People: Jan. 31, 1983

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White House offspring update: with six months remaining on his contract with the Joffrey Ballet, the President's younger son Ron Reagan, 24, announced last week that he was abandoning his career in dance. He had received some encouraging reviews, but it seemed unlikely that he would ever become a solo star. Ron said that he intended to concentrate on "other interests," which reportedly included writing. Meanwhile, Maureen Reagan, 42, has added "gameshow personality" to her résumé, at $1,100 per appearance. Maureen and her husband, Dennis Revell, 29, a cable-TV consultant, taped a Tattletales last month, followed by her guest spot this week on The New $25,000 Pyramid. Finally, Reagan's younger daughter Patti Davis, 30, has struck off in new directions of her own. She has taped her first pop album in London and is already nervous about the industry and audience response. "Lots of performers' first albums aren't well received, and you never hear about it," she says, "but I won't be able to have a quiet flop."

If there were a bar in Boston called Cheers, and if it were anything like the one in NBC's new sitcom of the same name, it would be just the sort of hangout where Democratic Congressman Thomas P. (Tip) O'Neill Jr., 70, might down a brew at the end of a rough day. After hearing that he thought so too, the producers invited O'Neill to tape a cameo appearance. For his TV acting debut, if one doesn't count the House's televised debates, O'Neill is hunched over the bar when George Wendt, 34 (the Speaker's favorite character in the series), plunks down beside him and heaves into a tirade on Washington. "This bozo right here next to me could probably be a better Congressman than those guys in Congress," says Wendt. Add laugh track. And so the line between show biz and politics blurs further.

Organizers of big-time events have increasingly felt it necessary to embrace something cuddly, furry or feathery as their mascot—to be licensed for everything from tote bags and T shirts to coffee mugs and lobster bibs. The Moscow Olympics had a bear, the 1984 Los Angeles Games have a bald eagle, and for the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition, the city fathers of New Orleans picked a pelican. Last week the bird showed up at a Louisiana-sponsored State Department reception, to the amusement of Secretary of State George Shultz, 62. Perhaps his department needs a mascot too. How about a giraffe (elegant, with no voice of its own), a penguin (always in formal dress) or Dr. Dolittle's Pushmi-Pullyu (for simultaneously making policy statements and taking them back)?