By Dave Donnelly
Friday, February 21, 1997
Karrie Poppinga, Tia Carrere
Karrie Poppinga, Tia Carrere
DID you know that an isle girl is pictured in the new swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated? Not just once, but three times! She's identified in the three photos by her married name, Karrie Poppinga, but when she played for the UH Wahine volleyball team she was Karrie Trieschman. She since married UH men's volleyballer Brian Poppinga and now is a beach volleyball player of some renown. Her photo spread is in a lengthy piece on "Volleyball and Sex Appeal," centering on model Gabrielle Reece, the 18-year-old Florida State sophomore. Reece, incidentally, is the girlfriend of North Shore resident Laird Hamilton, called by S.I. a "big wave surfing icon." Part of the dialogue in the article takes place in a convertible headed for a photo shoot at Polihali Beach on Kauai. Poppinga's three photos are all action shots of her in bikinis, but none show off that world-class smile that lights up any room she enters, as I noted some months ago ... Isle smile deserves
bigger playSPEAKING of Hamilton, named one of People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people, TV producer Cynthia Yip just put together another story for Extra, the tabloid show, featuring him, Buzzy Kerbox and David Kalama, towing in surfers on Maui caught in surf literally and figuratively over their heads ... AS I pulled into the porte cochere of the Kahala Mandarin the other day, a friend asked me, "Is that a statue over there?" "No," I replied, dryly, "it's a metallic-looking guy wearing an aloha shirt sitting absolutely stock-still around the clock." It was, of course, a statue of a man, lifelike enough to prompt a query, sitting with an open book on his lap on a bench in the middle of the roundabout at the front of the hotel. It's a life-size sculpture by J. Seward Johnson Jr., and with another of Johnson's works, is on display at the hotel for the next two months. The other is of a woman in a bikini, snoozing on a beach chair at the pool with a travel magazine across her leg. The statues do cause some double takes, and the public is welcome to view them ...
LOCAL model/actress Tia Carrere has been popping up on TV recently in a series of M&M commercials that has the nation's advertising community humming, as well as the movie, "True Lies." But she'll be appearing in person at Ala Moana Center's "Spring Fashion & Lifestyle" show coming up March 22. She's just signed to be the "face of fashion" at Ala Moana, and they'd be hard pressed to pick a prettier one ... MMMMMM&M
SPEAKING of admen, Jack Seigle is a busy one, both on commercial and political fronts. The other day during a staff meeting, his emergency phone line rang. "That's probably the governor," he quipped, and sure enough, it was. No sooner had he hung up the phone than it rang again. Puzzled, he picked it up, then turned to artist Mike Davidson and said, "Tia Carrere for you." It just proves there are at least two people who can interrupt Seigle in a meeting, though I think Davidson got the best of that exchange ...
TOMORROW is the birthday of George Washington and Sen. Ted Kennedy, one of whom never told a lie. But at Chaminade, they've discovered a host of people who share their birthday with the Father of our Country and Teddy. For starters, there's political science professor Lawrence Meacham, head of the faculty senate, speech professor Dr. Jude Yablonsky, Student Health Center director Judy McMullen, academic advisor Marcia Bulosan, University Relations head Cheryl Niggle and Dayna Kawamura of the business office ...
IF you got excited listening to John Tesh breathlessly describing the U.S. women's gymnastic team performances at the Atlanta Olympics, you can now see them Tesh-less. Four of the "Magnificent Seven" gold medalists are doing individual exhibitions throughout the Hawaiian Gymnastic Classic this weekend. They appear in a free exhibition Sunday at the Palama Settlement Gym as part of the awards ceremony. Doing their thing will be Shannon Miller, Amy Chow, Amanda Borden and Jaycie Phelps ... Gym dandies
