Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 17

I a i Inn Two of James Caarrs movies are competing at the famous film festival, reports Shirley Eder, left, but Caan hasn't heard, since he's out fishing. Eder's column is on Page 13B. MI.QQ MAMMFRC; or CAMERA PAGES 1 GENERAL NEWS DETROIT FREE PRESS 2 FEATURE PAGE ectia star explored sue 01 I 0-9 10-11J 13l The un II LIFE in the public eye has its pleasures and its pitfalls. Marriage to a media star can be particularly demanding. Some TV personalities have spouses who enjoy sharing the limelight with them, others have husbands and wives who guard the family's privacy.

Stress, strange hours and the fight for better ratings take their toll on Detroit's anchormen and women. Sometimes, the better life is at home for Mort Crim, with Nicki; for Doris Biscoe, with Tony Bailey; for Robbie Timmons, with Jim Brandstatter Marj Jackson Levin Lloit Crfan of WDIU-TU and Nicld Ciim "Some couples have dinner together every night," observes Nicki Crim. "We have breakfast." Her husband, Mort Crim, who anchors the 6 and 11 p.m. news weeknights for WDIV-TV (Channel 4 in Detroit), doesn't arrive home until after midnight, and Nicx. "I don't like him to come into a dark house every night," she explains.

Still, she is up at 7 a.m. weekdays to cook breakfast for Al, 1 5, and Carey, 9, and send them off to school. When Mort gets up about 9 a.m., they get out their three-speed bikes. "We ride in every kind of weather," says Nicki. "During the winter we put on our warm-up suits with thermal underwear underneath, and bike to the Ram's Horn for breakfast." THEY LIVE in a meticulously kept, traditionally furnished, large colonial home near Lake St.

Clair. The Crims, who have been married 26 years, moved here almost three years ago. They had spent a year in Chicago, five years in New York and five years in Philadelphia. A couple has to be a tight unit to weather that many moves, and the Crims are a sturdy family group. The couple have known each other 31 years; both come from southern Illinois, and have strong affiliations with the Presbyterian Church.

"The fact that we have similar backgrounds and our parents knew each other, too, has helped," says Nicki. "We both knew what we were getting into." Nicki does not complain about Mort's career moves. His friends In the media become her friends, and she is involved in his career. "I think Mort depends on my judgment," she says. Of most concern to her is the 1 fciU tfJ I 1 i i if'''i i-l-i rew 1 1 a i 5 'i i lr 4' W-r-v t' 1 1 i 't Jf 11 I I -Of--- "-I I Is.

pa i a it 1 If' -V I 'i-'f l-' I I I I 11' ill I I 1 lit children adjustment to their new environment. "They both like It here," says Nicki, "and that's what's important." Their furnishings include an organ and a grand piano purchased last year; the Crims play duets, "but not for public ears," Nicki emphasizes. Both say they like Detroit very much, but they spend most of their weekends out of town, visiting friends "who go way back," or traveling to one of Mort's many speaking engagements. They fly in their single-engine plane, a four-seater, usually with their children. ASKED IF she is jealous when women show undue interest in her husband, Nicki Crim laughs.

"We were talking about that last week when some woman approached him. If I didn't really feel we had a solid marriage, I can understand how it might upset a couple. The marriage could be shaken by really nothing in particular." When the children are older and she has more time of her own, Nicki Crim hopes to obtain her pilot's license and study for a degree in social work in gerontology. For now, however, her first priority is her family, a commitment which seems to be paying off. I Free Press Photo by WILLIAM ARCHIE Mort and Nicki Crim have weathered 26 years of marriage and moves to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, where he anchors 6 and 1 1 p.m.

newscasts for WDIV-TV. irr.iinw.n iriiriin" rinmnrriiiitirr'g'irifTririRiitmTinaTTir rpnirrii''ii i iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimniifiirwiiiniiiirtfiiiriiiiiiiTi win i' 'rr i rw iininnniffiriTrni ri Tfi-rirrTTTrr-iTrmr-i 4 4 1 9 -2 v5 paiiiiiirtiiiUatift I Free Press Pholo bv HUGH GRANNUAA '5 i i Doris Biscoe and Tony Bailey find priva- cy in their Detroit home. Doris Discos of WKYZ-TV and Tony Doiloy It would have been difficult for Doris Biscoe and -Tony Bailey to overlook each other at the Detroit March of Dimes Ball where they met six years ago. He is 6-foot-4 and she is 5-foot-1 1, and both are striking. After being introduced by a mutual friend, they started dating while he was still living in New York.

"We'd been going out for about three months before I realized Doris was really a personality in this town," he said. "We went to a Pine Knob concert, and people kept calling out, 'Hey, and asking for her autograph." BAILEY ADMITS the intrusions on their privacy were difficult at first, but he realizes her fans mean well. "We really don't go out that much anymore," says Biscoe. "We're just as happy staying home with little Tony (age two), listening to music Tony tapes, playing backgammon, popping corn and watching ON-TV." They were married five years ago, and live in a spacious home in northwest Detroit. The first four years of their marriage, she anchored the weekend news at WXYZ-TV (Channel 7), while he had weekends free.

After coping with that conflict, they particularly enjoy her current assignment: anchoring the 6 p.m. news weeknights for WXYZ. Bailey is a sales and marketing specialist for General Motors Corp. i Bit of a sticky mallet, what? First the New York Post got it wrong: "Mrs. Henry Ford II and two of her Grosse Pointe friends were shopping here last weekend for a good croquet set and finally got one from Jack Osborn of the New York Croquet Association.

