PEOPLE

By Belinda Luscombe

WHAT'S NEXT, FIFI AT THE FOUR SEASONS?

Everybody loves ELOISE, the Plaza Hotel-dwelling urchin from the book by Kay Thompson. But perhaps ex-con turned innkeeper-to-the-image-conscious Ian Schrager loved her a teensy bit too much. Schrager published a parody of the children's classic in book form as a high-concept promotional brochure for his Miami hostel, the Delano. In Delia at the Delano, by Bob Morris, DELIA, right, sun-dries her own tomatoes, does Barbie liposuction and has a Prada ant farm. It's not unwitty stuff, but Thompson isn't amused. "I think they should be arrested," the nonagenarian eccentric says of the book's creators. "It's stealing." Instead, Simon & Schuster's legal types, mindful of Eloise's 41 years of healthy sales, warned Schrager to stop distributing his book, which he did. "It's resolved amicably," a chastened Schrager told the New York Observer.

THE PRINCE USES HIS 'ED

In a world where presidential Inaugural items are hawked on TV, it doesn't seem unusual to find two members of Britain's royal family stateside peddling their wares. While Fergie was pitching cranberry juice and Weight Watchers, her former brother-in-law was in New Orleans, along with game-show hosts and Playboy bunnies, at the annual gathering of TV execs. Prince Edward--or ED WINDSOR, as he prefers to be known in the biz--sold a series of documentaries by his Ardent Productions to CBS, including Edward on Edward, a show about his great uncle, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne to marry an American. The Windsors' revenge?

SEEN & HEARD

He made his name as a borderline school dropout. Now he's going to be President. John Travolta, the only actor from Welcome Back, Kotter still getting good gigs, will play the role of the ambitious Southern Governor in the movie Primary Colors. Some may consider it a comedown from his latest role: that of an angel.

In his life he was an avatar of love, peace and altered consciousness, but when he died, Jerry Garcia left his estate with a big legal hangover. After a bitter court feud, Deborah Koons Garcia, his last wife, has been ordered to pay Carolyn ("Mountain Girl") Garcia, the hippie-ish mother of two of his four kids, $5 million in alimony. Deborah plans to appeal.

ROMER'S ODYSSEY

Colorado Governor ROY ROMER's countrymen had to lend him more than their ears on his trip to Los Angeles and Washington to discuss his new job as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. After boarding his flight, Romer discovered he'd left his wallet in the car. "I didn't have a nickel on me," says Romer, who had to do a bit of quick-draw fund raising. His seatmate, Bruce Brannon, loaned him $45, but he figured he'd need more. "So I walked down the aisles looking for the first guy who showed a flicker of recognition, and then I said, 'Scoot over; let's talk,'" says the Governor, who scored a further $60. Another kindly soul loaned him his phone card. "I told him, 'I gotta make an appointment with a guy named Bill,'" says Romer. No improper donations here. By week's end he'd repaid them all.