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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993                   TAG: 9301220289
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: from wire reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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THE PEOPLE COLUMN

A teen-ager in Fairfax is suing Vanilla Ice for $75,000, claiming she was trampled when the crowd surged toward a towel that the rapper tossed into the audience during a 1991 concert.

Elyse Hughes-Segroves, 15, and her mother, Mary Hughes-Segroves, sued Wednesday in District Court seeking compensation for neck and back injuries.

The daughter said she had to wear a neck brace for months.

Throwing the towel during a concert at George Mason University was a "reckless, deliberate and grossly negligent act calculated to incite irrational behavior of young people," according to the lawsuit.

Neither Vanilla Ice nor his promoter, G Street Productions, returned phone calls seeking comment.

\ Phyllis Diller has become the first woman to receive top honors from the International Humor Institute.

Diller, 79, was selected for the Lifetime International Humor Award because of "her positive application of humor and use of her professional status to enlighten, inspire and enrich our lives," Institute President Jan Marshall said.

Last year's winner was Steve Allen.

The institute's motto is: "Not a shred of evidence exists that life is serious."

\ Singer Anita Baker has given birth to her first child, a boy. "Both mother and son are doing well," her spokesman said.

The Grammy winner gave birth Monday at a Detroit-area hospital. The baby, Walter Baker Bridgforth, weighed in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces.

Baker, whose hits include "Sweet Love" and "Giving You the Best That I've Got," is married to Walter Bridgforth Jr.

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