People talk 4/8/02

Breaking up was hard for actress to do

NEW YORK -- Actress Tara Reid was so devastated after her breakup with MTV's Carson Daly that she couldn't eat and sought therapy from five doctors.

Reid, 26, who starred in "American Pie" and "Josie and the Pussycats" told CosmoGIRL! magazine for its May editions that she turns to her parents during difficult times. She and Daly, host of MTV's "Total Request Live" video countdown show, broke off their engagement last year.

"I lost my appetite -- I was numb," Reid said. "I literally thought I couldn't breathe. I went to five shrinks, and nothing made sense."

After the breakup, everything reminded her of Daly, she said. Reid couldn't even listen to "Thank You," by Dido, until recently.

Reid said she's better now, and that she and Daly are friends.

"You can't say you're going to marry someone and then hate each other," she told the magazine. "We're friends. It's hard, but it's the right thing to do."

MacDowell keeps busy with three films

NEW YORK -- Andie MacDowell has come a long way since 1984's "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan," when actress Glenn Close was brought in to dub her voice over MacDowell's southern drawl.

MacDowell has just wrapped production on three new films: "Crush," a tale of three women who meet weekly to discuss their love lives; "Harrison's Flowers," about war correspondents and photojournalists in Yugoslavia; and "Ginostra," filmed in Italy with Harvey Keitel.

But MacDowell's focus lately has been on her 13-year-old daughter, Rainey, who recently performed as Miss Adelaide in the school version of "Guys and Dolls."

"She was amazing," MacDowell told Parade magazine for its Sunday editions. "Much better than I'd have been at 13. She danced and sang up a storm. I could never have done that."

Singer Manson named in wrongful death suit

LOS ANGELES -- Shock rocker Marilyn Manson defended himself against claims that he was responsible for the death of a woman after a party at his mansion last year.

Jennifer Syme, 29, died on April 1, 2001, when she was flung from her Jeep Cherokee after hitting at least three parked cars.

"After Jennifer was sent home safely with a designated driver, she later got behind the wheel of her own car for reasons known only to her," Manson said in a statement issued through his Posthuman Records Management label.

A wrongful death suit filed Tuesday in Superior Court by Syme's mother claims Manson was negligent in "instructing the woman to operate a motor vehicle in her incapacitated condition."

Maria St. John is seeking unspecified damages and attorney fees.

-- From wire reports

The lawsuit alleges that Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, gave Syme drugs before she was dropped off at her home. She got into her car, with the intent of returning to Manson's home, according to the lawsuit.

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NEW YORK -- For his first onstage antics at the annual Inner Circle charity dinner, Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined the new stars of the Broadway show "The Producers" in a musical spoof poking fun at his victory in last year's City Hall race.

At the black-tie benefit, reporters lampoon city politics and the mayor takes the stage for a musical comeback.

In this year's media skit, "Thanks a Billion," reporters needled the billionaire mayor for the $76.4 million of his personal fortune he spent during his campaign -- the most ever spent on a non-presidential race in the United States.

Bloomberg's rebuttal featured actors Steven Weber and Henry Goodman choosing him as a mayoral candidate sure to lose -- a spinoff of the award-winning musical, in which the actors play a producer and accountant who try to scam investors with a surefire Broadway flop.

Bloomberg also showed off his legs in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian-print shirt Saturday night, a gag on the media attention he has received for refusing to disclose his whereabouts during weekends out-of-town, including one at his estate in Bermuda.

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- With a polite nudge from "Miss Manners," Naval Academy recruits are learning how to become both officers and gentlemen.

Syndicated columnist Judith Martin, also known as "Miss Manners," began etiquette classes on Sunday, teaching recruits how to attack a salad with the right fork and why it is important to write thank you notes and learn how to waltz.

"In professions dealing with high-stakes conflicts, etiquette must be much stricter than is necessary in the society at large," said Martin. "The respective rules of dress, gesture, language, recognition of hierarchy, ritualized procedure and such are strongly enforced for the reason that otherwise, mayhem would ensue."

Sundays already are set aside for etiquette classes at the academy. The school launched its "officership program," for freshman last year and hopes to expand it to all four classes.

In a recent column, Martin criticized a traditional military toast offered to the female companions of male Navy officers which began, "To our charming ladies." Martin said the proper toast in the age of a coed military should be "to our charming guests."