Mannequin

Arthur Kent tried to sing backup for Ben E. King. He tried to dance with Faith Daniels. He tried to slice and serve a 157-pound watermelon and kibitz with Willard Scott at the same time.All of which is to say that NBC's handsome correspondent -- dubbed the "Scud Stud" for his Middle East reports during the Persian Gulf war -- got to fill in as a substitute host for Bryant Gumbel this week on the "Today" show.Maybe the most evenhanded thing to be said about Kent's performance is that he seemed profoundly uncomfortable.

Debra L. Spunt, a University of Maryland nursing educator who was a pioneer in the use of high-tech mannequin teaching devices, died of cancer Friday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Pikesville resident was 50. Ms. Spunt was a national figure in use of the technology known as computerized human patient simulators. One of the devices is known as SimMan, and one of a woman giving birth is called Noelle Maternal.

If the afternoon frocks, ball gowns, dinner suits and smart hats idling in forgotten closets could talk, what stories they could tell. Not just about the women who wore them, but also about the designers who tailored them for their roles in society's limelight.Sibilant echoes of gossip, wit, scandal and celebration flutter among the elegant mannequins posed for "Hattie Carnegie American Style Defined," an exhibit now at the museum of New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. It is a sampling of clothes and accessories from the salon of the woman who dressed America's socialites and stars from the '20s to the '50s.

Dani Mazzilli is talking on the phone and the melodic b-l-i-i-n-n-g-g in the background betrays the fact that she is also online, instant-messaging someone else. Suddenly, her cell phone rings, adding to the chorus, and she interrupts two conversations to begin a third with one of her three teen-aged children. Yes, she will bring the equipment bag to school that the child left at home that morning. She will be at school anyway, she says, working on the '70s dance. "Now where were we?"

They watched Vanna White play a statue that came to life, so why not Olivia Newton-John as a living, breathing mannequin?Suffice it to say we're not talking "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw. "A Mom for Christmas," an NBC movie that will be on Channel 2 (WMAR) at 9 o'clock tonight, is a too-sweet cupful of tinsel-strength holiday froth made from a bit of "Cinderella," a -- of "Pinocchio" and a spoonful of "Mary Poppins."Jessica's mother died when the girl was 3. When her fairy godmother spots the lonely preteen, played by Juliet Sorcey, wandering a department store, she grants the child's wish for a Mom for the holidays, bringing a mannequin to life but only until midnight on Christmas.

Small coffee shops are good for more than just a cuppa joe and delicious house-made pastries. Usually, the wait staff takes the shop's independent feel and relays it in their fashion choices. It's not often that you'll find a barista in a replica of a Gap mannequin's outfit, or toting a pricey designer handbag. WONDERING IF YOU WERE GLIMPSED? Check out baltimoresun.com / glimpsed for additional photos of fashion-forward locals and a critique by fashion writer Tanika White of the styles she saw around town.

The first Anne Arundel officer on the scene just after 3 a.m. thought what was burning was a mannequin. Then two other cops arrived, and the three of them realized that this was no imitation. A human body was in flames. They extinguished the fire and huddled over the smoking remains of an adult male. His arms and legs were pulled into his torso, as if in terror or pain. He lay partially wrapped in a blue blanket on Old Mill Road just south of Baltimore. He wore jeans, socks and a shirt stained with what appeared to be blood.

Think myth, magic and fairy tale when you sit down to watch Olivia Newton-John make her TV movie debut in "A Mom for Christmas" at 9 tonight on WMAR-TV (Channel 2). As a fairy tale with lots of holiday trimmings and spirit, it's a pleasant little made-for-TV film."A Mom for Christmas" stars Juliet Sorcey as Jessica Slocum, an 11-year-old whose mother has died. Jessica lives alone with her father, a workaholic played by Doug Sheehan. She spends her after-school hours at a large department store admiring the displays and looking wistfully at other girls who are shopping with their mothers.

Westminster police are searching for three young men who broke into the New Song guitar shop in Westminster on `f Saturday, stealing seven guitars and damaging six others, a window and a sign.John Pepsin Sr., the shop's owner, said yesterday that the trio broke a 5-foot-by-7-foot display window, damaged a mannequinand the store's sign, trampled six guitars on display and carried seven new instruments out through the broken window about 12:45 a.m.Mr. Pepsin said a friend of his son's, who was nearby in the 140 Village Shopping Center parking lot, heard the window shatter.

Does America need another TV film about the death of JonBenet Ramsey? No. In fact, America doesn't need another word about it. Two weeks ago, we had the sleazy movie treatment of the 1996 murder of the 6-year-old Boulder, Colo., girl by the Fox network. And, now comes a four-hour CBS miniseries, "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town," starring Marg Helgenberger, Ronnie Cox, Ken Howard, Ann-Margret and Kris Kristofferson. Outside of Helgenberger's performance, there is nothing to recommend this film.