She Sees It as a Greek Tragedy

--The daughter of Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou says she and her family never get to see their father anymore, and charges he is being manipulated by a new circle of friends from his affair with a flight attendant. In an interview with the liberal daily newspaper Eleftherotypia, Sophia Papandreou, 34, spoke bluntly about how her American mother, Margaret, has been bearing up since Papandreou, 70, made public his affair with Dimitra Liani, who is 34. “She’s a mess. What else is there to say? The bitterness she carries inside her is uncountable,” Sophia Papandreou said. “Almost 40 years cannot be forgotten like that.” Papandreou married Margaret Chant, 65, in the United States in 1951. The daughter said she was hurt by her parents’ protracted public squabbling over a divorce, which “surpasses the limits of any logic. I have a sense of the ‘civilized’ and I would prefer things to be this way. My parents could divorce, let a few months go by and then my father could live with anyone he wanted.”

--First Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden offered $300 for each AK-47 turned into his office. Now a Denver priest has put out a reward of $100 for every handgun turned into his church. Four of the weapons have been turned into Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in North Denver, but only three people took the money, said Father Marshall Gourley. “Anything that strikes at human dignity is something we try to address,” Gourley said. “Guns certainly meet that criterion.” He said his Roman Catholic parish has held an average of one funeral a month for gunshot victims over the last year.

--Success won’t spell the end to this tale of beauty and the beast, says new Miss USA Gretchen Polhemus of Texas, who announced she will continue her business as a livestock broker despite a victory that means $200,000 in cash and prizes. The Ft. Worth woman narrowly beat out Miss Oklahoma at the pageant in Mobile, Ala., for the chance to compete in the Miss Universe contest. The competition came under fire from the National Organization for Women, which called the two-hour event a “Barbie doll contest.” “You want beauty, but there’s a lot more to it--like strength and stamina,” said author Jude Deveraux, who acted as one of the judges.