To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People Feb. 17, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/2000/02/17/npthurs Courtesy flush, please! Extra! Extra! Put the seat down! Senate reporters forced to use coed loo; "American Pie" man Don McLean gets goopy over Madonna. Plus: The descent of man continues -- Carlos Santana announces his own clothing line. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Amy Reiter An interesting tidbit from the Senate press gallery has been leaked my way. Due to press gallery renovations, a source tells me, the men's bathroom has been made coed: A big computer-printed sign blaring "UNISEX RESTROOM" graces the door, and two out of the bathroom's four stalls are reserved for women. "'Ally McBeal,' sadly, is the reference on everyone's lips," reports my source. And cheap jokes about "stream of consciousness writing" and "below the Beltway" are swirling around as well. Not everyone thinks it's funny, though. Some of the women reporters have flat-out refused to use the facilities, but my source tells me the reaction divides more along generational than gender lines. "As in the Clinton scandals ('A blow job??? Ugh, that's disgusting!'), you sense a generation gap ('Coed? Ewww!') in the reaction," he says. "But the funniest aspect is that most people over 40 knock, then proceed in regardless of response." Flush! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Me, mean? Oh, puh-lease! "People say, 'You're so mean.' And I say, 'Me? Why? Because I say Elizabeth Taylor is fat? Everybody says that.' They just remember me because I had the better jokes." -- Joan Rivers, explaining that her jokes aren't mean because she only goes after "people who it doesn't matter one bit to." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - All choked up Latrell Sprewell is pulling a Linda Tripp. In an upcoming Men's Journal interview, the NBA bad boy and recovering coach-choker claims he's just like the rest of us. Or at least he embodies our basest urges. Sure, he admits, he can be jumpy. "Once I'm at the point that I've been disrespected," Sprewell tells the magazine, "I will say, once that switch has been flipped, I'm really hard to handle." And, yeah, OK, he's a little unpredictable. "I carry myself in a laid-back way," he says, "but at the same time, you know there's potential for danger." But really, deep down, he is you. "A lot of people like that person who doesn't just go by society's rules, so to speak, who finds a way to get their job done and still do the things they want to do, to be an individual," he muses. "Everybody would love to be able to do our jobs the way we want to do it and not care about how our bosses or anyone thought about it. I mean, if you could do that in a heartbeat, wouldn't you?" Well ... ? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Attention, Joan Rivers! "Baby's due in April. I will be wearing a tent." -- Annette Bening, pregnant with her fourth child, on what she'll wear to the Oscars this year. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Juicy bits Another "Ally McBeal" star has left the courtroom. Variety reports that Courtney Thorne-Smith, who plays Georgia, will leave the show at the end of this season in order to star in her own sitcom. "Ally" producer David E. Kelley reassures fans that Billy (played by Gil Bellows, who recently announced his own imminent departure) and Georgia "will reoccur next season, and new characters will be introduced this year." We've been down this road before ... Carlos Santana has his own ... clothing line? The musician has apparently licensed his name to men's apparel company Dino de Milano to grace a sportswear collection. The company says the "Carlos" line "will be geared toward young men of all ages, offering dressy, modern and, at the same time, very wearable unpretentious looks that will go from day to night with natural ease." Oy-oy-oye como va. The day Madonna released her version of Don McLean's "American Pie" earlier this month was apparently not the day the music died. McLean says he's pleased with the Ethereal Girl's dance-pop version of his 1971 anthem. "I think it is sensual and mystical," he ventured. "I have received many gifts from God but this is the first time I have ever received a gift from a goddess." Really, Don, let's not overdo it. Good morning, starshine. Goodbye, Oliver. William Oliver Swofford, the singer who had hits in the late 1960s with "Jean" and "Good Morning, Starshine," from the musical "Hair," died of cancer on Saturday at 52. The Earth says so long. salon.com | Feb. 17, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Amy Reiter is a staff writer for Salon People. For more columns by Amy Reiter, visit her column archive.