People

By Michele Orecklin

They're cousins, and What a Crazy Pair The name calling, the accusations, the ill will--oh, the fun that occurs in a family when a relative dies and money is at stake. Days after the death of advice empress Ann Landers (real name: Esther Lederer), her daughter and niece are engaged in a vitriolic feud like the one that once consumed Landers and her twin sister, Abigail ("Dear Abby") Van Buren. Landers' daughter MARGO HOWARD, right, accused Van Buren's daughter, JEANNE PHILLIPS, left, of trying to cash in on Landers' death. Phillips, who inherited Dear Abby, went on Larry King Live and made public her grief over her aunt's death. Howard, who writes a Dear Prudence column, says her cousin's appearance was an attempt to "flog" the Dear Abby column and gain wider distribution among newspapers. We're no experts, but here's our advice: someone in this family should find a different line of work.

I'M JOHN. FLY ME

Forget cultural exchanges. Australian airline Qantas has concluded that in these perilous times the way to generate goodwill among nations is to have a movie star fly his own plane to cities like Paris and Hong Kong. Last week Qantas named John Travolta its "ambassador-at-large," announcing that he will pilot his wife and two kids on a 10-city "Spirit of Friendship" tour to, in the actor's words, "reach out, to cross borders, make contact" (and generate some publicity for Qantas). Travolta, who has a pilot's license, bought a Qantas Boeing 707 four years ago and lavishly redesigned its interior. The airline kicked in a fresh coat of paint and some flight training--though, if a stunt double is needed, a back-up crew will be on board.

THE ENRONETTES

It was three or four corporate scandals ago, but Playboy is just now catching up to the Enron debacle. The men's magazine invited all female employees affected by the company's demise to send in their pictures. Of the 300 who did, 10 made it into the August issue, now on sale. While most scandal veterans who disrobe for Playboy are already household names, having offered tearful press conferences or congressional testimony, chances are that few readers will have heard of CYNTHIA COGHLAN, CHRISTINE NIELSEN or CAREY LORENZO. But one thing is clear: from the looks of some of the naked torsos, it seems more than just Enron profits were inflated.

ANNA MEETS HER MATCH

Given Anna Kournikova's consistently disappointing play, it has become increasingly hard for male fans to claim they admire her strictly for her tennis. Her loss in the opening round of Wimbledon last week didn't help matters. But a new distraction is getting the attention on Centre Court: Daniela Hantuchova, the blond Slovakian who made it to the round of 16 and seems to be supplanting Kournikova in the hearts, minds and lustful dreams of tennis fans. Proving more impressive to commentators than her baseline game are Hantuchova's 44-in. legs, which, as the foaming British tabloids have repeatedly noted, are the longest in the women's game. Fleet Street turned on Kournikova after she snubbed a BBC reporter, following which several newspapers ran the same MOVE OVER ANNA headline. Hantuchova, who won a major tournament at Indian Wells, Calif., earlier this year, proved she's a fierce competitor when she commented on the comparisons between Kournikova and herself: "I'm glad people can write about my tennis too, more than hers."