A Seles-connors 'Battle Of The Sexes'?

[read the last paragrpah]

A Seles-connors 'Battle Of The Sexes'?

By W. Speers, Inquirer Staff Writer

Contributors to this report include the Associated Press, New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Times and USA Today

POSTED: September 26, 1991

Agents for Monica Seles, 17, and Jimmy Connors, 39, confirm that negotiations are under way to stage a "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between the two, similar to the one two decades ago between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Promoter David Krieff says he already has a pay-per-view deal and a $1 million winner-take-all purse staked by a private investor. Under proposed rules, Connors would get one serve and be required to cover an expanded court.

Muhammad Ali has mysteriously failed to show this week for a tour to promote the British publication of his book, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The former boxing champ reportedly is in the Mideast this week as his co- author, Thomas Hauser, and Ali's friend Howard Bingham wait in London. His wife, Lottie, issued a statement stateside saying her husband has been pressured by Muslim associates who oppose the book. "Certain radical remarks have been made to Muhammad that would influence him to decide not to go to London," she said. She also voiced concern about the possibility of Ali, who has Parkinson's disease, running out of medication.

You have to be sleek to make it on the modeling runway? Among those showing off large-sized duds designed by Perry Ellis, Canali, Hugo Boss and Gieves & Hawkes at a Tuesday night fashion show in Manhattan were New York Giants football players Leonard Marshall (285 pounds), Brian Williams (300) and Jumbo Elliot (305).

LOCALLY CONNECTED

C. Everett Koop will have a surprise visitor today at Borders Book Shop off Rittenhouse Square, where he'll sign copies of his new book, Koop: The Memoirs of America's Family Doctor. As a doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, he started treating ex-WPEN-AM "Chatterbox" Dolly Garber for a birth defect when she was six months old and remained her physician for 33 years, until he joined the Reagan team as surgeon general. "He saved my hand and enabled me to have a normal life," said Garber, 43, of Bensalem, adding that Koop operated on the hand 10 times. "I disagree with him somewhat politically, but you'll never meet a kinder or more compassionate man." By the way, Garber said Koop is "Chick" to his buds. "Of course, I would never call him that," she added.

Former Phillyite Ed Bradley of TV's 60 Minutes will get the Balch Institute Award given annually by the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies on Seventh near Market Street, Oct. 22 at 5:30 p.m. The award goes to one "who has found his American dream, is proud of his ethnic heritage and has contributed to greater inter-group understanding."

You say you'd like to go one-on-one with Nitro, Gemini, Gold, Zap, Laser, Blaze, Thunder, Ice, Malibu or Diamond? You'll have your chance Saturday at 9 a.m. when the stars of American Gladiators go up against tryouts at the Spectrum for the TV show that airs 1 a.m. Sundays on Channel 17. You must be 18 or older and have that gladiatorial state of mind.

MAKING MUSIC

Garth Brooks' Ropin' the Wind sold 2.6 million copies as of Sept. 18, an all-time sales record for a country album in its first few weeks of release. The first country album to top the pop-albums chart has taken the wind out of Randy Travis' sales. His new offering, High Lonesome - praised by critics as his best album in several years - dipped to No. 47 after peaking at No. 43.

SICK-BAY REPORT

Elizabeth Taylor, 59, who fainted at a Houston tea Tuesday while hyping her latest perfume, may have pneumonia, says a doctor who examined her at Methodist Hospital. "She was cold and clammy and she was shivering," said lung specialist Dr. Afsa Meredith. "And her color was very bad. Apparently she had taken some medication that morning and under those hot lights she suddenly felt very dizzy and nauseated." Taylor returned to California where her spokeswoman insisted: "She's fine. It's just really dehydration and exhaustion."

Larry Gatlin, 43, will perform Tuesday for the first time since surgery three months ago to remove cysts from his vocal cords. The country star will appear with his brothers, Steve and Rudy, at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minn.

THE BOOK BEAT

Jon Knight, one of the New Kids on the Block, says that he's heavy into a tell-all tome about the sleaze side of the music biz. Working title - New Kids on the Rack.

M Inc. mag has come to the aid of all of us who feel obligated but haven't the stomach to take on Norman Mailer's new 1,307-page novel, Harlot's Ghost. It offers a series of party feints when the subject comes up and you don't want to appear out of the loop. Among them: "It seems to me like the autobiography of the life Mailer wished he'd lived"; "The narrator's a tough guy. And guess what? He doesn't dance"; and "It reads like a cross between Robert Ludlum and Nietzsche."

Marla Maples - heaven knows how - is picking up the pieces and carrying on after her split with Donald Trump. After shooting a modeling job Tuesday for Allure mag in Manhattan's meatpacking district, she emerged from her limo at her digs at Trump Parc wearing a ring but not the ring. She explained that the simpler setting of small diamonds was also a gift of the Deal Artist's. The Georgia Peach refused to trash the Trumpmeister - "I feel it's going fine for me" - and didn't say if she's back on the manhunt. But her chauffeur said she broke down in tears in the Trump Parc lobby, apparently because the limo was late.