
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 24, 1993                   TAG: 9304240332
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

THE PEOPLE COLUMN

Fitness guru Richard Simmons faces a sexual-harassment lawsuit from a woman who used to work at the QVC home shopping network, where Simmons appears regularly. Lori Pastore accuses the "Sweatin' to the Oldies" pitchman of making "lewd, lecherous, wanton and lascivious comments" during a 1991 visit to QVC's offices. She's seeking more than $150,000 in damages. Elijah Jones, a spokesman for Simmons in Los Angeles, was quoted as telling the Daily Local News of West Chester, Pa., where the suit was filed, "It happened almost two years ago, and I assumed it was all over with."

\ Performing at his own theater in Branson, Mo., means that Wayne Newton won't have to tour three to four months a year.

"It's like Christmas in April," Newton said in Las Vegas, where he'll close a run on Sunday and then head for Branson to open the theater on May 1.

"I liked traveling around, but I'm such a perfectionist, and a lot of stages just didn't seem to be right," he said.

The 3,000-seat Wayne Newton Theatre has been designed to provide intimacy and visibility. "The furthest person away from the stage is only 96 feet," he said. "There is not one seat in the theater that a person cannot see the entire width and depth of the stage. I have stood on the stage, and it feels like it seats 600 people. I think this will be a standard for any theaters in the future."

Newton will continue to play his customary 20 weeks a year in Las Vegas, but he will perform 218 days in Branson from May to October. When he's away from Branson for short stints back in Las Vegas this summer, Johnny Cash will fill in.

by CNB