People

By Michele Orecklin

REMEMBER THE HINDENBURG

Sometimes a blimp is just a blimp, and sometimes it's used by an aging rock band in its 40th year to compensate for fears of seeming to be over the hill. To announce yet another world tour, the ROLLING STONES ruled out issuing a press release. Instead, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards invited journalists to stand in a Bronx, N.Y., park as the band members hovered overhead for 20 minutes in a neon-yellow dirigible before disembarking to hold a press conference. The tour will kick off Sept. 5 in Boston, and the Stones hope to end in China, where they have never played. They also plan to release a greatest-hits album and record some new songs. Couldn't they just act like most men with a midlife crisis and buy a convertible?

ANNA'S BODY DOUBLE

Always trust a woman to recognize her own breasts. Penthouse did not, and may end up paying a price. In its June issue, the magazine published photographs offered by a paparazzo of a woman sunbathing topless. The editors say they studied the pictures in "painstaking detail" before concluding they were of tennis player ANNA KOURNIKOVA. They must have overlooked the woman's face, as it is clearly not Kournikova's. The tennis star pointed this out to the magazine on learning of the photos' existence, but Penthouse seemed unmoved by her denials--and threat of legal action--until Judith Soltesz-Benetton, married to a member of the Benetton-clothing family, claimed the pictures are of her, shot without her knowledge seven years ago. Now she is suing for $10 million, which could put the struggling magazine out of business. The Penthouse editors issued a "heartfelt" apology, proving it is possible for them to blush.

FRONT ROW FOR THE FULL MONTY

During her Golden Jubilee year, QUEEN ELIZABETH has traveled around the country allowing her subjects to throw flowers, blow kisses and otherwise demonstrate their appreciation for her 50 years as monarch. Last week, as she and husband Prince Philip toured Newcastle, local resident Brynn Richard Reed expressed his feelings in a less conventional way. Jogging alongside their Rolls-Royce, Reed waved and shouted, "Yoo-hoo!" But chances are, what caught the royals' attention was Reed's unavoidable nudity. That and the words RUDE BRITANNIA scrawled across his buttocks. Police dragged him away, but he may have given the Queen the greatest gift of all--the chance to be embarrassed by someone other than her own children.

CAREYING ON

Bob Dylan once sang, "There's no success like failure," a lyric that finally makes sense when you consider the recent developments in the career of MARIAH CAREY. Dropped from the Virgin record label four months ago because of poor sales, the singer was sent away with a $28 million parting gift. Now her failure is paying off again. She has just signed with Island Def Jam Records, a division of Universal Music Group, for a three-album deal worth more than $20 million. The pact will allow Carey to have her own label and explore opportunities in film and television.