Gift Ride Ends Up as Polar Flight

--It wasn’t quite what the Stuckenschneiders had in mind. Their hot air balloon snagged on a light pole, stranding the couple celebrating their 30th anniversary more than 100 feet in the air for several hours. Paul Stuckenschneider received the balloon ride as a gift from his wife, Gail, saidtheir 18-year-old daughter, Joanie Stuckenschneider. “This is something he’s wanted to do for a very long time,” Joanie said. “It’s kind of ironic because she was very nervous about it. But they went ahead and did it.” Also aboard was pilot Greg Ashton, owner of Oregon Balloon Adventures in Portland, said his wife, Diana. Workers placed gravel and plywood on the mud near the light pole so a fire ladder truck could be brought in. Witnesses said the balloon became snagged on the light standard about dawn in a Portland suburb. Those on board quickly lashed the gondola to the pole to make sure that the deflating balloon didn’t become free and plummet to the ground. Rush-hour traffic on U.S. 26 was backed up for miles as motorists slowed to look as the ladder truck and an extension ladder did the trick, and Ashton and the Stuckenschneiders walked down and away from the suspended balloon.

--Marguerite Duras won the $50,000 Ritz Paris Hemingway Award for “L’Amant” (The Lover), her intense, lyric novel about the love affair she had with a wealthy Chinese when she was 15 years old in French Indochina. Duras, 72, said the Hemingway prize, awarded in Paris, meant more to her than the Prix Goncourt, France’s top literature award that she won two years ago, because of its American connections and her “secret passion” for Ernest Hemingway.

--How many showgirls does it take to replace Chita Rivera? The answer, as Rivera found out to her regret, is at least seven. They will replace the award-winning actress-dancer--who suffered a broken leg in a car accident--in the Broadway musical “Jerry’s Girls.” The seven will divide up Rivera’s numbers in the revue that also stars Dorothy Loudon and Leslie Uggams.

--Actor Don Johnson created a mini-controversy over whether he wore socks to a White House dinner last year, but he left no doubt during a return trip to Washington for another event. “I wore socks tonight,” the “Miami Vice” star said, pulling up his tuxedo pants leg to prove it. Johnson even shaved for the occasion, which was the American College Theatre Festival presenting him with a citation of excellence at the Kennedy Center. “I am truly honored to be in the company of (past honorees) Lynn Fontanne, Peter Falk and Helen Hayes,” he said.