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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 27, 1995                   TAG: 9501310020
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HE'S ALL VERKLEMPT!

Last year John Smith Jr., then a senior at Lord Botetourt High School, donned a big black wig, 10 red fingernails, his mother's bra and dress, then wowed those attending the school's talent show with a dead-on impersonation of ``Saturday Night Live'' regular Mike Myers' Linda Richman character.

(Linda Richman, host of her own talk show, ``Coffee Talk,'' is a maven of Barbra Streisand and all things Jewish.)

Mike Sheets of Dublin enjoyed this newspaper's story about Smith so much that he passed it along to Myers in New York City.

``I thought he'd get a kick out of it,'' said Sheets.

Sheets said he was shocked when Myers replied eight months later.

Myers said he'd spent the summer writing a ``Coffee Talk'' movie screenplay.

``I truly appreciate your words of encouragement,'' Myers wrote. ``And the article was, as Linda would say, `like buttah!' I'm all verklempt!''

Smith - now an honors program student at Roanoke College - was mighty verklempt himself to hear Myers had seen the article.

``No way!'' he exclaimed, unintentionally in character of another Myers character, Wayne of ``Wayne's World.''

Way!

Smith plans to send a videotape of the talent show to Myers. ``Let's go to New York and knock his socks off!''

Sheets agrees.

``Maybe he could use [Smith] in the new movie.''

A twin sister, perhaps, Mike?

by CNB