Hawaii
HERE'S one of those "chicken skin" stories. "Entertainment Tonight" producer Kevin Gershan took a camera to the Hollywood Walk of Fame to get a picture of the sidewalk star dedicated to actor Carroll O'Connor, who'd died that day. Gershan was lining up the shot when he noticed that next to O'Connor's was John Lee Hooker's star. Against incalculable odds, the bluesman had died on the same day as his star-mate ... Ifi So'o, the Samoan fire dancer from the Outrigger Wailea, lit up the stage -- literally -- on the Jay Leno "Tonight Show" last week when the show was lighted by flashlights to symbolize the need to conserve electricity. Both Leno and guest Arsenio Hall butchered the dancer's name, but Guam radio talk show host Jon Anderson, who used to work in Honolulu, will interview him and Outrigger Wailea G.M. Dorsey Brady today, live from Maui ... Samoan fire dancer
lights up Leno showWHILE they are competitors on the air, some Isle TV folks have to shed their call letters when they get home in order to keep peace. KHON-TV news editor Jim McCoy is married to KGMB reporter Louise Kim McCoy, but one assumes they keep secrets from each other, at least as far as breaking stories are concerned ... KGMB's sportscaster Dave Vinton is married to KHNL weather watcher Shari Shima, but I can't see one hiding from the other that a baseball game may be rained out. The two were in Atlanta for a Vinton family gathering and on a tour of the CNN Studio, arrived just as ex-KITV reporter Karen Waygood was at work on the next news show ... Channel 9 might consider dropping one initial to be KGB, since anchor Kim Gennaula married KHNL morning weather/surf spotter Guy Hagi. Hagi will be exiting the station when his contract expires in September ...
Model behavior
WHY is it that whenever you see an attractive young woman, as a friend and I did during breakfast at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room, you hear them say things like, "Your son and I were classmates at Punahou." It was Sydney Fernandez, modeling women's wear, and if that wasn't enough to spoil my pancakes, she's now married to David Fasi, son of the former mayor Frank Fasi. She looked striking as did her modeling partner, who looked familiar. She was Tanya DeJesus, the model on those Sleepland TV commercials ...WHICH reminds me, Sydney's mom, Linda Fernandez, flew to Canada for a north-of-the-border "celebration of life" for her late husband, Kane of carnival and Fun Factory fame. Most of Kane's ashes had been scattered off Waikiki in January, but Linda saved some for Kane's favorite fishing waters in Langara, British Columbia. She and a Haida Indian chief paddled out in a canoe to bless Kane's spirit as friends looked on and flowers were dropped by helicopter ...
Priceless remark
WHEN Miss Hawaii Denby Dung visited the Perry & Price Hanohano Room show on Saturday, she mentioned she'd attended Roosevelt, as did Larry Price, who grinned ear-to-ear. Michael W. Perry said she might have gone to Roosevelt like Price, but she was graduated cum laude and all similarities ended there ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com