More than three decades after she had her way with Anthony Newley, Joan Collins is hopping into the sack with another British pop singer -- and this time, she's allowed some cameramen to chronicle the action. Proving she's not just interested in gallivanting around with another pretty face, the former Dynasty star recently hooked up with Damon Gough -- who's better known as Badly Drawn Boy. If you want to believe the official story, Joan's dalliance with Gough is a purely artistic one -- she's starring as his love interest in the video for the new "Spitting in the Wind" single. We, however, prefer to think that the actress is helping little sister Jackie do some prep work for an upcoming page-turner about the sexual peccadilloes of the lo-fi set . . .

While we don't think we'd buy a used car from Madonna, the manufacturers of BMW apparently feel that the Material Girl is just the kind of face they need to boost sales of their pricey vehicles. According to reports out of the U.K., Mrs. Guy Ritchie is set to join her hubby in a familial shill-fest for the Beamer folks, having signed a deal that will pay her a million pounds to star in a commercial that will air considerably more often than her much-hyped "What It's Like for a Girl" video. Word is that the ad will boast a star-running-from-the-paparazzi theme, but we're presuming that good taste -- something the former Ms. Ciccone has long been noted for -- will preclude a fiery crash climax . . .

You can count Richard Pryor among those who firmly believe that you can't go home again -- now that his hometown has gone public with the news that it won't be naming a street in his honor. The comedy legend was slated to have his moniker slapped on a thoroughfare in Peoria, Illinois, but the town council decided -- in a six-to-five vote -- that Richard Pryor Avenue would not play in their burg. Council members voting against paying tribute to the ailing entertainer -- who's been battling multiple sclerosis for the past several years -- cited strong public disapproval as their collective chief objection. No one, however, raised the possibility of creating a Dan Fogelberg Memorial Rest Stop on the local interstate, in honor of Peoria's second most-famous son . . .

Joe Walsh has -- sensibly enough -- never claimed to be bigger than Jesus. Heck, he's never even professed to be up there with St. Basil -- but that didn't stop a gathering of fundamentalist Christians from stoking a bonfire with multiple copies of albums by Walsh, Foreigner and Bruce Springsteen, among other geezers. The congregation of Harvest Assembly of God, located in Butler County, Pennsylvania, decided that they could best send praises to the Lord by polluting the earth He created with plenty of thick, potentially toxic smoke, in the process, ridding their homes of evil thoughts. Just to prove they're reasonable folks, the congregants did not limit themselves to the toasting of rock memorabilia, although R.E.M. and AC/DC albums were high on the list of recreational combustibles. The home fires also consumed multiple copies of Jurassic Park, Pinocchio and literature from the Jehovah's Witnesses. So would Michael Jackson tour books would fall into that last category? . . .

DAVID SPRAGUE
(March 31, 2001)