People

By Belinda Luscombe

IF ONLY WE ALL LIVED IN DE HAVIL-LAND

Back in 1948, TIME did a cover story on OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND, which said in slightly patronizing tones that she was "probably the only star who read the Wall Street Journal." Time for an update. "There was an article saying land prices had dropped dismally," says de Havilland. "I was looking for a house, and I saw one that I'd looked at three months before, and it was twice the price! I decided not to read it anymore." Not that the only living star of the newly rereleased Gone With the Wind (she played long-suffering Melanie) bears a grudge. De Havilland, 81, who has lived in Paris since 1955, currently shares her home with her ex-husband Pierre Galante. They divorced in 1979, but after he was hospitalized recently, "we decided the best place for him to be was with me," she says. "I gave the former conjugal bedroom over to his exclusive use." It sounds like an arrangement Melanie would have approved of.

THIS LAND IS WOODY'S LAND

To put it mildly, America never really took to socialism, which may be why the impish British lefty singer BILLY BRAGG has had an uphill battle finding a U.S. audience. Undaunted by this, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora chose him to put music to some of the more than 1,000 songs Guthrie left behind when he died in 1967. Some, like his subversive version of The Bear Went Over the Mountain (in which the bear does unspeakable things to create the G.O.P.), are too profane for anything but live performances. But Bragg and the American band Wilco put music to 40 of the songs, 15 of which appear on Mermaid Avenue. "The whole point is to change the perception of who Woody Guthrie was," says Bragg. "He's an icon now, but the irony is that in his life, he was an iconoclast."

VLADIMIR WINGS IT FOR DETROIT

According to hockey tradition, the Stanley Cup is hoisted first by the captain, who then passes it to a player who has been instrumental in the team's victory. But this year Steve Yzerman, captain of the Detroit Red Wings, passed to a guy who hadn't set blade on the ice all season. He was VLADIMIR KONSTANTINOV, who suffered brain damage in an accident after last year's championship celebrations. When Konstantinov managed to stand up out of his wheelchair at the final game of the Red Wings sweep of the Cup, a cheer went around the crowd. Maybe he was instrumental in the victory after all.

FEUD OF THE WEEK

JOHN ("JUST JOHN") KENNEDY JR. AGE: 37 HAIR: THICK OCCUPATION: George editor, cultural object BEST PUNCH: He won't back down from a profile of Bruce Willis that quotes the actor as saying Louis Farrakhan is just "raising his voice against inequality" and Bob Dole is "a nitwit."

BRUCE ("YIPPEE-KI-YAY") WILLIS AGE: 43 HAIR: RECEDING OCCUPATION: Star, harmonica player BEST PUNCH: "What I said...was taken entirely out of context," he wrote to the Anti-Defamation League. "I have been raised all my life to be a strong voice against inequality."

THE WINNER: Kennedy. In what "context" can anyone offer support to Farrakhan?

WONDER WHAT HE'S UP TO?

Ever wanted to know if STEVIE WONDER goes to the movies? He does. "You catch nearly all of it if you pay close attention," says Wonder, who has founded, along with SAP, a German software company, the SAP/Stevie Wonder Vision Awards. The awards recognize products and research that assimilate blind people into the workplace, because while visually impaired people can follow a movie, a big percentage of them can't find a job. "I don't get too surprised by anything," says Wonder of the inventions, "but we did see some good things." One of the products is a mouse pad that helps people feel what is going on on the screen. Wonder is amazed by how few manufacturers think of the visually impaired when making appliances. "It's weird. It's so simple to add voice capability," he says. "And it means complete independence for a blind person." In between his good works, Wonder is still song writing. He hopes to record an album next year.