People: Apr. 5, 1999

DOES THIS MAKE MONICA A LADY?

Clearly MONICA LEWINSKY needn’t have worried that her all too public travails would prevent her from ever securing another date. Last week alone she accompanied two very different men to two very high-profile functions. While attending a post-Oscar party with lawyer Jonathan Marshall, Lewinsky met Best Actor nominee SIR IAN MCKELLEN.

As luck would have it, both were imminently returning to London–Lewinsky to continue her book tour, McKellen to attend the British premiere of his film Gods and Monsters. When he found himself dateless, McKellen decided to ask Washington’s most famous consort. “She was coming to London,” said the ever chivalrous knight, “and I thought, ‘We want to give her a good welcome.'”

GOOD NEWS

BILL CLINTON brought majority leader Trent Lott a gift from Central America.

Formerly unpublished pictures of KEITH RICHARDS are available on the Internet.

BAD NEWS

He brought cigars.

He’s naked.

NEXT UP FOR THE BARD: SHAKESPEARE IN HEAT

“When you’ve got KEVIN KLINE in your film, you don’t want to lose him behind a mask,” says director Michael Hoffman. He is referring to his decision to have Kline (seen here with MICHELLE PFEIFFER) withstand 3 1/2 hours of makeup rather than don a donkey suit to play Bottom in the forthcoming remake of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For his version of Shakespeare’s tale of nymphs, fairies, queens and mismatched lovers, Hoffman sought to explore the vagaries of romance: “It struck me that all the characters were involved in a conflict between the desire for love and the desire to maintain their dignity,” he says. Along the way, he unwittingly discovered another conflict between the sexes: “It was a contest to see whether Michelle or Kevin took longer in makeup.”

HARMONIC CONVERGENCE

If your age or disposition keeps you from club hopping, here’s a tip: two of the hottest songs the kids are dancing to are spoken-word texts with a disco beat

SONG: Do You Love Me

CONCEIVED BY: Deepak Chopra, author of Perfect Digestion: The Key to Balanced Living and Ageless Body, Timeless Mind

CHANTED BY: Famous actress Demi Moore

BASED ON THE WRITINGS OF: Rumi, a 13th century Persian scholar

PROVENANCE: New Age guru Chopra gathered some of his Hollywood pals, including Moore, Madonna, Martin Sheen and Goldie Hawn, to record some of Rumi’s love poems. Taken with Moore’s track, a Staten Island, N.Y., musician added a techno beat

SAMPLE LYRIC: “I love myself; I love you; I love you; I love myself”

SONG: Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)

CONCEIVED BY: Baz Luhrmann, director of the 1996 film Romeo + Juliet and the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom

CHANTED BY: Unknown actor Lee Perry

BASED ON THE WRITINGS OF: Mary Schmich, columnist for the Chicago Tribune

PROVENANCE: A column Schmich wrote in 1997 achieved fame when it got sent out over the Internet, inexplicably and erroneously labeled as a commencement speech by author Kurt Vonnegut. Taken with Schmich’s words, Luhrmann added a techno beat

SAMPLE LYRIC: “Be kind to your knees; you’ll miss them when they’re gone”