Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 27, 1994 TAG: 9401270207
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: from wire reports
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After 18 months in federal prison, a month in a halfway house and two months of house arrest in her own posh hotel, the 73-year-old multimillionaire was released Wednesday.
The Queen of Mean must complete 250 hours of community service in each of the next three years.
Helmsley was convicted of tax evasion in 1989 and was sent to the federal prison in Danbury, Conn., on April 15, 1992 - Tax Day.
\ Beverly Sills has become the first woman elected to head Manhattan's Lincoln Center. "This is not going to be Miss Celebrity time," said the popular soprano, 64. "I'll be doing a job, and I'll be working hard."
\ Natalie Cole's performance of the national anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday is taking on super proportions. According to her husband, MCA Records executive Andre Fisher, they're "recording a music track with a 35-piece orchestra" in Los Angeles, then rushing the result to Atlanta, where Cole will be taped with the 100-voice Morehouse College choir. Uh, have we got a Milli Vanilli situation? "I can't say for sure," said Fischer, "whether she'll lip-synch or sing live."
Making sure that all segments of the culture are represented at the all-American event, James Dickey, famed for the novel "Deliverance," has contributed a poem with a football theme to the official 280-page Super Bowl program and Jimmy Carter has contributed an inspirational message.
\ Baby Boomers know all the words to the "Brady Bunch" theme song, but the actress who played Marcia is singing a different tune.
Maureen McCormick, 37, is taking a stab at a country music career.
"Country has always been my favorite kind of music," she told The (Nashville) Tennessean. "I love songs that tell stories. Words to me are the most important thing."
\ Ted Danson, his heart apparently mended from his breakup with Whoopi Goldberg, has cozied up to his latest leading lady, Mary Steenburgen, People magazine says. The two met on the set of "Pontiac Moon," due out this fall, and "are indeed dating," their reps say. Danson, 46, and Steenburgen, 40, are both divorced.
by CNB