Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 19, 1992 TAG: 9202190246
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PEOPLE
It was no walk on the wild side, but rather a dignified ceremony for rock 'n' roll rebel Lou Reed.The former leader of the Velvet Underground was made a knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters in Paris Tuesday by Culture Minister Jack Lang.
"I'm deeply touched and moved," Reed said.
Reed, who turns 50 on March 2, is known for the 1972 song "Walk on the Wild Side," and other hits such as "Dirty Boulevard." He is midway through a concert tour in France.
"Some have seen you as a star of malaise, perhaps even of evil," Lang told the rocker. "I prefer to see in you a great poet of our anguish and perhaps of our hopes."
Reed was accompanied at the ceremony by his wife, Sylvie, and members of his band.
Queen Elizabeth II and her husband arrived in Sydney Tuesday and, as ever, not everyone was happy about it.
While Australia has a fascination with British royalty, controversy has erupted over whether to keep the queen as head of state or move to a republic with a presidential system.
Five members of the New South Wales state parliament said they will boycott ceremonies surrounding the queen's opening of the parliament on Thursday.
The queen and Prince Philip will help celebrate Sydney's 150th birthday and visit Canberra and Adelaide. They will return to London on Feb. 26.
Scottish-born Thomas Sutherland, who was held hostage for nearly seven years in Lebanon, will attend a banquet hosted by a Scottish group in Des Moines, Iowa.
Sutherland went to Iowa State University in Ames and is married to an Ames native, Jean Murray Sutherland. Sutherland, a native of Falkirk, Scotland, who later took U.S. citizenship, was dean of agriculture at American University in Beirut when he was taken hostage in June 1985. He was released in November.