Monday, April 22, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
If only Peter Jennings didn't have that pesky Y chromosome, Barbara Walters might be happy. But, last time she checked, Jennings and his mates on the nightly network newscasts -- Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather -- were all men, and that doesn't make her happy. "I say this not to put down the nightly newscasts, but to point out that they represent the last bastions of 'women stay out."' While the boys club flag has come down elsewhere in TV news -- "There's hardly a newsmagazine that doesn't have a female host" -- -- "it is only on the network evening news that there is still a 'men only' sign." She didn't volunteer to wield the battering ram on this stronghold of male dominance, and it's probably coincidence that her comments come just as she's renegotiating her contract with ABC.
*"60 Minutes" alpha male Mike Wallace says he almost quit the show during the recent turmoil over whether to air his controversial tobacco industry expose. He didn't, but the in-house fighting drained all the sparkle out of the normally fun business of ambush interviewing. "It's painful. You don't eat. You don't sleep. Your self-esteem drops to zero."
*For the New Yorker's "Black in America" issue, Jackie Jackson, wife of Jesse, recalls the moment her husband decided to run for the presidency. He was pulling on his socks at the time. "I said, 'Way to go, Jesse!' We had a little pep rally right there. 'Yes! I am somebody! Never surrender! Keep hope alive!' We do that sort of thing around the house, you know."
Now that Charlie Sheen is no longer riding in the Heidi Fleiss tour de pants, what's he doing to work out the old Y chromosome? Taking himself out to the ballgame, for one. The "Major League" star recently spent $5,000 for all the seats behind the left field fence at a California Angels home game vs. the Detroit Tigers. Treating a group of underprivileged kids to a rare big-league game, perhaps? Hardly. He was clearing the deadwood. He wanted to catch a Cecil Fielder home run without having to "crawl over the paying public." Cooties, you know. So he and three people lucky enough to call themselves friends of Charlie Sheen sat alone among the empty seats, the actor pounding his mitt in anticipation, ready to have a little pep rally right there. Alas, Fielder went 0-for-3 and Sheen went 0-for-$5,000.
Compiled by Scott Dickensheets ([email protected])
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