People

By Guy D. Garcia

Amazed AT&T employees are still calling it Boss Monday, but to rock fans it was simply the day Bruce Springsteen tickets went on sale in Washington. Lines were jammed by hundreds of thousands of attempted phone calls, an estimated 130% above normal. The added callers were trying to buy 3,000 tickets (at $18.50 each) for Springsteen's concert next Monday at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. Back home after a triumphant tour of Europe, Springsteen is resting and rehearsing for his new 25-city, nine-week American tour. The scramble for tickets to the concerts also caused communications snafus in Maryland, Virginia, New York City, New Jersey and Delaware. Asked if Government communications were affected, the White House's Larry Speakes replied, "We've got ways to get around it." That's a comfort. Otherwise, Kremlin strategists planning a missile strike might be deciding, "First thing we do is announce free Springsteen tickets to the next 1,000 callers in every U.S. city."

Produced by George Lucas. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Starring Michael Jackson. A wild fantasy? Well, yes and no. It is a fantasy film, but the project is very real. Lucas has been working at Disneyland to revamp Tomorrowland, and when Jackson, a well-known amusement-park freak, heard Lucas had a movie in mind, he asked in. He got the title role, and will also provide the music. Set to premiere in 1986, the twelve-minute film, titled Captain Eo, will feature state-of the-art 3-D effects, and the chance to play with that process attracted Coppola. The movie will be shown only at Disneyland and Disney World. "It has a lot of drama, singing and dancing, lots of characters and great space battles," Lucas says. "Ships will come right out of the audience, and lasers will shoot by everyone's head." All in twelve minutes? Promises Lucas: "You would be surprised what you can do in twelve minutes."

If China's blossoming romance with capitalism should wither, it will not be Pierre Cardin's fault. The indefatigable designer has been showing his wears in Chinese cities every other year since 1979. Last week, in a sort of cultural exchange with himself, Cardin, 63, brought nine Chinese models to show off his new fall and winter couture in Paris. Ages 18 to 23, they have been the hit of "collections week," though cattier observers noted one or two faux pas on the runway. One Chinese model, in a delightful reverse on Oriental-Occidental cliches, even smiled broadly as she posed, a breach of scrutability that no Western model would ever allow.

He won his first race at Louisiana's Jefferson Downs on May 20 1977, and strutted into another 38 more winner's circles over the years, earning a record $6.5 million, $2.5 million more than his nearest competitor. Two weeks ago, a few days before he was scheduled to begin his 84th race, at Hollywood Park in California, John Henry injured a tendon in his right foreleg during a routine workout. Last week Sam Rubin, who bought the high-spirited gelding for $25,000 seven years ago, announced that racing's grand old superstar was finally retiring from the track. The two-time Horse of the Year, five-time Eclipse award winner and emotional favorite of fans will be put out to pasture. "Truthfully," says Rubin, "he was the most determined animal I've ever seen in racing. He wasn't the greatest. I could think of many that were greater. But none had the tenacity to last as long as he did." Indeed, John Henry is still so competitive and so responsive to a crowd that a farewell turn at the track was ruled out for fear that he would overreact and worsen his injury.

Hi there, boys and girls. Golly, I'm sorry, but I've been so busy out here in Hollywood that I forgot to tell you all about my first feature film, Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird. Lots of our friends on Sesame Street helped me in the picture, and Mr. Snuffleupagus deserves an Oscar nomination for his sniffly farewell scene. I'm sure the other stars like Chevy Chase, John Candy and Sandra Bernhard join me in that sentiment. I think that with those little suggestions I made, the script really works now. I just loved the idea of me moving off to suburbia and then running away so that everyone would come chasing after me. By the way, don't believe those rumors that your old friend Big Bird has gone show biz. I know there was a picture of me in a limo, but that's just image stuff. You know, the frog and his flat-nosed girlfriend got the big treatment for their movies. So with my movie ready to come out this week, you have to keep up appearances.

A month ago, it was announced that Mark Lindsay would play John Lennon in Imagine: The Story of John and Yoko, a three-hour NBC-TV movie. Then it turned out that his real name was Mark Chapman, the same as that of the late singer's assassin, and out went Chapman. Now new auditions have turned up Mark McGann, 24, who portrayed the Beatle in the 1981 Liverpool production of the stage musical Lennon. "I wept when I got the role," says McGann. "I grew up in Liverpool just a few miles from where he was born. It's almost spiritual the way John Lennon has become intertwined in my life." Well, he certainly sounds right for the part. And looks it too. So does Kim Miyori, 29, who will play Yoko Ono and was best known previously as Dr. Wendy Armstrong on the TV series St. Elsewhere. When McGann and Miyori took a stroll in costume in London last week, heads turned and imagined for a moment it was strawberry fields forever.

Great Odin! Have both Conan and Rocky finally met their match? Apparently so, and her name is Brigitte Nielsen. Last year the almost 6-ft.-tall Danish model beat out hundreds of contenders for the title role in Red Sonja, playing a farm girl turned sword fighter and co-starring with Arnold (Conan) Schwarzenegger. Nielsen, 22, next set her sights on Sylvester Stallone, sending him a letter and an 8-by-10 glossy picture of herself. Presto. A few months later Nielsen, "Gitte" to her friends, joined the cast of the upcoming Rocky IV. Nielsen's glossy pictorial talents are also on display in the current issue of Playboy, where she describes her latest project as "a good part, a wonderful part." She plays the wife of the Russian champion who fights Rocky. "So we're against each other in the movie--but very happy together in reality," she says. And how goes the Sly-Gitte romance? Well, let's just say that the rumors they are engaged are being denied.

A glamorous, gutsy woman escapes Nazi brutality in France and goes on to build her own publishing empire. Almost any capable actress could play her, right? But add a title like Sins and suddenly the role could belong only to that goddess of gaudy drama, Joan Collins, 52. The seven-hour TV mini-series is Collins' first joint production with her longtime Swedish-born boyfriend and fiance of seven months, Musician Turned Showbusinessman Peter Holm, 38. On the program, which will air next season, Holm makes a cameo appearance as a TV reporter. Does this mean Collins is ready to share the silver screen with her sterling love? "It's just for a joke," she says. "He's in a teeny-weeny bit. He only had a couple of lines. All my friends are in the movie, my secretary, my best friend." --By Guy D. Garcia