People talk 1/6/02

Skater Hughes faces Ivy League choices

RADNOR, Pa. -- Figure skater Sarah Hughes, who upset Michelle Kwan to win an Olympic gold medal last February, now has her eyes on a different prize: the Ivy League.

Hughes, 17, said she did "very well" on her SATs and is considering Harvard, where she has already been accepted, as well as Columbia, Princeton and Yale, where she has applied.

Hughes, of Great Neck, N.Y., hopes to win her first national title when she competes in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Dallas next week.

Instant fame has had its perks. Hughes recently spent time on the set of "Catch Me If You Can," a new film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio.

"I just got a call that I was invited. I don't know if (Spielberg is) a big skating fan, but I think his wife is. I got to go on the set, and I met Leonardo. That was pretty cool," she said.

International scouting festival visited by king

SATTAHIP, Thailand -- Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf sported a blue scout's uniform, sang songs and camped with Swedish scouts at the 20th World Scout Jamboree this weekend.

The 56-year-old king, honorary chairman of the World Scout Foundation since 1977, arrived at the scout village Saturday and spent the night among more than 20,000 boy and girl scouts from 144 countries.

The participants have pitched tents in a field 110 miles southeast of Bangkok for the 20th World Scout Jamboree, international scouting's biggest festival, from Dec. 28 to Jan. 7.

The king said the workshops being held at the Jamboree's "Global Development Village" were a powerful educational tool that the scouts could use to highlight issues such as refugees and demining.

The World Scout Jamboree has been held every four years in a different country since the 1920s.

Directorial debut fun but difficult for Clooney

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- George Clooney's first directing experience was fun and invigorating, but he won't be going behind the camera again anytime soon.

"I won't be directing again for a while," Clooney said Saturday at a special screening of his new movie "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind." The screening kicked off the 14th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.

"I have to go make a living somewhere," he said.

Clooney's directorial debut chronicles the secret life of "The Gong Show" host Chuck Barris, who claimed in his 1982 "unauthorized autobiography" that he was also a CIA hit man. Barris was also the creator of the television shows "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game."

While his first shot at directing was exciting, Clooney said being in the film made it more difficult.

"It was a little harder than I thought it would be," he said. "You can't yell at the director when you're acting."-- From wire reports

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LONDON -- The public relations expert who helped Britons warm to Prince Charles and his companion Camilla Parker Bowles has resigned.

Mark Bolland announced late Saturday that he was stepping down as a freelance adviser to the prince to concentrate on other clients. The prince's St. James's Palace office said Charles was sad to see him go.

Toronto-born Bolland, 36, was Charles' deputy private secretary from 1997 until last year, when he set up a public relations business with Charles and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry as clients.

He is credited with helping transform Parker Bowles from a public hate figure for her perceived role in ending Charles' marriage to the late Princess Diana to an accepted member of the royal circle who regularly appears in public with the prince.

In 2001 he was named "PR Professional of the Year" by PR Week magazine for overseeing "a massive sea change in the relationship between Charles and the press."

Bolland also helped organize the outdoor concerts at Buckingham Palace staged last June to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee.

"My time with the Prince of Wales and Mrs. Parker Bowles has been one of huge excitement and challenge -- as well as one marked by moments of great sadness," Bolland said.

"It has been a privilege to serve both of them, and Princes William and Harry. I shall always look back on my time there with great affection."

-- From wire reports