Dingo Case Mother: She’s Broke

Lindy Chamberlain, the woman Meryl Streep portrayed in the 1988 movie “A Cry In The Dark,” says she is still owed millions of dollars in compensation nearly a year after she was pardoned in the death of her infant daughter. Chamberlain, who says her 6-week-old baby was snatched by a dingo, or wild dog, during a 1980 camping trip, told journalists in Sydney, Australia, that the Northern Territory government, which prosecuted her and later pardoned her, has not paid the compensation she was promised for the 3 1/2 years she spent in jail. News leaks have put the amount of compensation at about $3 million. Chamberlain, 41, said she has not received much money from eight best-sellers about the case or from the film. Her husband, Michael, 45, a former Seventh-Day Adventist Church pastor, said he has eked out a living by chopping and selling firewood. “People think a couple so famous should be rich,” she said.

--Cedar Rapids, Iowa, police had a weighty problem when they arrested 7-foot-4, 540-pound professional wrestler Andrae Rene Roussimoff, known as Andre the Giant, after an altercation with a TV cameraman. “Thank God he was cooperative in the arrest!” said Jim Barnes, the assistant police chief. “A guy that big, he could cause some damage.” Officers did encounter some difficulty, however. “At first we didn’t know if he could get in the back of the squad car,” police Capt. David Johnson said. “We have trouble getting big guys in our patrol cars, and he’s quite a bit bigger than our normal big guy. We had to fit him into the car sideways.” Roussimoff, 43, was charged with assault and criminal mischief and released on $1,200 bond. Barnes said Roussimoff became upset when Ben Hildebrandt, a cameraman for Cedar Rapids station KCRG, who was filming during a match between Roussimoff and the Ultimate Warrior, who won. Roussimoff told Hildebrandt that it was illegal to film the match, Barnes said. He said the two men exchanged words and then Roussimoff put a headlock on the cameraman. --A $38.8-million hospital in Orlando, Fla., for critically ill newborns and women with high-risk pregnancies is preparing to open, thanks partly to golfer Arnold Palmer. He led the fund-raising for the 255-bed Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women, billed as one of four of its kind in the nation. About $4.5 million can be attributed directly to his association with the project, foundation director George Maynard said.