned that Santa was pretend are those fragile souls who also suffered psychic damage when Mom made them eat lima beans. Children like to believe in magic. They love it when the giant comes to tell Harry Potter he's going to Hogwarts school. They want to find Narnia in the back of the wardrobe Thev want to believe in Santa.

In a world where kindergartners do worksheets, and moms slug it out at their kids' soc cer games, children need a few simple pleasures. Santa Claus is one of them. a free-lance writer livina in Shadyside. "uuiy If you think my husband should have sex three times a week, you had better come by twice a week because once a week is plenty for me. Please stop giving such lousy advice.

Most women have a tough enough time with this problem, and comments like yours don't help. NOT OK IN OKLAHOMA DEAR NOT OK: I'm sorry I made trouble for you. However, your husband misquoted me. I said couples should compromise when it comes to sex. Sexual appetites vary.

No third party can determine how much is too much or not enough. And THAT is all I am going to say on the subject. DEAR ANN: The letter from "Looking Back in Sadness," the man who had no relationship with his grandparents when he was younger, broke my heart. He said his grandparents could manage cruises and trips, but they never bothered to visit their grandchildren. Here's the other side of the story: I his announcement that he would train our kittens to be acrobats.

And I never believed that he fought in the Spanish-American War. When I was small. Dad told me about Santa Claus. When I was big enough to write to Santa, Dad told me how. He gave me the correct address: Santa Claus, North Pole.

He even took my letters into town to mail them. I think he was the one who told me what kind of cookies Santa liked, and to leave carrots for his reindeer. I would lie in bed on Christmas eve, hearing tire chains jingling in the street, thinking they were Santa's sleigh bells. When I was in the third grade, Dad gave me the facts on Santa, as he saw them. There.