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A Monty Fall The prolific and daring playwright Terrance McNally is up to his old tricks. Having stirred controversy before with male nudity in "Love, Valour, and Compassion," and depicting Christ as homosexual in last year’s "Corpus Christi," McNally is certainly not a one-note, sexual provocateur. His homage to the great opera diva Maria Callas was a Tony Award-winning triumph. On his latest project, though, McNally apparently dabbles again with sexual content certain to challenge social and artistic taboos. McNally has penned a stage adaptation to the hit movie "The Full Monty." The raucous musical is receiving word of mouth praise among critics, nightly full houses, and standing ovations not unlike the film’s rollicking, bare- all finale. This production of "The Full Monty" is being developed at The La Jolla Playhouse near San Diego, the same place that nurtured "The Who’s Tommy" before it came to Broadway. Unless any unforeseen complications arise, McNally’s "The Full Monty" will reveal itself to New York audiences in the fall. Significant Other? Maybe it’s the heat, or lack of excitement in the Magnolia State. According to Governing magazine, Mississippi State Senator Hillman Frazier acknowledged his inability to recall the lyrics to the state song: "Most Mississippians don’t know the state song, state insect, state bee, state mammal or state beverage. We have a long list of things that are insignificant." For the record, New York’s significant features are: Motto: Excelsior (Ever upward); Flower: Rose; Bird: Bluebird; Tree: Sugar maple; Song: I Love New York. New York City does not have an official list of significant items. However, an unofficial 2000 version might include: Motto: Fuggedaboutit. No way is there a motto. Song: New York, New York (Sinatra version); City animal: rodent (rat or squirrel); Bird: Pigeon, sparrow, or West Nile Virus carrier; Sports: Baseball and politics; Insect: roach. Email us your list. Chelsea Chat A friend of Chelsea Clinton told the Washington Post she’s tired of hearing the first daughter continually referred to in the media as a pre-med student. "She’s no longer pre-med," says the source. "She’s dropped that and takes mostly history and poli sci courses now. I think she’s either pre-law or going into politics — maybe both — but I’ve never asked her." The White House had no comment. Vagina Monologues Dialogue over the controversial Off-Broadway play "The Vagina Monologues" continues to generate heat. The latest scene involves the dubious circumstances that proceeded the hiring of a new member of the cast. The on-again, off-again casting of Mayor Giuliani’s wife Donna Hanover is on again, amid the recent lull in media coverage of their doomed marriage. Hanover announced last week that she is going to appear in the play after all, in October. Meanwhile, a new threesome of actresses’ take to the West Side Theater stage this week, most notably Gloria Rueben of "ER" fame. A year ago, Rueben left the hit NBC series to fulfill a dream come true. Rueben got the chance to sing back up to Tina Turner on Turner’s latest and possibly final North American tour. NYConfidential has learned that the TV star "didn’t adjust well to the rigors of overnight bus rides, and her singing was getting progressively worse as the tour rolled on." As the tour recently reached its last leg, Turner fired the neophyte Rueben and replaced her with Lisa Fisher, who had previously toured with Michael Jackson. Rueben reportedly was in shock, went into denial, badmouthed Turner, and plotted her own starring solo turn with her music industry beau. When Turner, the great Rock 'n Roll diva comes to town in a couple of weeks, Rueben will be taking the stage and performing at another venue in town. Rueben has decided to dip her toes back into the acting pool and has signed on to appear as one of the "Vagina Monologue-ists." Cooper Dis-Union NYConfidential has learned that the tenure of Cooper Union President George Campbell is in jeopardy over a parking lot and a hotel. It’s the sort of dubious fate that takes Joni Mitchell’s prophetic lyrics about "paving paradise, put up a parking lot" one step further. Campbell helped strike a deal with Ian Schrager Hotels to build a hotel on the sight where a parking lot exists. The location is at the center of Astor Place between the Bowery and Lafayette St. Schrager retained the services of the firm of Herzog de Meuron, and cutting-edge architect Rem Koolhaus, to develop the sight. We were told Campbell believed that the revenue earmarked for Cooper Union would go towards ensuring full scholarships for the students enrolled there. The Board of Trustees favored the financial transaction and its incentives, but had misgivings about Campbell going along with an outside designer developing the site. The old guard preferred that the design stay "in house" as a testament to the excellence of their institution, and giving Schrager the say on the architect spelled doom for the plan. Ever since, the Cooper Union Board of Trustees has been biding time before dismissing Campbell. Koolhaus’s design is to be submitted to the Board shortly. Not etched in stone: whether Campbell will still be sitting president when the project finally breaks ground. Media Rats If it is true that you are what you eat, maybe people are right when they call reporters rats — it seems that some newsroom cafeterias around town are failing Health Dept. inspections. The agency has been posting its inspection of the city’s restaurants on its web site. While you won’t read about it elsewhere, we at NYConfidential don’t have an in-house eatery, and nothing to fear in one regard, at least. The fashionistas at Conde Nast, who now eat at the best publicized cafeteria in town — their top-floor lunchroom is known among media types as the place to be — was cited for serving food that was prepared with bare hands. The cafeteria for the New York Times had vermin, and canned food that "looked swollen, rusted or leaky." Viacom, which just bought CBS, ought to instead invest in some detergent, perhaps — they also had vermin. Maybe the people on "Survivor" are not the only CBS folks eating rats these days, eh? See: http://www.nyclink.org/html/doh/html/rii/index.html.
E-MAIL your items to: NYConf@NewsCommunications.com
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