NAMES IN THE NEWS : Actress Finds South ‘Racist’

“Pretty Woman” actress Julia Roberts described her stay in these parts as boring and the people as racist.

She stayed in Spartanburg and Abbeville, in the state’s northwestern corner, during filming of “Sleeping With the Enemy” in May.

“The people were horribly racist and I had a really hard time,” Rolling Stone magazine quoted Roberts as saying in the Aug. 9 issue.

“In Abbeville, I felt so assaulted and insulted by these people that I just didn’t want to be nice anymore,” she said.

Abbeville Mayor Joe Savitz said her remarks may stem from her attempt to take a black friend into a “real redneck-type place” that doesn’t allow black customers.

“No self-respecting person would want to go there,” Savitz said.

In her latest movie, Roberts portrays an abused wife who stages her death and assumes a new identity. It is scheduled for release in February.