Buzz

Was it something we said?
For the record, we here at the Dallas Observer do not have cooties. OK, maybe that statement is a bit broad. Let's just say that none of the people we let speak on our behalf in public has cooties as far as Buzz knows.

So frankly--we're speaking to you, Dallas Chamber of Commerce--we're just a little hurt that you withdrew your invitation to let staff writer Jim Schutze moderate a panel on arts funding in Dallas.

Pam Stevenson, of the chamber group Leadership Dallas, invited Schutze to sit on the panel, part of a daylong discussion of the arts scheduled for June 18. The invitation apparently was spurred by a story the Observer published in April about a controversy involving the Dallas Business Committee for the Arts. The story suggested that the committee's main reason for existence was simply that--to exist. Schutze didn't write the story, but having boundless tolerance for tedium and way too much time on his hands, he agreed to attend.

On Monday, Stevenson called back Schutze and said his appearance was no longer needed. Representatives of the chamber didn't want anything "too controversial" on the agenda.

Controversial? Us?

Stand by your woman
The impeachment fizzled. The country moved on to other entertainment--bombing Yugoslavia. There's nothing left to do with the Paula Jones case but fill the book contracts and divvy up the dough.

Now things can get really ugly.
What promises to be a fun fight over the loot from Jones' settlement of her sexual harassment case against President Clinton kicked off this week when her husband, Stephen, filed for divorce in California, citing irreconcilable differences.

Is anyone, anywhere, really surprised? Certainly not Paula Jones' Dallas lawyers, one of whom confided to Buzz last week that he expected divorce proceedings to be forthcoming. Maybe he should work for Paula's psychic network.

"Paula married him when she was, like, 21 and really dumb," the lawyer said privately.

And now she is so much smarter.
While Steve and Paula square off, her lawyers are angling to recoup some of their fees from the case against Clinton. Wes Holmes, a partner in the Dallas firm of Rader, Campbell, Fisher & Pyke, told Buzz that they are trying to discover how much Clinton was billed by his own lawyer for the legal advice the president received in the Monica Lewinsky cover-up.

Our guess: way too much.
The Dallas firm wants to use the figure to help them calculate how much Clinton should be fined for contempt of court for lying under oath.

Apparently, no one involved was good with money, except maybe Newsweek correspondent Michael Isikoff, who broke the Lewinsky story and has written a book, Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story.

Holmes says Isikoff pumped his firm for information while researching the book. "Isikoff called last fall and said he was going to be in town, could we get together? We went to Mattito's. I took time away from my family to tell him all this stuff. We weren't going to get a thing out of it, and then he didn't offer to pick up my dinner. We split the check."

The man is an honor to reporters everywhere.

--Compiled from staff reports by Patrick Williams