People: Sep. 8, 1997

THE DOCKET: JUDGE V. JOCK

Before insulting a judge, remember: you can be reasonably sure he or she knows a good lawyer. This didn't put off Don Imus, the radio talk-show host mellow in voice but not outlook. When Deirdre Coleman, Imus' wife, asked to be excused from jury duty on a murder trial because Imus' show was covering it, Judge Harold J. Rothwax asked her to ask him not to cover it. The judge then relented, but not before earning Imus' ire. On his nationally syndicated show, the shock jock ranted against Rothwax, using such epithets as "Scuzwax," "Rothworm" and "senile old dirtbag." Thus it was Rothwax's turn to get mad. He has no show, so he's suing instead.

LOVE AND OTHER SCORES

It's a tale begging to be made into a TV movie: strapping Red Army soldier defects to enemy land to become a hockey star. There he meets a pretty, (very) young Russian tennis tyro with long, golden hair. He goes on to win the Stanley Cup. She goes on to win the U.S. Open. Oops. That's how the telemovie would have played out; but in reality, although Sergei Fedorov, 27, was part of the Stanley Cup-winning Detroit Red Wings, Anna Kournikova, 16, was beaten by Irina Spirlea in the second round of the Open last week, as he watched. Not that the two are admitting they're sweethearts. "She's my good friend, and why not? We came from exactly the same background," says Fedorov. "We are professional athletes. Her career is rising; mine is in the middle. We're doing very well." Too well for some people. "I just want to shut up the mouths to everybody because they just think so much about her," says Spirlea.

IT'S INDIANA NEWT!

There are people who think some of NEWT GINGRICH's policies are straight out of the Paleolithic era. The Speaker may not necessarily be offended by that, given his fondness for fossils. Gingrich was able to indulge his fondness last week, first taking part in a debate on how predatory Tyrannosaurus rex really was (Gingrich's view: very) and then participating in a dig in Paradise Valley, Mont., where, under the eye of local celebrity Peter Fonda, he actually found a dinosaur bone. And no, his aides didn't bury it there for him to find. It took several discouraging hours of picking at rocks and soil under the hot sun. But the Speaker was exuberant. "This," he told the assembled reporters, "is sheer pleasure."

SEEN & HEARD

An audience with the Pope is one thing, but the Pope for an audience is quite another. So when Bob Dylan was asked to perform at a concert for the Pontiff, it was just assumed he'd be there, even if Dylan hadn't actually assented. "The Pope, huh? I guess if the Vatican is reporting it, it must be happening," the folk singer told USA Today. Is this what's meant by papal infallibility?

Vaclav Havel has a sense of humor, but too far is too far. The Czech President has asked his lawyers to seek almost $150,000 in damages from a shoe company that depicted him being licked by a terrier on a poster, according to the daily newspaper Dnes. What riled him was not the image but the English slogan, which contains the F word.

GETTING IN WAY TOO DEPP