The wOws are mighty excited these days. Our good friend Whoopi Goldberg has been chosen to host the coming 62nd annual Antoinette Perry (Tony) Awards which reward Broadway for all its troubles.

Whoopi has already proved that she is a great host at the Academy Awards so she is a wonderful choice for the CBS broadcast which happens live from Radio City Music Hall on June 15.

WHOOPI MUSES OVER BEING CHOSEN

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Elaine Dundy died of a heart attack in Los Angeles at age 86 on May 1. The author of a celebrated novel, The Dud Avocado , she first shot to fame as the wife of celebrated British theater critic Kenneth Tynan back in the late ’50s. (He later wrote for The New Yorker.)

Tynan made friends with people like Marlene Dietrich; she opted for Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal and had a soft spot in her heart for Elvis, of whom she finally wrote another book called Ferriday, Louisiana. When the Tynans divorced after a tempestuous marriage, Elaine wrote: “Ken, the Tot of Destiny, had turned into the Marquis de Sade and I in response had become a virago.” She never married again.

Elaine’s prize possession in later years was this note from Groucho Marx: “I don’t make the habit of writing to married women, especially if the husband is a drama critic, but I had to tell someone (and it might as well be you since you’re the author) how much I admired The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream and guffaw, which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm.”

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In the so-called “Year of the Woman,” circa 1992, Carolyn B. Maloney was elected to New York’s 14th Congressional District (Manhattan and Queens).

This dynamic blond has gone on to chair this and that and become an expert on women’s issues. Arianna Huffington dubbed her: “She is Maloney, hear her roar!” Now Carolyn has written a book titled Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated. And in this she analyzes why women’s lives are not getting easier and tells how we can make real progress for ourselves and our daughters. Here’s Carolyn’s book jacket from Modern Times Press, and here, also, is a photo of the congresswoman with her family. We don’t have all of their names, but I assure you, they’re “liberated.”


COVER OF RUMORS OF OUR PROGRESS HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED

Photo by Maria Tolios
CAROLYN IS CUDDLING THE CAT

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London’s Daily Telegraph ends America’s Democratic primary race with a cartoon of Obama stabbing the great white whale, Hillary. It then quotes from Herman Melville: “Retribution, swift vengeance, eternal malice were in her whole aspect, and spite of all mortal men could do the solid white buttress of her forehead smote the ship‘s starboard bow.” (Apologies to Moby Dick.)

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