Mercy Me, the Ecology

Another Kennedy came to town this week, bringing tales of adventure. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was recently detained by military police while protesting the U.S. Navy’s bombing exercises at a test range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. He took a stand for his favorite cause, the environment. His nail-biter of a story about being pursued with actor Edward James Olmos by helicopters, Coast Guard cutters and a SWAT team sounds like something out of the movies:

“Eddie and I took a fishing boat. The Coast Guard chased us for 12 miles. We were in this 12-foot fiberglass boat. We were really flying,” Kennedy said. “The fisherman was wearing a mask so he wouldn’t be recognized.”

Olmos suggested they hide in a marsh that happened to be inside the live firing zone, Kennedy said. The two celebrities, who laid low among the reeds for six hours, were captured two weeks ago and held for a day at a dog kennel before being transferred to a federal prison, where, Kennedy said, he and Olmos were treated well. “All the guards were Puerto Rican, and they supported us,” Kennedy said. “They took pictures with us. What do you call it, those pictures you take when you’re arrested? Mug shots,” he added, laughing. “Actually, it was relaxing. It was three days without a cell phone.”

The Puerto Rican government has asked the U.S. Navy to end its training maneuvers at a test site on Vieques, saying they expose the island’s 9,000 residents to carcinogens and dangerous levels of noise. The Navy claims the maneuvers are safe.

Kennedy is co-director of the Environmental Law Project at Pace University in White Plains, N.Y. He was a guest speaker Monday night at an “EcoSalon” at Jill Tate Higgins’ Burbank home. Kennedy assured everyone that reports of his recent heart scare were exaggerated.

An Awful Power Within

A microscopic parasite reduced 6-foot-7, 258-pound motivational speaker Tony Robbins into a feverish mountain of misery over the weekend. Robbins and his fiancee, Sage, figure they got the bug while swimming in the ocean near their La Jolla home. They gave each other ice-water baths to keep fevers down.

“You just have to grin and bear it,” said Robbins, who maintains a strict diet free of meat and dairy. By Tuesday, he was sufficiently recovered to pitch his upcoming seminar “Unleash the Power Within.”

On Friday, Robbins will lead a crowd in Pasadena on a barefoot walk across 2,000-degree coals to jump-start “a revolution” in their lives. Saturday and Sunday seminars focus on moving one’s life in the right direction, and Monday’s topic is health and learning “to be in a position where you are cleansing, not clogging,” according to Robbins.

She’s Not Interested

It can’t be easy being Nicole Kidman these days, what with the breakup with Tom Cruise, the miscarriage, the knee injury and the big-bucks battle for her share of the ex-couple’s community property. Add an alleged stalker to Kidman’s list of woes.

The star claims in court papers filed in Santa Monica that 40-year-old Matthew Hooker is making her fear for the safety of her children. She says he wants to serenade her, tutor the two kids, marry her and run for president of the United States.

Kidman, currently in Cannes, wants to be left alone, so she is seeking a restraining order. Kidman also claims Hooker has called her, written her and shown up twice at her house, offering to take her out to get ice cream and see the ballet. Hooker could not be reached.

The News Rack

Diva lore clings to Jennifer Lopez like that green Versace gown she wore to last year’s Grammy Awards. But few of the diva stories live up to the hype, Lopez tells Vanity Fair.

No, she didn’t order radio host Rick Dees’ staff to avoid eye contact with her. No, she didn’t plow ahead of other Christian Dior customers, announcing, “I’m Jennifer Lopez” and complaining to a sales clerk: “Don’t you have anything better than this?” In fact, she hadn’t even visited the store. But, yes, Lopez ‘fesses up to quotes in Movieline magazine dissing Gwyneth Paltrow, Winona Ryder and Wesley Snipes. But, she says, her words were “taken out of context.”

School Days

Gregory Hines and Jackson Browne recently shared the stage at “Kaleidoscope 2001,” a fund-raiser for the New Roads School. A tap-dancing Hines, whose son graduated from the school last year, was master of ceremonies. Radio personality Steve Harvey received a community award, telling the audience, “I don’t know anything about your school, but you seem like really nice folks.”

*

Times staff writers Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug contributed to this report. City of Angles runs Tuesday-Friday. E-mail: angles@latimes.com.