Q Confidential

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Q Confidential is edited by Michael Schenkler and Tamara Hartman. Contributors: Nick Abadjian, Tom Allon, Steve Azzara, Nick Buglione, David Colby, Ira Cohen, Hector Flores, Marcia Moxam Comrie, Barbara Jarvie, Stephen McGuire, Mike Nussbaum, and Dee Richard.

conf1-0111.gif (18973 bytes) Borough Prez Claire Shulman disarms a club wielding criminal who has been harassing citizens on Forest Hills streets.
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It may be cold now, but summer electricity demands are looming in the future and the New York Power Authority wants to put two generators on the Queens waterfront in Long Island City by a June 1 deadline. Some say we need it, others say we need it, others say not in LIC.

"Should There Be Two More Power Plants In LIC?"
To express your opinion, CALL (212) 980-3434.
ENTER question number 361
PRESS 1 for YES
PRESS 2 for NO

By George,
Seinfeld Wins
Court Case

Judges said yadda, yadda, yadda to the plaintiff in a dismissed lawsuit filed against sitcom superstar Jerry Seinfeld over the character of "George Costanza."

State Supreme Court judges ruled that Queens College alum Michael Costanza’s privacy
rights were not violated when producers of the "Seinfeld" show created the character of "George."

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Jerry Seinfeld

According to court documents, the 43-year-old Costanza was seeking $100 million in damages claiming that "Seinfeld" producers had impeded upon his privacy rights by using his "name, likeness and persona.’’

Costanza contended that he met Seinfeld while attending Queens College in Flushing and that the "George" character had similar traits and even held some of the same jobs as he did.

Judges said that the creators of "Seinfeld" never used Costanza’s "name, portrait or picture,’’ except in one episode where he appeared as an actor.

Xmas or Hanukkah?
Mistletoe or Mezuzah?

If you’re one of the growing segment of the population whose ancestry has led to a post holiday identity crisis, a new place on the internet may be the antidote for those vexing December days of religious duality.

Halfjew.com is a website devoted to what they
call "establishing an identity for half Jews."

The site offers message boards where half Jews can share messages about choosing between chai or cheers, recipes and tips on how to get a handle the holidays quicker than you can say "gevalt."

A highlight of the site includes special features of including a who’s who of celebrity half Jews which includes a surprising list of famous names including, John Gotti Jr., Fiorella LaGuardia, Gwyneth Paltrow, Courtney Love, Harrison Ford.

NYPD Retirement Ruckus

City cops requesting paperwork to sign-off the force are being turned away from 1 Police Plaza, which is being besieged by pension-seekers.

Police in Queens who trekked to NYPD headquarters to file for retirement told QConf that employees took forms they had filled out in advance, while advising them to, "call in a few weeks" to get pension info that required any research – regardless of how large or small the request.

Used to be cops seeking retirement could go to headquarters for a breakdown of pension benefits they were eligible to collect, cops told us. Not so now, the cops said. "We were told that there are so many cops filing for retirement that processing is weeks – maybe a month or two – backlogged.

Remember – you read it first on the Confidential page back in ‘98 that the current cop exodus was expected and that the city and the NYPD were considering offering cops an alternative to retirement in the form of a "put your pension on hold while you collect wages" program.

Insiders told us some of the cops – most of whom are "bosses" – got a bit irate, storming out of the pension office.

"They can tell if we’re a minute late to start a tour of duty," one angry sergeant said. "But they can’t tell us what our pension is? Bull——."

Bareable News

Do you want the daily news delivered from the Web, but bored from CNN.com? Well check out NakedNews.com. The site features ravishing women that deliver hard news in video webcasts, all while changing from their corporate suits to their birthdays suits. You’ll notice that these women are articulate professionals, such as Miss Sinclair, whose background includes being a copy editor and model. Sinclair disrobed while delivering the international news on the Mideast crisis, Pinochet’s trial. She finished in the buff while talking about the ailing Pope.

SOUND BITES

• AN IN-TUNE READER WRITES: This past December, amidst multiple performances on NPR’s live radio show A Prairie Home Companion, Natalia Paruz, renowned Astoria artist (featured by QConf last week), was crowned the show’s official sawyer by Garrison Keillor, the show’s host since 1974.

To top it off, the Westchester Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by maestro Paul Dunkel, declared Natalia, who performed with them as the featured soloist this past December, an "acclaimed musician" and "master of the musical saw!"

Can we say: she came, she sawed, she conquered?

- Scott Munson

• HONEST ABE? Multi-millionaire and Riker’s Island inmate Abe Hirschfeld was spied during an interview sitting adjacent to Craig Godineaux, one of the accused in the Flushing Wendy’s massacre that took place last summer.

While talking to the Daily News reporter, Hirschfeld said he neither knew the nearby inmate nor what he was being jailed for.

Hirschfeld was convicted last June of hiring a hit man to murder his longtime business associate Stanley Stahl.

 

Confidentially New York . . .

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E-MAIL your items to: conf@queenspress.com