Moon-Walker Stays Step Ahead

Director Steven Spielberg gave him a run for his money, but singer-moon-walker Michael Jackson came out on top for the second straight year in Forbes magazine’s list of the highest-paid entertainers. Jackson’s estimated gross income for 1989 is $65 million, giving him a two-year total of $125 million. Spielberg’s 1989 total is expected to be about $64 million, for a 1988-89 total of $105 million. The list counts as entertainers a range of personalities that includes such fields as sports and cartooning. In third place is comedian Bill Cosby with a $95-million total. The rest of the two-year Top 10 are: boxer Mike Tyson, with $71 million; “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, $60 million; actor-comedian Eddie Murphy, $57 million; Pink Floyd, $56 million; the Rolling Stones, $55 million; talk show host Oprah Winfrey, $55 million, and singer George Michael, $47 million. Others on the list, which goes to No. 40, include “Garfield” cartoonist Jim Davis, No. 30 at $25 million, and actor Mel Gibson, No. 40 at $20 million.

--Speaking of moonwalks and money, Soviet Parliament member Boris N. Yeltsin said on a tour of the Johnson Space Center in Houston that the United States or the Soviet Union should drop its space program. Yeltsin told center director Aaron Cohen that the two countries should join forces to explore the moon and Mars. “We’re spending more money on space exploration because we are competing,” Yeltsin said. The maverick Soviet politician has said the Soviets should reduce their space spending and spend more on their economy, and he said a joint space program would improve superpower relations. “I don’t care who gets to the moon sooner. Whether it’s the Soviet Union or the U.S. doesn’t matter to me,” Yeltsin said. “Sometimes I wish one of you would come over and whisper in my ear which of the space programs we could easily get rid of.”

--Spy novelist John Le Carre is one of the latest beneficiaries of the more open policies in the Soviet Union. His latest best-seller, “The Russia House,” will be published next year in that country, Tass reported. The contract signed at the Moscow International Book Fair calls for 100,000 copies to be printed in the Russian language.

--A publicist said singer Neneh Cherry has dropped out of a tour with the group Fine Young Cannibals because she has Lyme disease. She had performed on the tour’s opening night but collapsed the next day after appearing as a presenter on the MTV music video awards program.