Passion of the toast: Online casino forks over $28,000 for 'religious icon' grilled cheese

By: CATHERINE WILSON - Associated Press | Wednesday, November 24, 2004 7:03 PM PST ∞

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- An online casino forked over $28,000 Wednesday to the owner of a 10-year-old, partially eaten cheese sandwich thought to be embedded with the image of the Virgin Mary -- and then sent the "religious icon" on a world tour.

GoldenPalace.com had secured the winning bid for the sandwich Monday after the grilled cheese received more than 1.6 million hits on eBay. On Wednesday, GoldenPalace delivered the check to owner Diana Duyser at an Indian casino in Florida.

A security guard and velour rope protected the framed snack during a ceremonial exchange.

"It represented something that we believed to be a piece of Americana pop culture," said Steve Baker, CEO of Cyber World Group, GoldenPalace's Canada-based parent. He said the company had expected "minimum value" -- and "a laugh and a hoot about it," but admitted: "It's taken on more of a life of its own than we ever imagined."

Duyser, a 52-year-old jewelry designer, is convinced she cooked up an image of the Virgin Mary for breakfast 10 years ago. When she took her first bite, "I spit it back out," she recalled.

"I was just shocked. It scared me, really," she said, sporting a T-shirt declaring: "Passion of the Toast" superimposed at the bottom of the sandwich.

GoldenPalace.com promotes the sandwich as a "religious icon" with a "mystifying image," and is sending the snack on a world tour.

Parents of Wal-Mart heiress who allegedly cheated her way through school give up rights to name arena after her

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The University of Missouri is removing the name of a 22-year-old Wal-Mart heiress from its brand-new sports arena, a week after she was accused by a classmate of cheating her way through another college.

Elizabeth Paige Laurie's parents have agreed to allow the school to rename the $75 million Paige Sports Arena, which was built with a donation from the Lauries and opened three weeks ago, the university said Tuesday.

The university board will vote Friday on the proposed new name, Mizzou Arena, said Remy Wagner, the assistant to the board's secretary. "Mizzou" is the school's nickname.

The move comes months after billionaires Bill and Nancy Laurie angered Mizzou fans, students and alumni by announcing their plan to name the arena after their daughter, who did not attend Missouri. The couple were given the naming rights after donating $25 million toward the building campaign.

One alumnus, Chris Cary, called it "Dad buying the biggest dollhouse." Nancy Laurie is the daughter of the late Bud Walton, co-founder of Wal-Mart.

Then, last week, Paige Laurie's freshman roommate at the University of Southern California, Elena Martinez, said in an interview on ABC's "20/20" that Laurie paid her about $20,000 over 3.5 years to write papers and complete other assignments for her.

The University of Southern California is investigating the allegations. Michael Jackson, vice president of student affairs, said Monday the matter is "disappointing and strikes at the heart of integrity."

The family did not return messages Wednesday left at their Columbia home and at the offices of their company, Paige Sports Entertainment, which owns the NHL's St. Louis Blues. The family said in a statement to "20/20" that Paige Laurie's college record "is a private matter."

Woman dies after being injected with powerful antiseptic instead of harmless X-ray marker dye

Associated Press

SEATTLE -- A woman who underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm died after she was mistakenly injected with an antiseptic solution instead of a harmless X-ray marker dye, hospital officials say.

Mary McClinton, 69, of Everett, had the operation Nov. 4 at Virginia Mason Medical Center and died Tuesday.

At the end of McClinton's operation, a technician was supposed to inject the dye into a leg artery. Instead, the syringe was filled with chlorhexidine, a highly toxic solution used to clean the skin, hospital quality chief Dr. Robert Caplan said.

The solution "caused widespread damage to the organs of her body," Caplan said.

The hospital had recently switched from a brown iodine antiseptic to a colorless version. The marker dye also is clear, and the syringe was filled from an unlabeled cup containing the antiseptic.

Caplan said the cup of antiseptic has since been replaced with a swab on a stick.

