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Basketball Star Calvin Murphy doesn't wear spangled tutus, but he twirls a mean baton. "I was bullied into it," says the Houston Rockets' guard. "All six of my mother's sisters were twirlers, and they thought it was the thing for me to do." Murphy, 29, began twirling when he was five and later performed with his home-town high school band in Norwalk, Conn. "There was some teasing, but I wasn't bothered much," he says. According to Murphy, "baton twirling is harder than basketball. Con- centration is the key word and you have to be a more complete athlete." Murphy entered the Texas State Men's Twirling Championship two months ago —and won. He is now demonstrating routines like high tosses and the California Bounce to judges at the National Baton Twirling Championships in Denver. After the competition, Murphy plans to give up the baton and switch to another hobby: roller skating.
Only 18 days old and already Sweden's Princess Victoria finds royal duties a yawn. The first child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia slept through her official introduction to the press last week but awakened in time to give a most unprincess-like howl. German-born Queen Silvia, 33, is breast-feeding her daughter and hopes, she says, to give Victoria "as natural a childhood as possible." Meanwhile, members of Sweden's Parliament are preparing a recommendation that the constitution be changed to allow a female succession to the throne. Prime Minister Thorbjorn Falldin is also speaking out for the change. His sentiment: "Monarchy for both sexes."
When he came to the U.S. from Austria eight years ago, Body Builder Arnold Schwarzenegger got hooked on country music—and Nashville Star Dolly Parton. Invited by Photographer Annie Leibovitz to join Dolly in a picture-taking session for Rolling Stone, Arnold rushed back from a visit to Israel to oblige. The two got along so well that they finished off six bottles of champagne between poses. Dolly, 31, who admires musclemen "for their spunk and endurance," was very impressed with Arnold. Arnold, 30, found Dolly "the nicest weight I have lifted in a long time." Says he: "I did a one-arm curl with her. She was about 110 Ibs., good resistance. My biceps felt very good after that. So did I."