PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

ANOTHER PLUNGE FOR JACKO

MICHAEL JACKSON, clearly no admirer of long engagements, got married abruptly for the second time in three years. The latest wedding took place in a secret midnight ceremony in Sydney, Australia. The bride, 37-year-old Debbie Rowe, who is carrying Jackson's baby, wore white; the wedding was attended by the groom's entourage and staff, according to Jackson's publicist. It is also the second marriage for the new missus, about whom little is known except that she's a nurse for Jackson's dermatologist and that someone has offered topless photos of her to the tabloids. The happy nuptials took place after Jackson's first Australian HIStory tour concert, which received wan reviews from the locals. One critic called the facing-down-the-tanks-on-Tiananmen-Square imagery with which Jackson closes his show a "new low in self-indulgence." Here's hoping the romance gets better notices.

SEEN & HEARD

Liz Taylor isn't just unlucky in love. She's unlucky in law too. Taylor has lost a suit against the National Enquirer, and she (and ex-husband Larry Fortensky) will have to pay the tab--$432,600 in court costs. The duo claimed a 1993 story about a property dispute damaged their reputations and invaded their privacy. Alas, all levels of the California court system disagreed.

One reason for lawyers to support cameras in the courtroom: so they can find jobs in television after the trial ends. Chris Darden, Alan Dershowitz, Robert Shapiro and Barry Scheck all have regular TV gigs as commentators. Now Johnnie Cochran is getting a nightly talk show, with Atlanta prosecutor Nancy Grace, on Court TV. No word on what Marcia Clark is doing. (Is it the hair?)

HIS FRIEND, THE ENEMY

Senator JOHN MCCAIN learned how to say "My God!" in Vietnamese last week. This is because "Troi O!" is what the man who saved McCain's life 29 years ago shouted when meeting him for the first time in Hanoi. During the Vietnam War McCain ejected from his plane into Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake. He was unconscious, with two broken legs, when MAI VAN ON, a member of the People's Army, swam in and fished him out with two bamboo poles. On's neighbors called him a coward for not beating the American. These days McCain is at the forefront of the push to normalize relations with Vietnam. "I didn't know why I saved him at the time," admits On, 79. "But now I know."

FOOTBALL-IN-MOUTH DISEASE

Sometimes a smart tongue is the stupidest thing to have. San Francisco Mayor WILLIE BROWN, famous for his ability to excite the media, probably thought he was just mouthing-off playfully when he told reporters from Paris that he was hoping to find French people to invest in a new quarterback because ELVIS GRBAC, a reserve for the 49ers who threw two interceptions in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys, was "an embarrassment to humankind." What he didn't know was that Grbac had said he was distracted during the game by worry over his son, who had recently undergone surgery for spina bifida. Brown apologized the following day. Grbac accepted, but added, "It would be hard to shake his hand, just because of what my wife and kid have gone through." Do N.F.L. moms vote too?