Kopechnes’ Consolation: Kennedy Is Not President

The parents of Mary Jo Kopechne, breaking two decades of silence on their daughter’s drowning at Chappaquiddick, Mass., had some harsh words for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, whose political career was severely shaken after the car he was driving plunged off a bridge, carrying the young campaign worker to her death. In an interview published in the July issue of Ladies Home Journal, Joseph Kopechne, 76, and his wife Gwen, 71, said the only good thing about the tragic death on July 19, 1969, was that it kept the Massachusetts senator “from becoming President.” Kennedy did not report the accident until nine hours later, leading to speculation that he and the 28-year-old blonde were having an affair. But the Kopechnes said their daughter had been hoping to marry a boyfriend in the Foreign Service. The Kopechnes met twice with the senator, but Gwen Kopechne described the meetings as “ridiculous” and said Kennedy never said he was sorry. Kennedy said in a statement that he took responsibility for the tragedy and wished there was more he could do to ease the parents’ pain.

--Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber once said: “The relationship between me and my cello is like a marriage. Nothing, and I mean nothing, comes between us.” Well, this week something did--a divorce settlement that forced Webber to sell his beloved 200-year-old Guadagnini cello at auction in London. The cello was purchased by an unidentified German buyer for $125,000, said a spokeswoman for Sotheby’s auction house. The younger brother of super-successful theatrical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber said that he was selling the cello to help pay for his divorce from his wife, Celia.

--One of the new faces joining Michael Jackson’s 2,700-acre spread in the Santa Ynez Valley rests atop a beautiful, long neck that would make the pre-Raphaelites green with envy, has large brown eyes and just a touch of tan accents. The exotic beauty, a 13-month-old female giraffe from the Sedgwick County Zoo near Wichita, Kan., had been sold to a wildlife dealer, who sold the creature to the reclusive pop singer this week. “I think he’s licensed to have up to five or six giraffes,” said animal dealer Jim Fouts, owner of Tanganyika Wildlife Co. near Wichita.