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The quote? Lawyer William Skrzyniarz is said to have told Sanello that (before she was married), "When Sharon Stone wants someone, she rents a hotel room and tells him exactly when and where to show up. She makes it clear it's a one-time opportunity, take it or leave it. She's made the moves on some major names." (Note that Sanello's bio is so unauthorized it's not even funny.)

Stone denied it. Skrzyniarz denied ever having said it. Stone ceased doing business with Rosenfeld, Meyer & Sussman. Skrzyniarz no longer works for the firm. The firm sued Sanello and his (mondo-unauthorized) book's publisher. The law firm lost the suit. However, "There was no evidence that she ever engaged in that sleazy, cheesy one-night stand behavior," said one attorney.

Home improvement as a revenge mechanism

You've got to hand it to a guy like Ronnie Northcutt. By using his own vindictiveness as an opportunity to make a creative statement, sans violence or destruction, the innovative Texan sets an example for all of us. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Northcutt, who feels he's been wronged by his neighbors, has painted his fences "mint green, pink, blue and brown" as revenge. You may question Northcutt's skill as a colorist, but his effectiveness is unassailable: The neighbors are steamed, and most are too intimidated to go on the record, the newspaper says. What's worse, Northcutt's just getting warmed up. He's now threatening to bring in -- you guessed it -- pink plastic flamingos!

The whole ugly squabble got started when he began building a detached garage next to his home without a construction permit, which the city ordered him to stop. Then, when Northcutt applied for a permit and asked for a variance to construct an oversize garage, 40 of his neighbors protested and the city turned him down.

Now it's payback time.

"I'm not done yet," Northcutt crowed to Star-Telegram reporter Elizabeth Campbell. He promised to finish painting the fence, "kill the grass in the front yard" and then install some attractive "ornamental statuary," perhaps of the plastic-flamingo variety. Northcutt's also thinking about putting in a particularly grotesque rock garden. "It won't be pretty," he said in a gravel voice. "It will be the big rocks, not the little ones ... I did this out of revenge because the homeowners association opposed my garage ... I might be vindictive, but I don't care. I want to be left alone."

Unabomber: I'm a murderer, not a nutcase!

Don't you need a license to be a spin doctor? Heading up a public-relations campaign while living in a super-max federal prison ain't exactly a cakewalk, but Theodore J. Kaczynski seems to be managing.

As Court TV's Harriet Ryan observes in a recent article, "It's called social rehabilitation. The disgraced, guided by publicity-savvy handlers, repair their image through the same media that destroyed it ... Monica Lewinsky did it with a dorkily conservative blue suit and a Barbara Walters chat. Hugh Grant went with an extended grovel on Jay Leno. Pee Wee Herman opted for a one liner -- 'Heard any good jokes lately?'" ("Dorkily"? Harriet, that's just mean.)

But the latest rehab spinner is "something of a shock," Ryan writes. Indeed, with an interview in last Monday's Time magazine, Kaczynski has kicked off a reputation-rehabilitation effort that makes building the pyramids at Giza look like a sand-castle competition.

"Is this the same mountain man who got the New York Times and Washington Post to print his manifesto with 'your news pages or their lives' threats?" Ryan wonders. Yes, the very same gentleman.

The Unabomber's publisher, Beau Friedlander, explains that his author is "defending his reputation." Huh? Kaczynski feels that the media has presented a distorted view of him, including lies about "his personality and mental health ... by lawyers, psychiatrists, acquaintances and especially his family." On that score, you may not be surprised to hear that he has some issues with his younger brother. You'll remember that that brother, David, turned his homicidal-maniac sibling in to the authorities. The Unabomber told Time that if the tables had been turned, and his brother had been the suspected murderer, "I would have kept it to myself." Uh, still a little foggy there on the morality stuff.

"I'm confident that I'm sane," Kaczynski told the news magazine. "I don't get delusions and so forth." Ted, that's a comfort, but next time consider a rock garden with pink flamingos.
salon.com | Oct. 16, 1999

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