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

DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993                   TAG: 9311110004
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: EXTRA-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE PEOPLE COLUMN

Debunking reports of that Hillary Clinton pea-bashing controversy, it's author Judy Blume to the rescue! Blume, on hand for the first lady's visit to "Sesame Street," writes in TV Guide: "There never was much of a pea controversy in the first place - despite headlines to the contrary, which proclaimed that peas to Clinton were like broccoli to George Bush. Rumors flew when Rosita, the bilingual Muppet, couldn't get out `string beans' and `green peas' in the same sentence. If you don't think these two veggies add up to one major tongue twister, try saying them yourself. The script was changed on the spot. So forget the headlines. Clinton is in favor of vegetables. Even peas. Case closed."

Note to legume lobbyists: The first lady is wearing what can only be described as a pea-green suit on TV Guide's cover, a fine contrast to Big Bird's squash-yellow feathers. Clinton's Nov. 22 appearance ("If you want to be healthy and strong, don't forget to eat your vegetables") kicks off "Sesame Street's" 25th season.

A promising Broadway moment . . . far off-Broadway. Eight of the American musical theater's legendary figures have been inducted into the new Musical Theater Hall of Fame, which was inaugurated Wednesday at New York University.

The first to be given the distinction: Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe and Ethel Merman.

In addition, Carol Channing and Jule Styne received Musical Theater Hall of Fame Awards.

Roger Moore is recuperating at home in Beverly Hills, Calif., from prostate surgery. The 65-year-old actor, who followed in Sean Connery's suave Agent 007 shoes, left a Los Angeles hospital Sunday after the Nov. 2 operation. The prostate was enlarged but not cancerous, his spokesman said.

Howard Rollins ("In the Heat of the Night") was sprung from a Conyers, Ga., jail Monday after a friend posted $10,000 bond. The 42-year-old actor spent the weekend behind bars on a charge of driving under the influence - his fifth arrest behind the wheel in a year and a half.

by CNB