Junk Mail Mix-Up? Join the Club

--An invitation from President Bush to join a club would be an offer most people couldn’t refuse. But Rep. Ted Weiss is an exception. The New York Democrat respectfully declined when informed that Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) had nominated him to the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle, whose members donate at least $1,000 a year to the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The form letter signed by Bush cited some of the members of the clique--Joe Coors, Estee Lauder and Arnold Schwarzenegger--and said: “I know you will enjoy meeting your fellow members at Inner Circle gatherings both in Washington, D.C., and around the country.” Weiss’ reaction: “And all this time I thought I was a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. Either my fellow congressmen from across the aisle have had a change of heart or I’ve been terribly misinformed about their political philosophy.” Zenia Mucha, a spokeswoman for D’Amato, said the senator didn’t really nominate Weiss for membership. She said D’Amato allows the party to use his name for fund raising, and she blamed a faulty mailing list for including Weiss’ name. But Wendy DeMocker, a spokeswoman for the Republican Senatorial Committee, tried to put the incident in a positive light. She named some former Democrats who had switched parties, including Ronald Reagan. “We’re not going to consider it a mistake,” she said. “We’re going to say, well, there’s hope for everybody.”

--Opera star Luciano Pavarotti, recently declared persona non grata by the Chicago Lyric Opera after a large number of canceled performances, will appear with fellow tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras for the first time during the 1990 World Soccer Cup in Rome, organizers of the event announced. Proceeds of the July 7, 1990, appearance at the Baths of Caracalla, the night before the World Cup final, will go to charity. The singers said that the program would include individual and joint performances but that the program had not been decided yet.

--For the pungent pet, there’s Critter Country Classics Pet Cologne, from that famous critter lover Donna Douglas, known for years as Elly May Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Douglas, who said that “down home” in Baywood, La., she keeps “dogs, chickens and cows,” is marketing “Miss Tabby” for cats and “Timber Wolf” for dogs. No “Miss Bossy” for cows, apparently. Douglas said no plans existed for a reunion of the famous TV family. “Awhile back, there had been some talk of a ‘Hillbillies’ reunion TV movie,” she said, “but Maxie Baer (Jethro) didn’t want to do it.”