Democrat and Chronicle from Rochester, New York • Page 13

Voj ONCE UPON A TII.IE Ever wonder how the simulated news story got started? It all began with an oil spill, an independent TV producer and his kids, and a bathtub. Art Buchwald, 3C. WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9. 1989 ROCHESTER NEW YORK SECTION 2C TELEVISION 3C COLUMNISTS 3C WHAT'S DOING 5C DEATHS 5C CLASSIFIED 14C MOVIES 3(i U1 (Democrat Cfhronitlr NEWSMAKERS -v 'IK- 7J 411 y-CTi Ui-f UN. Anthony Edwards is caught between a car Film looks at what-if question of a nuke bomb threat in L.A.

By Jack Garner Democrat and Chronicle film critic iracle Mile is a gem of an independent film a thought-provoking thriller about what may be the last hours in the lives of a group of Los Angeles residents. Cleverly written and tautly directed by Steve DeJarnatt, Miracle Mile begins with a startling development. A young man (Anthony Edwards) overhears a conversation on a pay phone that implies 1111 1 Line gets rolling for Stones concert Joseph Juras was the first in line Sunday night He was still there yesterday, along with about 500 others as the line got longer and the wait shorter for the ticket window to open at the Carrier Dome. Stones fever is rising in Syracuse. "I was too young to see them in the late 60s.

I missed them in '81 (on a U.S. tour)," said the 17-year-old Juras. "This is my chance." Dome officials say the $29 tickets go on sale simultaneously at the dome box office and select Ticketron locations at 8 a.m. Saturday for the Sept 22 concert, so there's no real advantage to getting tickets at the Dome box office. But Juras and other hardy Stones fans believe getting there early will increase their chances at getting good seats.

Besides, many said, it's fun. Breathed getting chance to bloom as a columnist Some of Berke Breathed's creations may not have both oars in the water. But Boating magazine agrees that he does. Breathed, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon strip, Bloom County, appeared in newspapers for the last time over the weekend (it ran daily in the Times-Union and in the Sunday Democrat and Chronicle) is going to Boating as a contributing editor. He'll write a monthly humor column titled "Overboard." Breathed, who owns four boats, said his column will reflect his consuming interest, in the snnrt.

Berke "Boating looks at Breathed equipment in the way I want to look at equipment what's coming out, and why we silly boaters think that a new-style helm station is exciting," he said. Breathed is also working on a new Sunday strip called Outland that will begin appearing Sept. 3. It will feature a black ghetto child who was a Bloom County regular. Channel coast guard takes oral paddle to swimmers You'd think anyone trying to swim the English Channel would be an object of admiration.

Maybe to most people, but Lt-Cmdr. James Neill of the Dover coast guards isn't most people. To hear him tell it, swimmers are a hazard to shipping. He explains that because the channel is one of the world's busiest sea lanes, ships may sometimes have to steer straight at swimmers rather than risk changing course. Not that a ship would deliberately run a swimmer down, you understand Neill denies a report in The Times of London that ships have been advised to run swimmers down -rather than change course.

"What we azo saying is that people who think about crossing in some peculiar way swimming or in a bathtub should think again because they're putting ships' crews at risk," he said. Threats cancel showing of battered wife's photos Some people won't let Hedda Nuss-baum escape from her sensational past. She was supposed to have a photo exhibit Aug. 19 at a Sag Harbor gallery, but it's been canceled after several threatening calls. Nussbaum was the battered live-in companion of Joel Steinberg, who was convicted Jan.

30 and sentenced to up to 25 years in the beating death of 6-year-old Lisa Steinberg. Some callers aniH tVip ahnuincr Hedda urmilH crlru-ifv Mncc- Nussbaum baum and was an at tempt to cash in on the case's notoriety. Nussbaum's black-and-white nature photos, which she developed herself, were a part of her rehabilitation and were titled, "Signs of Life." SQUEAL OF BRAKES AND Rarely has the West German Autobahn been so lively. For four hours a small army of police, firefighters and veterinary surgeons ran to and fro yesterday in pursuit of 100 terrified piglets who spilled onto the superhighway after a truck loaded with the animals overturned near the town of Schondra in northern Bavaria. Another 500 piglets died in the accident; the driver and his companion were hurt.

Herm Archunde Compiled from reports by The Associated Press, Reuters and Gannett News Service THE DIG EVENT This music 'Kicks' We all get a kick out of 7 something in life. Some get a kick out of winning the lottery. Others get a kick out of spending it. But most of us get a kick out of listening to good music like the music of the band Kicks. Kicks performs today at noon at the Genesee Crossroads Sculpture Site on Andrews Street.

So grab the sandwich and skip on over. It's free. For information, call 428-6697. Today's What's Doing calendar is on page SC. Mm 31 and a hard place in -5 that a nuclear bomb soon will be detonated in Los Angeles.

The remainder of the film traces his steps as he tries to help his girlfriend and other associates escape, if possible, even while trying to overcome the skepticism that it may all be a cruel prank or mistaken communication. The beauty of De-Jarnatt's script is that the viewer is never really sure if nuclear holocaust is about to occur or not we are just as much in the dark, and in a state of near-panic as the characters in the film. In the style made famous by Hitchcock, humor and tension are interwoven in a story in which the lives of everyday people are threatened. We have all asked ourselves what we'd do in the midst of a nuclear countdown and the various characters in Miracle Mile play out the opening act for New Kids On The Block. So people are talking less about Gibson's age and more about her music, which is just the way Gibson wants it.

still happens to some degree," the 18-year-old singer-songwriter said. "But I'm going to be 19 soon (August 31) I don't feel like I'm a baby. There are 15-and 16-year-olds winning Olympic medals in gymnastics. I'm far from getting up there and doing back flips." What she is doing, however, is packing arenas this summer, on a tour that will take Gibson to more than 60 cities in the United States, Canada and overseas. She'll be at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center in Canandaigua Thursday at 8 p.m.

