People

DEPARDIEU VS AMERICA
French actor Gerard Depardieu, a staunch opponent of Hollywood8217;s domination of the movie business, will star in The Last Tango in Moscow, a film being made by Russian director Vladimir Menshov. Menshov has himself been feted by the Hollywood film fraternity. He directed the quirky Soviet film Moscow Distrusts Tears which won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Film in 1979. Last week, in the Polish capital Warsaw, Depardieu lashed out at what he called American cultural domination even though he is making a new film with Disney. 8220;Sometimes they get on my nerves, their way of controlling everything,8221; he said in Warsaw. 8220;Cinema nowadays has become an industry ruled by money and of course the Americans,8221; he told a press conference. But he said he was not against America as such and was going to do another film with Disney, a cartoon based on the 101 Dalmatians classic. Depardieu has won several awards for his film roles including the 1991 Golden Globe for best actor in GreenCard. In Warsaw, he said he had personally refused an offer of a US green card to allow him to live and work in the States. 8220;I prefer to remain a citizen of the world,8221; the globe-trotting film star said.

DEATH OF A SERB WARLORD
Amid conflicting reports, a pro-government paper alleged that three conspirators in the murder of Serb warlord Arkan were members of his feared Tigers paramilitary unit. 8220;The newspaper has learned that three of the five assailants were former members of the Serbian Volunteer Guard and an investigation will doubtless reveal why Arkan8217;s guardsmen killed their commander,8221; said Novi Sad Dnevnik, which is close to President Slobodan Milosevic8217;s ruling Socialist Party. The Serbian Volunteer Guard, which became notorious in the Bosnia and Croatian wars, were known as the Tigers. 8220;Investigations will also reveal who was behind the killing,8221; said the newspaper, based in Novi Sad. Zeljko Raznatovic, 47, also called Arkan, was shot several times in the foyer of Belgrade8217;s Intercontinental Hotel last Saturday. Although Opposition parties and allied media had claimed Milosevic8217;s regime was behind the killing and described the act as 8220;State terrorism,8221; recent reports have heeded a warningby the government mouthpiece daily Politika. The paper advised against making 8220;hasty8221; interpretations motivated by 8220;bad intentions8221;. Arkan was slain along with two associates.

GRANDMOMS CALLING
The grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez made an emotional appeal for the six-year-old boy8217;s repatriation, saying his late mother would not 8220;rest in peace8221; until he was sent back to Cuba. 8220;For his mother to be able to rest in peace, he must return to the side of his father and his grandparents,8221; his maternal grandmother, Raquel Rodriguez, said in a voice trembling with emotion. Her daughter, the boy8217;s mother, died along with his stepfather when the boat on which they sought to reach US shores capsized in November. Elian was rescued clinging to an inner tube in waters off the Florida coast. The boy has been the subject of a fierce international tug-of-war pitting his father and the Cuban state against Elian8217;s Miami relatives and members of Florida8217;s Cuban-American exile community who despise Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Flanked by leaders of the US National Council of Churches, who are trying to mediate the dispute, Rodriguez and Elian8217;s paternal grandmother, Mariela Quintana, argued that theFlorida family has no right to keep him. Representatives of the Miami-based relatives, with whom he has been staying since his November 25 rescue, said the boy8217;s handover to the grandmothers was not to be expected any time soon.