Closed Book: Veteran Washington, D.C., newsman Jerry...

Closed Book: Veteran Washington, D.C., newsman Jerry Oppenheimer is contacting people around town for his unauthorized biography of Ethel Kennedy, whose husband, Sen. Robert Kennedy, was assassinated in 1968. But it won’t be easy: Kennedy is a private person, rarely talks to the press and has not answered his request for an interview. Oppenheimer, who wrote “Barbara Walters: An Unauthorized Biography,” said he signed a mid-six-figure advance with St. Martin’s Press and will write the book even if Kennedy won’t talk.

Korean Model: Former Romanian gymnastics star Nadia Comaneci arrived Monday in Seoul, South Korea, to tour Olympic sites and to talk with fashion promoters about modeling in South Korea. Comaneci, the 1976 Olympic gold medalist in Montreal, fled Romania last December for the United States.

Ace in the Face: New York Mayor David Dinkins is wearing dark glasses around the office after being smacked in the eye with a tennis ball at a celebrity tournament Sunday. Dinkins, 63, saw a doctor Monday after Mayor Sharpe James of Newark, N.J., “hit a ball with some force . . . and I sort of got blinded.” The ball sent Dinkins’ glasses flying and knocked him to the ground. The injury left him highly sensitive to light.

Best Blonde: Bridgette LeAnn Wilson of Oregon topped 50 other teen-agers to earn the Miss Teen USA crown in the eighth annual pageant in Biloxi, Miss. “I went in and I was going to give it my best shot, and whatever my best was, I was going to hope for the best,” said the blond, brown-eyed teen-ager after her win Monday. The 16-year-old said she hopes for a career in entertainment.