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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 13, 1994                   TAG: 9407130024
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PEOPLE

Alex Trotman accepted Moore's challenge to change the oil in a Ford Explorer for Moore's NBC newsmagazine "TV Nation," which premieres next week.

Trotman spent about an hour changing the oil, explaining the process and bantering with the filmmaker. The segment will be part of the July 26 episode of the show that has Moore as host doing what he does best - tweaking corporate America.

Moore challenged CEOs of several companies to show how much they know about their products. Many declined, including IBM's Louis Gerstner and Colgate-Palmolive's Reuben Mark, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.

Moore's 1989 "Roger & Me" was a satirical documentary on how auto industry layoffs affected his hometown of Flint. Moore relentlessly pursued then-GM Chairman Roger Smith, who retired in 1991.

They poked eyes, threw pies and bonked each other's noggins. They also made people laugh.

About 1,500 hard-core fans convened over the weekend in Trevose, Pa., to remember the various Stooges, Curly, Moe and Shemp Howard, Larry Fine, Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita, now all dead.

Don Morlan, University of Dayton communications scholar, opined: "They made significant contributions to uplifting the morale of Americans during the economic crisis of the Great Depression."

Vanessa Redgrave's scheduled theatrical performances in Israel next week were canceled Tuesday because of slow ticket sales and the threat of public disruption at the Haifa Municipal Theatre.

Only 150 of 1,600 tickets had been sold. A theater spokeswoman said "massive public pressures against the performances" led the theater to consider "the sensibilities of its public."

Conservative groups threatened to make a scene at Redgrave's July 18 and 19 performances of "Brecht in Exile," in which she would have played a Jew in Nazi Germany. "The time isn't right for these performances," said the spokeswoman.

Richard Simmons, who has made a fool of himself over Barbra Streisand during the diva's live performance resurrection, was expected to get back the diamond ring he sent her at Madison Square Garden. She thought the Tiffany bauble a tad too extravagant from somebody she has never met. The fitness guru, 46 Tuesday, said he was was so distraught by the development that he won't open the accompanying letter if there is one.