NOTEWORTHY
NOTEWORTHY SHORT TAKES ON THE NEWS
From Journal Sentinel wire reports
Monday, July 29, 2002
Johnson didn’t have magic touch with money
Earvin “Magic” Johnson said it took him almost five years to realize he was spending more than he earned as an National Basketball Association player making $400,000 a year.
“Once I understood what I need versus what I want, my bank account started to reflect that,” Johnson said over the weekend at the opening of a national program to educate black professionals about personal finance.
“Know Your Money,” a 12-week course designed to help 21- to 35- year-olds with spending, budgets and long-term investment strategies, was the first major initiative to emerge from the National Urban League’s annual conference in Los Angeles.
Actress backs city schools
Cynthia Nixon is worried about white flight from New York City’s public schools.
The “Sex and the City” actress was honored over the weekend in East Hampton, N.Y., by Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation for her fight to get more government aid to the city’s schools. The actress was arrested in May while protesting school budget cuts.
As she accepted her award, she said too many white parents send their children to private schools. New York’s public schools are predominantly black and Hispanic. Nixon’s 5-year-old daughter attends a public school in Manhattan.
Illness is over, Kidder says
Margot Kidder, the “Superman” star who is now a 54-year-old grandmother, considers herself a poster child for mental health.
Six years after a nationally publicized breakdown that left her wandering the streets of Los Angeles, Kidder says her “periodic bungee jumps into craziness” are a thing of the past.
“For me, the solution was finally getting away from psychiatric drugs and actually healing my body so I wouldn’t have the symptoms that are called mental illness,” said Kidder, who begins appearing Tuesday at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in “The Vagina Monologues.”
Comic satirist wanted
Mad Magazine has begun a nationwide search for a new cartoonist to create a monthly feature for the nation’s longest-running humor magazine.
For 40 years, Mad’s mainstay, “The Lighter Side of . . . ,” poked fun at American life and its foibles. The feature’s creator, Dave Berg, died in May. The editors are seeking someone who shares Mad’s comedic and satiric view of society.
‘Goldmember’ strikes gold
The new Austin Powers epic, “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” had a smashing debut, baby, raking in $71.5 million to set an opening record for a comedy, according to industry estimates Sunday.
The third tale of the bell-bottomed superspy had the fifth-best opening ever for any movie. “Spider-Man” still tops the list with its $114.8 million May opening. “Austin Powers” also earned $3.5 million during Thursday night previews, pushing the four-day total to $75 million.
The previous opening record for a comedy was set last year by New Line’s “Rush Hour II,” which took in $67.4 million. The third “Austin Powers” installment grossed more in its opening weekend than the original earned during its entire North American run in 1997.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
78 Actor Robert Horton
64 TV anchor Peter Jennings
53 Rock musician Simon Kirke (Bad Company)
49 Rock musician Geddy Lee (Rush)
49 Rock singer Patti Scialfa
36 Country singer Martina McBride
29 R&B singer Wanya Morris
29 Actor Stephen Dorff
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