An English croquet set with well balanced mallets made by Jacques of London costs $200, but since Cathy Ford plans to organize a Grosse Pointe Croquet Club, she was able to buy it, as a gift for her husband, for $1,000." Then the New Yorker reprinted the Post's typographical error (the set originally cost $1,200, not $200), and commented: "In Grosse Pointe, that's called a good deal." And now darling takes this opportunity to say she just hates it when anyone makes a snide remark at Grosse Pointe's expense. Truth is, Kathy (not Cathy) Ford purchased a tournament croquet set for her new Grosse Pointe home from Jack Osborn of the U.S. (not the New York) Croquet Association. When a person organizes a croquet club and joins the association, that person receives a $200 discount on the $1,200 croquet set, sold through Jacques of London. "It only cost $100 to join the association, so Kathy saved $100," Osborn said.

Everybody loves a rebate, darlings, even a Ford. Chapter Two: When Kathy Ford returned to Grosse Pointe, she discovered Roy and Lucia Zur-kowski had sent her and Henry a Jacques of London croquet set as a housewarming gift; naturally, she returned the first set to the association for a refund. (Nobody needs two grand croquet sets.) Any way you whack the mallets, darlings, the time has obviously arrived for everyone to play the Grand Old Game. It was a speedy stopover for Senora Dona Carmen Romero de Lopez Portillo, first lady of Mexico, i Free Press Photo bv WILLIAM ARCHIE and each other. Robbie Timmons and Jim Brandstatter love those old movies Dobbio Timmons of 17JDK-TU, lim Diandstattu of IVDIU news.

Most of the time, though, they simply head for home. "We turn on TV ard watch the late, late movie," she says. "We love those old movies," he agreed. When a photographer suggested that they snuggle up on the couch for a typical at-home picture, Brandstatter protested: "That's just not me," he said with a smile. "I hug her once in a while, but we don't sit there and watch TV cuddled up like that, and I believe in truth in broadcasting." With that, they fell into their regular relaxed positions Brandstatter at one end of the deep sofa, Timmons at the other, her feet tucked under him.

THEY DON'T RULE out having a family someday, but right now the 30-year-old sportscaster and the "I will always be one year younger than Jim" newscaster say they are too busy with their careers. Besides appearing on the nightly news, Brandstatter does voice-overs for University of Michigan football games shown cn "Michigan Replay" (11 a.m. Sunday on Channel 4). He sings at weddings, and when the spirit moves, at the Tipperary Pub. She drives to and from Jackson, where she and her brother own a home-remodeling business, Properties.

I attack the walls The celebrity status they share apparently doesn't pose a problem of who gets top billing at home. They give each other plenty of room to pursue individual Interests, and then they relax together. Their wedding made the TV news when they married eight months ago, and the honeymoon isn't over yet. Robbie Timmons, who anchors the 5:30 and 11 p.m. news weeknights for WJBK-TV (Channel 2 in Detroit), and Jim Brandstatter, a sportscaster for WDIV-TV (Channel 4), have known each other six years, and their relationship seems to get better as their lives get busier.

In 1975, he joined WILX-TV in the JacksonLansing area, where she had worked since 1972. They started dating, and continued to see each other after she moved to Detroit in 1976. He came to WDIV the next year. Today, she still gazes at him with there's no other word for it adoration in her eyes. Sitting with them in their Farmington Hills home, a visitor quickly senses the rapport between the two.

"I love being married to Jim," she says. "It's so much fun!" BRANDSTATTER SAYS they had a good relationship before they married and he wondered if they should take a chance on "messing things up." But Timmons found a weekend without a football, a basketball or a baseball game, and set the wedding date Aug. 30. There doesn't appear to have been too much arm-twisting. In spite of two busy schedules, their professional and private lives dovetail neatly.

Both work from 3 to 11:30 p.m. weekdays; sometimes they meet for dinner around 6 p.m., other days they eat in Greektown after the 1 1 p.m. who arrived in Detroit last Thursday to attend that evening's performance of the Mexican Philharmonic at the Music Hall. She was honored at an elite, formal reception before the concert, hosted by Marjorie and Max Fisher and attended by the Gov. William and Helen Milliken, Mayor Young and Kathy and Henry Ford.

Late in the evening, she dined at BOTH SAY they have learned to enjoy the city after a period of adjustment. "Tony's from London, and I'm from Washington, D.C., and we were used to a more active city life," says Biscoe, who has been at WXYZ nine years. They have a small group of close friends, "mostly people from abroad who work here, too," says Bailey, with whom they enjoy dinners and conversation. On Mother's Day, they and their son and a few other couples met for brunch at the Michigan Inn and spent the afternoon at the hotel pool. Biscoe says they aren't too athletic; besides swimming, they play rac-quetball and ride bikes through the neighborhood.

Mostly, they enjoy being with each other. "If I had to say what was most valuable to me in our marriage," Bailey says, "it would be honesty and being able to share everything. That's the most precious gift anyone can have in a relationship" no matter how demanding the celebrity status. Senora the London Chop House; Friday, it was Lopez Portillo off t0 iunch witn p0M0Co execs. Just before boarding the plane that afternoon, she was whisked into the DIA to view the Diego Rivera murals and that was about as close as the primera senora came to meeting the average Mexican-American in Detroit.

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