Side show

By SHARON FINK

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 26, 2001

BELLY LAUGHS: FitPregnancy magazine has put out a special style issue.

Good idea.

Bad idea: Splashing on the cover "Cindy Crawford's Stay-Sexy Secrets," "Faith Hill Goes Couture" and a picture of actor Catherine Oxenberg wearing a midriff top.

Good idea: Articles on how to deal with changes in the body and celebrity coping tips. (Some are useful, though I wouldn't count Tisha Campbell-Martin's "I couldn't survive without . . . little crystals to go all over my stomach for decoration.")

Good idea: Clothing tips.

Bad idea: Nine pages of evening gowns and other evening wear, and seven of camisoles, silk nighties and the lacy Victoria's Secret-type bras for "surprising the man in your life."

BOY BAND JUNGLE DISPATCH: 'N Synch must be thrilled with this headline on a news release touting its latest venture: Today's Biggest Bubble Gum Band Pops Up In Leading Bubble Gum Brand.

That's what it gets for cutting a deal with Dubble Bubble.

MY FAIR LADY DI: Career ambition of the moment: Everyone wants to write a Broadway musical. And all subjects are fair game. Still, it's surprising that it's taken this long for a musical based on Princess Diana's life to hit the stage.

Lady Di -- Das Musical premieres in Saarbruecken, Germany, in November.

It's a product of German composer Peter Thomas, 75, and it features Diana as a lovestruck outsider manipulated by the establishment.

Lawyers advised the producers against having actors play living members of the royal family. So Prince Charles is only a voice, and the audience sees only Queen Elizabeth's back bowing to Diana's coffin in the finale.

However, Charles' longtime lover, Camilla Parker Bowles, is in the show, a spokeswoman said.

The first act deals with Diana's marriage to Charles and its collapse. The second features her work with the poor and her search for a true love, featured as Dodi Al Fayed.

Diana and Fayed were killed in a Paris car crash Aug. 31, 1997.

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