Charmed by Snakes, Modern Eve Battles Bad Image

--It all started in the Garden of Eden, although her name isn’t Eve. It’s Julie Swedien, and she’s out to change the bad image people have of snakes. Swedien, 29, of Chicago has started the Serpent Society International, a snake-lovers group devoted to debunking misconceptions about the slithering creatures and teaching snake owners how to care for their pets. To prove it, she’s got three pet boa constrictors, including a 7 1/2-foot red Amazon named Roxanne, who is kept with the others in a 100-gallon aquarium and fed about a rat a week. “She’s the sweetest thing, 45 pounds of love,” Swedien said. “My snakes actually kiss people on the mouth, which is incredible.” Swedien, an entrepreneur who deals in electronic gadgets, said that she wears Roxanne around her waist and carries Chase, a 4 1/2-foot boa, on her shoulders as part of her wardrobe for a night on the town. Swedien became fascinated with snakes as a teen-ager when her boyfriend had a pet boa. She got her first snake, a python, seven years ago but switched to boas because the pythons kept getting lost in her apartment. The newest addition to her collection is a one-foot boa named Fellini.

--Two Soviet acrobats who defected last week accepted a challenge from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus to create a spectacular high-wire act for an audition this fall. At a news conference, Bertalina Kazakova and Nicolai Nikolski said they would soon move into lodgings provided by Ringling Bros. at the Greatest Show on Earth’s winter headquarters in Venice, Fla. The couple, who were celebrating their 14th wedding anniversary, defected while performing with the Moscow Circus in Buenos Aires. Ringling Bros. owner Kenneth Feld offered to provide equipment, food, shelter and spending money until a mid-October audition in Venice.

--Mr. T and Willard Scott are among the five cutest bald men in America, so said Woman’s Day. The magazine said there is a “whole new crop of balding sex symbols.” Scott, the weatherman on NBC’s “Today” show, was honored for his genial smile and clever cover-ups. Mr. T, of TV’s “The A-Team,” was chosen because “his self-styled baldness is itself one of the hair wonders of the West.” The others named were Sean Connery, the erstwhile James Bond; Ed Harris, of “The Right Stuff”; and actor Jack Nicholson.