ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 26, 1992                   TAG: 9203260251
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


THE PEOPLE COLUMN

Italy's state-run television has banned a mineral water commercial featuring actor John Travolta because of possible political overtones, a watchdog agency said Wednesday.

In the commercial, Travolta states that Italy has as many political parties as it has mineral water companies, and suggests Italians should "choose well."

It was scheduled to be aired April 2, just three days before general elections. Advertisements on Italian public television cannot have any political content, said Massimo Modesti, a spokesman for the agency that regulates such ads.

\ David Letterman's most dogged fan showed up again in his neighborhood, after telling authorities she'd leave him alone.

Margaret Ray, a 39-year-old from Crawford, Colo., who has been arrested six times on charges of breaking into Letterman's house, tried to get a taxi driver to take her to the late-night comedian's estate Sunday but was foiled when the cabbie got suspicious.

Police later found her near Letterman's home and put her on a train to New York City.

After leaving a Connecticut mental hospital last spring, Ray promised never to bother Letterman.

\ The producers of "The Golden Girls" are working on a spinoff now that Bea Arthur is leaving the show.

The remaining stars - Betty White, Estelle Getty and Rue McClanahan - will be cast as operators of a small Miami hotel in "Golden Palace."

CBS said Tuesday it is negotiating with Witt-Thomas-Harris Productions for the show.

NBC dropped "Golden Girls" but is keeping the two other Witt-Thomas-Harris series that follow it on Saturday night - "Empty Nest" and "Nurses."

\ The physician acquitted in federal court in 1981 of giving too many drugs to Elvis Presley is accused anew of writing too many prescriptions for his patients.

Dr. George Nichopoulos, 64, of Memphis, Tenn., has a May 19 hearing before the Tennessee medical board. Nichopoulos was unavailable for comment.

The board suspended Nichopoulos' medical license for three months in 1980 for over-prescribing drugs for Presley and nine others.



 by CNB