People

UNKNOWN WINS AT THE BRICKYARD

Gil de Ferran, one of the most soft-spoken racers ever to compete at Indianapolis, won the Indy 500 and faced reporters. For years de Ferran has been a major player in auto racing but always shunned the spotlight and seldom spoke in public. Now he let his actions do the talking. As recently as several months ago, de Ferran was mostly unknown to the public. One of the reporters for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network commented at a recent meeting of the Penske team, de Ferran was the only driver of whom reporters asked no questions. He just sat there through the news conference, mostly listening to teammate Helio Castroneves field questions about a possible third-in-a-row win. Castroneves finished second.

CHILD ACTOR DUFF LEAVES DISNEY STABLE

The photogenic young star of Disney's "Lizzie McGuire" franchise, Hillary Duff, is exiting the Mouse Machine. The Los Angeles Times reports Duff, 15, who starred in the Disney-produced sitcom and the resulting spin-off movie, reportedly felt she was being typecast in the role of the bubbly adolescent and wanted the freedom to move on to other roles. By the way, she was paid a reported $1 million for her part in the McGuire movie. Meanwhile, Disney says it's doubtful the concept will continue without the young actress.

SPRINGER TO RUN FOR U.S. SENATE?

If Jerry Springer is going to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio, the Cincinnati Enquirer says he could have a long row to hoe. During a recent "test the waters" appearance in Youngstown, Ohio, the former Cincinnati politician repeatedly defended his actions and attitude on his long-running, controversial TV show. During the past three months Springer has made numerous appearances in the state and so far, the paper says, most audiences are more concerned about why he did his raucous TV show than his stance on political issues. By the way, Springer was born in England in 1944. During the 1960s he was an aide to the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy during Kennedy's bid for the White House. He was mayor of Cincinnati in the late '70s and later served as a news anchor on WLWT Television.

TOP STARS JOIN PARKINSON'S, SARCOMA FIGHTS

A group of rock stars is joining in a project to raise money for the fight against Parkinson's disease and sarcoma. Elvis Costello, Joe Ely, Graham Parker, Pete Yorn and Billy Bragg are among the artists who answered a call from Bruce Springsteen to add tracks to "Light of Day: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen." Billboard magazine says the two-disc set was released this week in Spain. The American CD is set for release this coming fall. All proceeds will benefit the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which raises money for research and treatment of sarcoma. Some of the tracks, though, have been released in other forms previously, including Costello's "Brilliant Disguise," Yorn's "New York City Serenade" and Bragg's "Mansion on the Hill." The publication says other stars who contributed to the fundraiser are Cowboy Mouth, Patty Griffin, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, Willie Nile, Dion, Steve Wynn, and Rosie Flores.

IN CONVERSATION WITH BOB HOPE

As comedian Bob Hope approaches his 100th birthday this week, we look back on an interview with Hope conducted by United Press International. A decade ago, shortly before his health started failing, this reporter spent an afternoon with Hope at his home in Los Angeles. This first in a series of excerpts looks at the long-lost entertainment genre of vaudeville:

DAILY: "Is it an overstatement to say that most all of modern-day entertainment has its roots in vaudeville?"

HOPE: "Vaudeville was something else. I had said for years that it's a shame that there's no vaudeville, because (Jack) Benny and myself and Fred Allen and George Burns, we all learned our art -- timing and working to an audience -- in vaudeville. Then the most wonderful thing happened recently, the comedy clubs came around. And now a guy can get into a comedy club. Now that they have cable and comics can walk onto the stage and try out their art."

DAILY: "What was it like to do the same show, day after day, night after night, until you finally got good enough to get on a major circuit?"

HOPE: "You just kept working it out, playing 'supper shows.' They were the middle show. There was a matinee, a supper show, then the night show in vaudeville. The supper show sometimes had only 20 people in the audience. But you did your best to entertain those 20 people. You had to do your act and ad lib sometimes. We used to love to watch Edgar Bergen with his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. We would all go into the wings and watch him; the dummy would ad lib to Bergen how his act was flopping. We played all the small towns along the railroads."

Hope had a wonderful memory and when I mentioned my hometown in Indiana to him he rattled off a litany of cities through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, along the old B&O Railroad right-of-way, in which he had played in small vaudeville houses early in the last century.

More tomorrow in celebration of the Bob Hope centennial.

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