Everyone involved in the mistake was removed from duty and retrained, along with the entire medical staff, officials said. The names of the technician and others involved were not released.

'Preppie Killer' Chambers arrested on drug charge after crack residue allegedly found in car

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- "Preppie Killer" Robert Chambers was arrested on a drug charge a year and a half after he was released from prison, where he served a 15-year sentence for manslaughter.

Chambers, 38, was freed on $1,000 bail Wednesday after being arraigned on two misdemeanors, drug possession and driving with a suspended license. The court complaint said the license was suspended in May when Chambers failed to answer a summons for running a red light.

He was arrested Tuesday in a traffic stop when police allegedly found two straws and a tinfoil packet that had crack cocaine residue. Chambers was ordered to return to court Monday.

Chambers strangled 18-year-old Jennifer Levin in 1986 during a tryst in Central Park, and the slaying was splashed across New York City's tabloids as a story of privileged youth gone bad.

He claimed he killed Levin, a private-school student from a well-to-do family, accidentally during rough sex. Prosecutors said he was drunk and high on drugs and killed her in a rage when he was unable to perform sexually.

Behind bars, he committed a number of violations, including drug possession and assault on a guard, that kept him from being released early. He spent a third of his time in solitary confinement and was rejected for parole five times.

Chambers pleaded guilty to manslaughter after the jury in his murder trial deliberated for nine days and prosecutors feared a deadlock. He was released in February 2003 after serving the full 15 years.

His lawyer refused to comment on the drug charge. "We would just ask everybody to suspend judgment until we find out what happened," attorney Brian O'Dwyer said.

Chambers lives in Manhattan and works in retail outside the city, his lawyer said.

Drivers vote against union at Ohio Pizza Hut

Associated Press

SUNBURY, Ohio -- A fledgling national union for pizza drivers has failed in another attempt to establish a union shop. Drivers for a Pizza Hut in Sunbury voted 9-3 against unionization on Tuesday. The National Labor Relations Board supervised the vote.

"It didn't quite go the way we had hoped it would go," said Matt Howard, 25, of Delaware, who spearheaded the effort in the city about 20 miles northeast of Columbus.

The Association of Pizza Delivery Drivers, based in Hendersonville, Tenn., failed earlier this month to organize a local in Lincoln, Neb. A vote at a Domino's franchise there ended in a tie.

Howard said drivers at his store earn about $6 an hour and 75 cents per delivery. He said he wanted the proposed union to fight for wages closer to $9 an hour and to get a mileage reimbursement rate.

An executive with Kent-based Hallrich Inc., which owns the Sunbury Pizza Hut, was in Sunbury on Tuesday but declined to comment.

APDD started in 2002 on the Internet and currently has 600 members, according to treasurer Tim Lockwood.

'Sex and the City' star ads replaced in Israel after Orthodox Jews complain about skimpy outfit

Associated Press

JERUSALEM -- It looks like Sarah Jessica Parker is too sexy for some Israelis' tastes.

A poster and billboard campaign showing the "Sex and the City" actress in a skimpy, sequined dress was quickly replaced with new ads of her in a dress that covered her arms, back and thigh, reportedly after ultra-Orthodox consumers objected to her outfit.

The sexy ads promoting Lux soaps had begun appearing on billboards across the country in recent days. But after an angry phone call from a prominent rabbi, the consumer goods giant Unilever quickly gave Parker a more modest wardrobe, the Haaretz daily reported.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who require women to dress modestly, account for roughly 10 percent of the Israeli population, making them a sizable market for local Unilever products.

A spokesman for Unilever Israel said Wednesday the wardrobe was altered -- just days after the posters first appeared -- to be more suitable for the arrival of winter in Israel.

"The winter came suddenly. Last week it was summer. Now it's rainy and cold. Everyone has the flu," said the spokesman, who declined to give his name.

He said company officials were unavailable to discuss the reported complaints by religious Jews.

