Angry Sinatra Confronted Her, Reporter Says

Amid all the inauguration hoopla, a bit of controversy has been added to the flurry of attention that surrounds singer Frank Sinatra, who has played a major role in organizing entertainment in honor of his friend, President Reagan.

Barbara Howar, a reporter for the syndicated television program “Entertainment Tonight,” said she was angrily confronted by the singer Thursday.

Sinatra, stopped for an interview by Howar, mentioned a story in Thursday’s Washington Post and said angrily, in apparent reference to reporters: “You’re all dead, every one of you. You’re dead.”

Howar said Saturday that she apparently earned Sinatra’s wrath only because “I was the first person (from the press) to fall under his gaze after he read the article,” which dealt with the “Rat Pack,” as Sinatra and his Hollywood cronies are sometimes known.

The article noted the role that Sinatra is playing in the inauguration events, described Reagan as the “seventh member of the Rat Pack” and added that “the aura of gangland resonances” is key to understanding the Sinatra legend.

Howar said Sinatra did not say exactly what part of the article angered him. A spokesman for Sinatra would confirm only that the incident had occurred.