People

By Belinda Luscombe

CHICAGO A GO-GO

Guess KERRY WOOD was ready for the major leagues after all. The 20-year-old Chicago Cubs pitcher tied the record held by the venerable Roger Clemens when he struck out 20 Houston Astros last week. (Perhaps he ought not go home to Texas this off-season.) Of course, Clemens did it twice, 10 years apart, but this was only the fifth game of Wood's major league career. "It was just one of those days when everything you throw is crossing the plate," Wood said. "It just felt like I was playing catch." If he can keep this up, the Cubs may even be able to end their 90-year championship drought. Yeah, sure.

FISTICUFFS Wait Until...Duck!

QUENTIN TARANTINO learned an important lesson last week: Don't drink and talk race. The feisty director got into a discussion with an African-American acquaintance, Barron Claiborne, about whether there are "black features." At one point Tarantino put two fingers in his nostrils to refer to the shape of some black people's noses. Later, after more drinking, Claiborne "comes and stands over me, which is something you don't do to another man," the director told Howard Stern. "He starts it all up again." Tarantino told the guy to get out of his face. "And then our friend says the magic words: 'Make me.' At that point I just stood up and popped him." Somehow, the man's girlfriend also sustained a blow. But what really irked the apparently quite irkable director was that the New York Post labeled him a racist because of the incident. "What I put into my life and work," he said, "with that one sentence they p_____ all over it."

A SHELLOW YUBMARINE

GEORGE HARRISON proved last week that if you're rich and famous enough, you can paper over some of the errors of your youth. Harrison went to court and persuaded a judge to stop the sale of a recording of the Beatles singing drunkenly in Hamburg, Germany, in 1962. What Harrison called one of the band's "crummiest" performances was caught on tape when the not-yet Fab Four went to the Star Club to play their last gig after signing with EMI. Unfortunately, the Liverpudlian lads had a little too much zu trinken beforehand. Lingasong Music, which wanted to release the tapes, claimed John Lennon had agreed to the recording. Harrison disputed this: "One drunk person recording another bunch of drunks does not constitute a business deal."

MATTHEW, CHAPTER 1

Whenever there are First Daughters, there are First Boyfriends. Now that MATTHEW PIERCE is CHELSEA CLINTON's official steady, let's see how he stacks up against First Beau sans peer GEORGE HAMILTON, who dated LYNDA BIRD JOHNSON.

[Johnson/Hamilton] [Clinton/Pierce]

Met when Senior at University of Frosh at Stanford Daughter was Texas at Austin Warm-up dates White House party for Had breakfast together Princess Margaret in the dining hall

Known prior Many, including None attachments Natalie Wood Most commonly In sharp suit In swimsuit seen

Approved of No, although they all Yes, and they still by dad? went to church together went to church together

Proof of Perpetual tan Nice pecs athleticism

Distinctions Golden Globe, Most Swimming and debating Promising Newcomer, '59 trophies

P.R. George's forgettable The Woodlands, opportunity for movies development where he lives

Backlash People wondered why he Stay tuned... wasn't in Vietnam

IS W.H. GATES THE NEXT J.P. GETTY?

If you're a fledgling art collector, start hoping you have different taste from that of WILLIAM H. GATES. If you're a seasoned art collector, start hoping you have the same. The Microsoft chairman bought the Winslow Homer painting Lost on the Grand Banks, above, a rare large seascape, for $30 million, the highest price ever paid for an American painting and only a little less currency than he forked over in 1994 for the Codex Leicester, an illustrated manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci. The previous record for a Homer was $2.4 million, paid just a year ago. Prices for Homer's work have been lower than for John Singer Sargent's, whose Cashmere, below left, was formerly the priciest American painting ever sold publicly, at $11,112,500. And, of course, Winslow trails considerably behind Vincent. Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet, below right, still ranks as the world's most expensive painting. The last price tag on it was $82.5 million. Gates's people won't confirm that the Microsoft mogul bought the Homer, perhaps on the advice of whoever provides his household insurance.

FEUD OF THE WEEK

CHARLTON ("DAMN DIRTY APE") HESTON AGE: 73 OCCUPATION: Actor, N.R.A. vice president BEST PUNCH: Called Babs "the Hanoi Jane of the Second Amendment," for producing The Long Island Incident, a docudrama on Carolyn McCarthy's campaign for Congress.

BARBRA ("HELLO, GORGEOUS") STREISAND AGE: 56 OCCUPATION: Actor, singer, director, F.O.B. BEST PUNCH: She doesn't oppose gun ownership for defense or hunting, Streisand said. "But you don't need an AK-47 to kill game, and you don't need an Uzi to defend yourself."

THE WINNER Draw. Why fuss over a movie that came last in the ratings?

Q & A

PHIL COLLINS

Remember Phil Collins? Well, he hasn't forgotten you. He's doing a Big Band tour in the U.S. in June.

Q: When you moved to Geneva, people were kind of shocked.

A: They thought, "He's buggered off into tax exile," because of how it was reported. But I just moved here because I fell in love. If my lady lived in Tucson, I'd have gone there. If she'd lived in Helsinki, I'd have gone there. People didn't like what they read, but in fact if they were witness to what happened and how, they would have been quite moved.

Q: Some musicians complain about playing the same tunes over and over. Is the Big Band tour a way around that?

A: Bunch of prima donnas, aren't they? I play psychological warfare with an audience. I know I'm going to have to play Against All Odds. I may get away without playing A Groovy Kind of Love.

Q: How could one discourage a son from becoming a drummer?

A: Tie his hands behind his back. I don't know. It's all I've done since I was five. I used to play in the living room while my family watched TV. Our neighbors must have had the patience of saints.

Q: They're putting one of your paintings on a credit card, right?

A: My painting, not one of them. I've only got one. It looks good reduced actually--better than it does full size.

Q: Ice-T is a fan. Are you surprised by who your fans are?

A: Apparently there's a huge fan base among those guys for my music, and they're putting together a compilation album of my music. I'm very surprised, because if you believed what you read from my critics, you'd think I'd be a million miles away from having any credibility with those guys. Being in the middle of the road and nice is probably the worst thing you can say about anyone, and they say it quite often about me.