Israeli reality TV show seeks spokesman to make Israel's case to a skeptical world

Associated Press

JERUSALEM -- Mindful of Israel's poor international image, a television station has come up with a unique idea for a reality show -- get 14 contestants to represent the country before hostile foreign audiences and choose the best to spread pro-Israel messages throughout the world.

"Hashagrir," or "The Ambassador," which debuted Wednesday, plays into a classic Israeli pet peeve: that the country's diplomats invariably fail to convince foreign audiences that Israel is in the right in its dispute with the Arabs.

Though government professionals reject the charges, criticism of Israel's official information efforts are almost an obsession among Israelis -- reflecting a widely held belief that Israel's policies are unassailable, and if they were just explained correctly, the world would support them.

The format of "Hashagrir" is similar to American reality TV programs like "The Apprentice," with an expert panel giving a designated loser his marching orders at the end of each episode.

A news release from the producers said the TV program and prize -- a position with a U.S. Jewish organization -- would be nonpolitical, but the first episode concentrated on the touchiest of the Mideast's political conflicts.

The 14 contestants, picked for their potential to be attractive envoys, are young adults, including a lawyer, a communications student, a graduate student in chemistry, and immigrants from Holland, Ethiopia and the United States.

The first program pitted the seven male contestants against their seven female counterparts at the Cambridge University Union in England. Speaking before a skeptical audience, each side presented Israel's case in a short speech before answering questions from the floor.

Appearing for the men, Tzvika Deutsch asked the audience how it would feel if a soccer game in the English city of Manchester had to be canceled because the stadium came under the threat of rocket fire from militants.

"For the people of Manchester this would be a very bad joke," he said. "But for the people of the Israeli city of Sderot" -- a frequent target of homemade rockets fired by Palestinians from the Gaza Strip -- "this is the reality."

Women's representative Ravit Shemtov said Israel has offered Palestinians many peace solutions, but to no avail.

"Unfortunately the Palestinian Authority has declined to every opportunity the Israeli government offered them," she said, butchering English grammar.

Audience questions showed that many believed Israel was wrong in its conflict with the Palestinians, provoking women's team member Ofra Bin Nun to say that Israeli policies were defensive, aimed only at saving lives.

"Let me make it very clear that Israel has not taken anything from anyone," she said.

Bin Nun's comment elicited loud groans from the audience, where many were critical of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Because of that answer, the panel of experts made Bin Nun the first contestant to be dropped from the program. The judges -- former Shin Bet security chief Yaacov Peri, ex-army spokesman Nachman Shai and Channel Two political reporter Rina Mazliah -- said her answer further alienated the audience.

In other episodes, the contestants will face similar audiences in Brussels and Paris as well as a group of foreign correspondents in Jerusalem.

"Hashagrir" is the brainchild of the Keshet Production Company, a leading supplier of programs to Channel Two, one of two Israeli commercial channels.

Keshet spokeswoman Tali Goren said the program had no connection to the Israeli government, but that in emphasizing Israel's poor international image, it was dealing with the country's "foremost policy challenge."

"What we're doing here is working to change the reputation of Israel abroad," she said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev would not say what the Israeli government thought about the idea that a group of amateurs might do a better job than official representatives in presenting Israel's case abroad.

"The spokesman at the foreign ministry has many functions, but none of them include being a television critic," he said.

Goren said the winner would spend a year working for a New York-based Jewish organization explaining Israel's policies in Europe and the United States.

"We mean to pick the best person we can for the job," Goren said. "It's very important work."

"Hashagrir" taps into an already well established market for reality shows on Israeli television.

Other Israeli reality TV programs have largely mirrored U.S. shows, with local versions of "Idol," "The Bachelorette," "Big Brother" and "The Last Comic Standing," all of them turning participants into local celebrities.

The most unusual show so far was "The Steve Show," where hidden cameras followed a hapless, wannabe actor who thought he had landed a role in a local soap opera, but actually became the unwitting star of his own reality show.

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