By Dave Donnelly
Friday, March 14, 1997
Kathy Ireland, Sen. Hiram Fong
Kathy Ireland, Sen. Hiram Fong
IRELAND Forever: Sure, St. Patrick's Day is coming up but we're talking another Ireland here -- Kathy Ireland. She just finished a swim shoot in Hawaii and a wrap party in her honor was held at the Kahala Mandarin. The hotel's food and beverage manager, Dean Hyry, strictly in the line of duty I'm sure, watched some of the sessions and came away amazed that they made her work so hard. Then there's TV producer Cynthia Yip, who spent two days putting together a story on Ireland for "Access Hollywood." The piece ran last night as did a "Suddenly Susan" episode in which Kathy appeared with Brooke Shields. Yip says Kathy is beautiful "not only on the outside but also on the inside," which is really saying something ... Yip, incidentally, is really kept busy nationally aside from her projects for KITV. She produced another story for "Access Hollywood" featuring surfer/model Malia Jones, and watched as fashion photog Richard Hume shot Malia for the cover of Shape Magazine, which appears sometime this summer ... Ireland wraps
before St. Paddy’sBACK from a weekend in Chicago is Hawaii's No. 1 opera fan Jim Becker. While there, he saw the Lyric Opera's stunning, David Hockney-designed "Turandot" and celebrated soprano June Anderson doing her first "Norma" on successive nights with three inches of snow in between. And when you're not watching "The Three Tenors" on PBS, file away Becker's assessment that Canadian Ben Hepner, who sang Calaf in "Turandot" is "almost certainly the best tenor in the world today." ...
WHEN Rep. Mark Moses appeared on "A.M. Hawaii" this week, host George Groves had fun with his name and that of his legislative aide, Jessica Rich. "Is Mark 'Moses'?" asked Groves. "Is Jessica 'Rich'?" What Groves was apparently unaware of, was that Moses' chief of staff is named Everett Faith ...
POLITICIANS come up with so many ways to regulate the most intimate parts of our lives, that it's rare when a new measure is introduced that really gets me exercised, but City Councilwoman Donna Mercado Kim has done it. She's proposed a measure to make it illegal to play in the streets. If she'd have been passing dumb legislation like that in New York in the 1940s, we'd never have had people like Willy Mays in our lives, or others who got their start in athletics playing stick-ball. Not everyone is blessed with a neighborhood ballyard, and until they are, "Let the children play," as the song goes, at least on streets with little traffic. If drivers can't watch out for the kids at play, let them pay ... Say Hey!
THE other day a financial analyst called Bank of Hawaii officials to get some details on their recent acquisition of a bank in Papua, New Guinea. He was impressed with Bankoh's Pacific franchise -- they have branches and/or subsidiaries in places like Palau, New Caledonia, Majuro, Saipan, Chuuk and French Polynesia, to name a few. "Pohnpei?" the analyst asked. "Isn't that spelled with an 'm'? And I thought it was in Italy." I guess Geography 101 isn't a requirement to be a financial guru ...
IT works out perfectly, considering that Monday is St. Patrick's Day. In the KHET-TV guide, "Lord of the Dance," featuring Michael Flatley and his new Irish dance company is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and following it was "Viewers' Request," the most popular live pledge program repeated. Well, folks, going away it was "Riverdance," also starring Flatley and Jean Butler. If you missed it, catch or tape it Monday night on KHET.
LAST year was a biggie for former U.S. Sen. Hiram Fong. In addition to celebrating his 90th birthday, he won the award for "Outstanding Citizen Achievement" by the Organization of Chinese Americans and was named "Model Father of the Year" by the United Chinese Society. Sen. Fong begins 1997 with a dinner in his honor Tuesday at the Hilton's Coral Ballroom, with proceeds benefiting the Hiram L. Fong Endowment, which supports the UH College of Arts and Sciences. For more info call 956-4051 ... Ring gong for Fong
