To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People Jan. 7, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/2000/01/07/np0107 Celebrity debriefing Who wears the panties in the family? David Beckham and Tim Robbins bare all. Plus: Nice white guys finish last? Sensi-man takes beating, Backstreet boy gets no respect. And: Bill Gates, international man of tired movie catch phrases. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Amy Reiter I can't speak for you people, but I'm singing the thong-thong blues. No sooner did Posh Spice let slip that her soccer star husband, David Beckham, likes to borrow her undies than another famous fellow threw his thong in the ring. Asked, in an all-too-frank chat on E! Online on Wednesday, whether he prefers boxers, briefs or thongs, Tim Robbins confessed, "I own all three." Monica Lewinsky, what hath thou wrought? - - - - - - - - - - - - A sleepy, hollow career? "I'm astonished that I can still get work." -- Johnny Depp on his penchant for appearing in quirky non-blockbusters, in the London Telegraph. - - - - - - - - - - - - Dating games Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to date Richard Gere. Toss them the way of Larry Flynt or Hugh Hefner instead. That's the questionable advice being peddled by the authors of the upcoming self-helper "How to Succeed With Men," Ron Louis and David Copeland. Guys like Gere, who seem "chock full of goodness and light and are always going off to meet with the Dalai Lama," explains Copeland, are apt to blow up and get mean. The Flynts and Hefners of the world, meanwhile, "may seem less sensitive, but they'll take responsibility for it." "Hugh Hefner may have three girlfriends at the moment," Copeland contends, "but at least he's totally straight about it." Well, I suppose, if there's one thing you can say about Hef, it's that he's totally straight ... - - - - - - - - - - - - Lifestyles of the kids of the rich and famous "Kosovo? I thought we were going to St. Bart's for Christmas!" -- Christie Brinkley's 14-year-old daughter, Alexa Rae, on being schlepped along on a her mom's morale-boosting trip for U.S. troops in Kosovo, in USA Today. - - - - - - - - - - - - A bum deal Rod Stewart's new girlfriend's bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase "bet your bottom dollar." The U.K. Sun reports that former "Baywatch" babe Angelica Bridges has taken out a $4.9 million insurance policy on her butt. In Hollywood, it's all tits and assets. - - - - - - - - - - - - White guys finish last? "It seems like to me that if we were five black guys, people wouldn't give us as hard a time ... Because we're white, people will assume, 'Oh, man, they ain't really singing.'" -- Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson on the difficulties of being an attractive, successful white guy, in Rolling Stone. - - - - - - - - - - - - Juicy bits Bring on the fembots! In a speech at the CES electronics trade show this week, Bill Gates donned a purple velvet suit and made a solid attempt at showing that humor is his bag, baby. Dubbing himself, "Austin Gates, International Man of Technology," the Microsoft mogul boasted, "I put the 'sin' in 'syntax,' baby!" Oh, behave. Even Michael Jordan might have trouble getting Nike out of this jam. A chain of stores in Germany has stopped selling soccer shirts manufactured by Nike amidst allegations that they contain a super-poisonous tin derivative known to cause hormonal irregularities. So that explains why all those footie players were suddenly stacked as hell. salon.com | Jan. 7, 2000