Hub glitter twins: Comeback kids

by Nancy Gaines

LOOSELY SPEAKING

One big happy Globe family Groton: School for scandal

Boston may have lost some of its glitter when rock babes Blake Hazard and Juliana Hatfield both left town last winter, but the stage is set for a return performance. Hazard will move back to town in a few weeks, after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, in New York. Hatfield was recording demos last week at Fort Apache studios, in Cambridge, for a new album she says she's considering releasing herself or on an independent label. And although she's still living in Los Angeles, she says she intends eventually to move back here.

Eat his words

Playwright/author David Mamet tops the list of marquee writers coming to the Hamersley's Bistro Dinner & Book Club for what restaurateur Fiona Hamersley now plans to make an ongoing event. The initial dinner discussions this past winter were such a success, says Hamersley, that she regrets only that seating is limited to 16 guests. On May 12, Pulitzer winner Mamet, who lives in Newton (not Brookline, as reported last week), will discuss his new book, Jaffsie and John Henry, as well as his new film, The Winslow Boy, starring his wife, Rebecca Pidgeon, who will also be at the dinner. In July, the South End bistro hosts Christopher Tilghman (Mason's Retreat, The Way People Run). Tickets are $75 and must be purchased in advance.

'Jim Crow': Herald versus the cops An angry Boston Police Sergeant Willie Bradley says he will "deny with my dying breath" that he told the Boston Herald last week that "Jim Crow Jr. is alive and kicking" at the department. As vice- president of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers (MAMLEO), Bradley was drawn into a controversy over the existence -- or extent -- of racism in the department after complaints by a top black lieutenant surfaced. Two weeks ago, the Herald reported that Lieutenant Valimore Williams had found a makeshift noose hanging on his motorcycle. A white officer admitted draping the "noose" and was disciplined for what brass are terming a regrettable "prank" that had no racial overtones. Law-enforcement sources claim Williams is a "legendary" target of resentment because of a high-handed manner that publicly and privately demeans those under his command, black or white. The phrase "Val sucks," say patrolmen, is etched on department premises and elsewhere. Williams told the Herald he felt he was singled out because he is a tough supervisor who makes subordinates toe the line. Bradley, as a spokesman for black officers, was quoted in last week's Herald saying "Jim Crow may be dead but Jim Crow Jr. is alive" in the Boston force. He immediately cried "misquote," saying reporter Maggie Mulvihill had asked him if he agreed with that statement, which had allegedly been made by a black activist, to which he replied no. The Herald stood by its quote. Meanwhile, police spokesman Sergeant Margot Hill says Herald editor Andy Costello, in support of Mulvihill, told Police Commissioner Paul Evans that the reporter hadn't realized the impact of the words "Jim Crow." Costello won't comment on that but asserts that the police are trying to "divert attention" from the noose incident. Bradley countered, in a prepared statement, that "any reporter who claims ignorance of such a racially charged symbol should not be writing for a major metropolitan newspaper. "I find it ironic," he said, "that it may come to light that the only thing being lynched here is the truth."

Billy on the spot

Freshman congressman Bill Delahunt, jesting with friends who noted the ubiquity of the Quincy Democrat in the media these days, recounted how House minority leader Dick Gephardt let fly similarly good-natured jibes on a recent trip the two took. "Here we put you on the Judiciary Committee and you impeach the president," Delahunt quoted Gephardt as saying. "Then we put you on Foreign Affairs and we have a war. Is there anything you won't do for a live shot?"

"Keep me off Agriculture," Delahunt says he retorted, "and I'll spare you a famine."

Smoki and the gambit

Back Bay doyenne Smoki Bacon has had more than her share of encounters with the press in 30 years as a social activist, radio host, and fundraiser -- most recently for son-in-law Chris Gabrieli's losing bid for Congress. But the chance play that ultimately propelled her family into the limelight was when the nanny to her four grandchildren won the $197 million lottery last month. The nonstop loss of privacy was very hard, says Bacon, especially on the Gabrieli youngsters. But the family is "thrilled" that Maria Grasso, "a very talented artist," will now have more time to pursue her art. And, says a relieved Bacon, "for the rest of us, life can go on as usual."

Something about sybarites

Duxbury filmmakers Peter and Bobby Farrelly are making their first foray into feature animation by producing the black comedy Frisco Pigeon Mambo. The Fox project follows the travails of three urban scavengers (a rat, a pigeon, and a squirrel) who live in a New York alcohol-and tobacco-research lab. They live the high life, spending their days chain-smoking, drinking sherry, and hitting on attractive lab technicians. That is, until a group of animal-rights activists springs them from their libertine lifestyle, setting them free into the cold, harsh city, where they have to fight for food, smokes, and shelter.