'AMERICA IS the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization!" said Georges Clemenceau back in the 1920s.
Hmmm, so we didn't even have "civilization" from then until now.
JERRY HALL, the tall, terrific bomb shell who grew up in one of my own Texas hometowns (Gonzales, population 5,000) is getting a rumored $2 million advance to write her life story for HarperCollins. And we all know that the fact this dynamo was married to Sir Mick Jagger and had four children with him between 1990 and 1999 is partly the reason for this magnificent money and interest. Jerry has remained on the periphery of the newsworthy Rolling Stones for years.
She is 51 years old now, and Mick is 64. It took Mick's fathering a child by Brazilian model Luciana Morad in 1999 to force Jerry to the divorce court. But, in some ways, she and Mick always stay close and in touch. Of course, when Weidenfeld & Nicolson offered Mick a fortune to do an autobiography in the early Eighties, he finally gave up, saying he couldn't remember enough about the Sixties.
Not so Jerry. She remembers everything. She will, of course, have lots to say about her own life, philosophies and adventures in this book. She ain't her own demanding kind of woman from Texas for nothing.
SPEAKING OF books, James Lipton's smash hit from Dutton went back for more prints almost before it arrived in bookstores. The perfectionist, who is host of "Inside the Actors Studio," has told the "Inside Inside" of his amazing life, and he tells me, "I asked of myself the same candor I ask of my guests."
Every actor dreams of being in Jimmy's witness chair being asked what he'd like to hear God say when he arrives in heaven?
THE DIANA inquest in London offered a guy last week who claimed he was driving in front of her Mercedes just before the crash and saw a bright flash coming from a motorcycle that overtook her limo in the tunnel. This supposedly supports Mohamed Al Fayed's theory that Britain's MI6 had the princess and Dodi Fayed murdered "with the help of an intensely bright anti-personnel flash gun that blinded the driver Henri Paul."
This particular witness seems ready for television. He has already given conflicting versions of this event in separate witness statements. He served several years in prison for possessing illegal weapons and has been accused of trying to sell a baby to a German industrialist. He sounds like a winner, doesn't he?
Meantime, Prince Phillip - also the "criminal" in Mohamed Al Fayed's mind - waits to see if he'll be called for the inquest. He hopes not, but I'm told he has the letters to prove he was never evil and unkind to Diana and, in fact, tried to help her, and, far from calling her the profane names vaunted in the tabloids, signed his letters to her lovingly as "Pa."
MEL BROOKS seems slightly paranoid in statements to come in Entertain ment Weekly. He says: "I think they're gunning for us. I think they're gonna make us pay for our 12 Tonys [for "The Producers"]. But everybody in 'Young Frankenstein' is good. The book is hilarious and emotional. And 'YF' has much wider appeal."
Mel says he has no plans to follow with a musical of "Blazing Saddles." He muses, "Maybe I'll do a one-man show in Melbourne for five years. And if it works . . . I'll take it to Sydney . . . and if it works in Sydney, I'll take it to New Jersey!"
HAD A lovely time recently with Perry Guillot, the gardening architect lo cated in Southampton, L.I. Perry said he'd been that very day to the Halka Nursery in Englishtown, N.J. "There I saw 440 white oaks that are growing in special large boxes and waiting to be transferred to the 9/11 memorial. They'll be put in their proper spaces when the day comes. It is an astonishing and moving little forest of trees, growing and biding their historical time."
LAST FRIDAY at the Paley Center, true Arlene Francis fans were invited to an advance screening of the documentary, "Arlene Francis: That Certain Something," in honor of what would have been the TV lady's 100th birthday. The audience came away raving. Jackie Sanders has made the documentary, and it is narrated by Broadway's finest - Cherry Jones. Call (917) 225-3743 for further info.
DON'T MISS the investigative reporting by Jack Hitt on "The Shield" in Oct. 4's Rolling Stone. He tells how "Star Wars" was a fantasy under Reagan and has been continued as the most expensive weapons system in history. It will never be finished, is completely "unnecessary" and probably doesn't work. Fab photos and diagrams of the SBX as it sits off Adak, Alaska - $107 billion for all that, and the U.S. doesn't have universal health care.
SINGAPORE AIRLINES just offered a first look at the new Airbus A380 dou ble-decker, which bowed in Toulouse, France. On this plane, passengers can relax in double beds in 12 suites described as "a class beyond first," with linens by Givenchy.
SOURCE:http://nypost.com
