To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People May 17, 2000 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/2000/05/17/npwed Out, out, damned rumor Whitney Houston sets the record straight in Out magazine; Ricky Martin chats with his Little Ricky. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Amy Reiter You think the rumors don't hurt Whitney Houston? They do. Deeply. But it's not the drug rumors that sting. Oh no. It's those other rumors that cut her to the quick. "The thing that hurt me the most was that they tried to pin something on me that I was not. My mother raised me to never, ever be ashamed of what I am," Houston tells Out magazine. "But I'm not a lesbian, darling. I'm not." And in case you missed that, allow her to make herself perfectly clear. She is "not lesbian, not gay, not all that B.S. I don't want to hear that. It's over." What, you need to hear her say it again? - - - - - - - - - - - - What would Lucy and Desi say? "What I often do is think of what the Little Ricky inside me thinks of what the grown-up Ricky has become. I will ask him: 'Are you happy with how things have turned out? Are you proud?' And you know what? Sometimes, Little Ricky isn't proud." -- Ricky Martin, wrestling with his inner demons in the U.K.'s Heat magazine. - - - - - - - - - - - - Playing doctor ... on the sly Name one Hollywood star who can keep a secret. How about George Clooney? It turns out he didn't even tell his own agent about his surprise appearance on "ER" last week. "I didn't tell anybody," Clooney told reporters at Cannes. "I was on a plane on Thursday with my agent, and he was talking into a phone, saying 'He'll never do it.' And I said to him: 'Well, I did it.'" According to Clooney, crew members were given bonus checks that were valid only if the secret never seeped out. What's more, he said, John Wells, the show's executive producer, kept the top-secret footage in his fridge until it was needed. But Clooney was apparently none too pleased that NBC opted to promote a special surprise guest appearance the day the show was set to air. "NBC can't help stepping on their own feet," Clooney carped to Mr. Showbiz. "And to promote it after we worked so hard to keep it a secret." Those NBC suits need 10 cc's of discretion. Stat. - - - - - - - - - - - - Speaking of Hollywood secrets ... Jody "Baby Doll" Gibson's little black book sure could make for some interesting reading. Now that the alleged Hollywood madam II has landed in jail for the next three years, the Los Angeles Times is hoping to pressure the court into releasing her roster of high-powered, big-name clients. Where have we heard this story before? - - - - - - - - - - - - Marky Mark: Eyes off my crotch! "I dropped my pants for those Calvin Klein underwear ads because I thought it would look cool and get my career started. It was good for a while, but eventually I got sick of people looking at my crotch and asking, 'Hey, what comes between you and those Calvins, underwear boy?'" -- Mark Wahlberg on why he stopped showing his skivvies, in Jump magazine. - - - - - - - - - - - - Dialogue that's hard to swallow Question: Which young actress refused to take a part that required her to utter the line "I swallowed your cum and you won't let me sleep on your couch?" Answer: Christina Ricci. She has her limits. Not so Mena Suvari, who accepted the role rejected by Ricci in the upcoming flick "Loser." "If you take any line out of context, it could seem rude or be misunderstood," Suvari tells Movieline magazine. "She took it too literally." Come again? - - - - - - - - - - - - Juicy bits There is nothing like a dame. Elizabeth Taylor and Julie Andrews were honored by the Queen on Tuesday, when they were made dame commanders of the Order of the British Empire. Taylor told the press she wished her late husband, Richard Burton, could have been there to share her moment, adding, "Today doesn't compare to anything else that's happened to me in my life." Andrews called it "the greatest honor of my life." Positively supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Alanis Morissette is probably belting out a happier tune these days. The Canadian singer is fixing to sell around $1 million worth of MP3.com stock. But the 100,000 shares she's looking to unload are only a small portion of the 330,000 shares she acquired in April 1999, when the Web site sponsored a tour she shared with Tori Amos. Guess MP3.com's stock dip (after a court ruled that the site broke U.S. copyright laws) was a jagged little pill, financially speaking. Boy George on the big screen? The '80s icon's autobiography, "Take It Like a Man," is set to be made into a movie. Retitled "Karma Chameleon," the movie will be "like 'Valley of the Dolls,' only with bigger hair and a happy ending," George told Variety. Kfir Yefet will direct. What, they couldn't get John Waters? Helen Thomas is 79. Nevertheless, her announcement Tuesday that she would resign as UPI's White House correspondent comes as a shockeroo to those who regard her as something of a Washington landmark. Thomas, who reported for UPI for 57 years, departed just one day after the struggling news agency was purchased by News World Communications, which publishes the Washington Times and has informal connections to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. Now who's gonna say, "Thank you, Mr. President"? Those crazy newlyweds! Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thornton are costarring with Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz (who swear they're "just good friends") in what the Hollywood Reporter describes as "'Midnight Cowboy' for the new millennium." Pedro Almodovar may direct. So much for a honeymoon. salon.com | May 17, 2000   - - - - - - - - - - - - About the writer Amy Reiter is a staff writer for Salon People. For more columns by Amy Reiter, visit her column archive.