"It's going so well," she said. "We're selling out just about every place we've Teen queen's talent keeps her on top 5- MOVIE REVIEW 12 options of panic, cool acceptance, sharp skepticism, self-centered greed, and the rest. Miracle Mile is not totally original this sort of end-of-the-world scenario has been played out before. But this version is compact, intense, human, alternately funny and tragic, realistic, and totally engrossing. Anthony Edwards (of Top Gun and Mr.

North) plays the mild-mannered, unassuming central character, and brings a young Jimmy Stewart innocence and energy to the part. He's a youthful every-man. gone. And what's great is I'm doing the show I've always wanted to do." Gibson is a young woman who sounds older than 18, something that has come with the territory and two hit albums. "When it comes to the business side of things, I do feel older," she said.

"I've been working in the business since I was 5. I'm very focused and everything." "But the personal side of me still feels younger. I mean, my mom still yells at me to clean up my room." The Long Island native is something of a child prodigy. At age 2 she wanted to learn guitar, but learned ukelele instead, since her hands were small. By age 4 she was learning piano and at 13 was a regular in the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus.

TURN TO PAGE 3C Turn To? (from The Roar of the Grease Paint) to I've Got to be Me (which Steve said Sammy Davis made a hit of even though he had recorded it first) to On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. In the latter tune, Eydie's solo took on a hard Ethel Merman edge, which worked well for her. Steve broke up the music with just enough cute bickering: "She keeps a smoke alarm in the kitchen; she uses it as a timer." And, "my dog sits in bed and watches me; he's learning to beg." Then it was back to the oldies, including Go Away Little Girl and The Old Cotton Fields Back Home, with a couple of Eydie's Spanish songs thrown in (she grew up speaking the language at home). An Irving Berlin medley, prefaced by a short video on the man, was a popular singalong vehicle with enthusiastic renditions of such songs as I've Got the Sun in the Morning and the Moon at Night, Al Writer-director Steve DeJarnatt makes Miracle Mile work, though, with his sparse, incisive writing, and his beautifully paced direction. The film is magnetic in the way it draws the viewer gradually, and then more swiftly, into its frightening premise.

DeJarnatt also demonstrates a remarkable ability to turn LA's Miracle Mile neighborhood topsy-turvy on an extremely modest budget. He's a resourceful, talented filmmaker. Adding to the film's hypnotic power is the trance-like music of Tangerine Dream. CLOSING CREDITS: Miracle Mile. With Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham.

At the Little Theatre. Rated with profanity and violence. 87 mins. Excellent Good Fair Poor Debbie Gibson exander's Ragtime Band, It's a Lovely Day Today, How Deep is the Ocean, I Can Do Anything Better Than You and, finally, God Bless America, as a huge American flag swelled up from the backdrop. All right, so it was corny.

But this was an Oldsmobile and Buick crowd. They didn't rush the stage, extra ground rules were not in effect, polyester and ny-; Ion were the order of the day, and there wasn't a stitch of tie-dye in sight. The corn was just enough for a chilly summer evening. But "Steveneydie" had -the crowd singing with gusto and laugh- ing out loud. The audience had visted with these two old friends for a spell, put aside their day-to-day cares and ended up having a heckuva nice time.

By the way, Jerry Van Dyke loosened up the crowd for Steve and Eydie with a round of goofy jokes, a humorous look at the aging process and a silly and very funny lip-synch of Mule Train. warm up crowd with pocketful of oldies By Barbara Isaacs Democrat and Chronicle In the summer of 1988, there were a lot of comparisons, most of them unwelcome. The teen concert scene was billed as the biggest rivalry since Wrestlemania II was Debbie Gibson cooler than Tiffany? Who would sell the most albums? Who was the true teen queen? "Last summer they were talking about the Brat Pack of teen singers and all that," Gibson said from a hotel room in Saratoga. "It bothered me a little." But the summer of 1989 is a different thing altogether. Gibson's new album, Electric Youth, has sold to the tune of 2.5 million copies and she's a major headlining act Tiffany, also on her second album, is floundering and is working as an 'Steveneydie' By Deborah Fineblum Raub Democrat and Chronicle Nobody ever uses their full names: They're just "Steveneydie," the Romeo and Juliet of popular music.

And Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme warmed up the 4,000 chilled fans at the Finger Lakes Performing Arts Center near Canandaigua, singing old favorites. In fact, as the temperatures plumeted, the fans became more energetic. They've beaten the Hollywood odds these two, married for more than 30 years. An informal exit poll established that "the kids" had changed little. Steve's still the "schmooz with a joke about everyone from Ronald Reagan and his double chins to George Burns and his amorous efforts to Dolly Parton's attributes.

With trademark wink, pinky ring and Ted Kennedy jaw, he's the same friendly guy his fans recall from the old Steve Allen Tonight show. Eydie has put on a few pounds but she continues to. play enthusiastically the patient momma to her husband's naughty little boy. Their voices have lost little of their appeal; his warm bass and her powerful belt continue to harmonize well. The two spared none of the trimmings.

Their supporting Ray Ricker Orchestra was an impressive group, decked out in tuxes and gowns. The set was packed with plants and dappled with a starry backdrop. Eydie managed to change costumes twice (silver lame to diaphanous pastel to blue-black sequin), and the duo gave an enthusiastic rendering of the tunes they've been famous for for three decades. The duo gave the audience exactly what it came from, from What I Did for Love (from Chorus line) to Who Can I.