Presidential brother Neil Bush, a savings and loan scandalsurvivor turned Houston business executive, has filed for divorcefrom his wife of 22 years, the Houston Chronicle reported yesterday.
The Aug. 26 divorce petition states that Neil and Sharon Bush --who are identified only as 'N.M.B.' and 'S.L.B.' and are the parentsof 16-year-old son Pierce, 13-year-old daughter Ashley, and 18-year-old fashion model Lauren Bush -- 'ceased to live together as husbandand wife on or about July 2002.'
We obtained the petition after Harris County District Judge FrankRynd first sealed it and then reversed himself amid a flurry of mediainquiries yesterday. The petition continues: 'The marriage has becomeinsupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities ...that destroys the legitimate ends of the marriage relationship andprevents any reasonable expectation of reconciliation.'
The petition indicates that the 46-year-old Neil -- who in thelate 1980s was a director of Silverado Banking and received federalsanctions for his alleged role in the $1 billion collapse of theDenver S&L -- hopes to reach an agreement with his wife on financialand custody issues. Bush's attorney, Richard Flowers Jr., didn'treturn our phone call.
This is the second sad story this week for President Bush'sextended family. On Tuesday media reports revealed that thepresident's 25-year-old niece Noelle Bush, daughter of Florida Gov.Jeb Bush, was caught with a two-gram rock of crack cocaine whileundergoing court-ordered rehabilitation in the wake of her arrest fortrying to buy an anti-anxiety drug using a fake prescription.
John Grisham's environmental credentials would be second to noneif only his best-selling legal thrillers didn't result in the deathsof so many trees. But he'll be tomorrow's featured speaker at thePiedmont Environmental Council's annual conclave outsideCharlottesville, near Grisham's 1,000-acre Albemarle County horsefarm, Oakwood.
'I think I've always had a desire to preserve the land and theenvironment,' said the 47-year-old Grisham, whose 1992 novel 'ThePelican Brief' (later a hit movie) depicted corporate oil monolithsso evil that they didn't think twice about murdering Supreme Courtjustices to achieve their rapacious ends. 'That book was about theoil companies trying to take over the marshlands of southernLouisiana, and it was very accurate,' Grisham told us yesterday.
Tomorrow's speech will deal with 'the need to preserve the land inthe face of a lot of economic pressure from developers and others tochange things,' Grisham said. 'We have some very tough zoning laws,which can drive you crazy when you want to build on your property,but I think they're good.'
Grisham, who lives with two avid horsewomen, wife Renee anddaughter Shea, is starting his usual fall ritual of writing anotherbook -- 'I'm always full of ideas,' he said -- and looking forward tothe start of movie production for his 1997 book 'The Runaway Jury.'He added that he's happy to have survived this week's 9/11 memorials,which the author suggests have polluted his psychic environment. 'I'mjust tired of it,' he said. 'It's grossly excessive and I thinkpersonally reflects a lack of restraint when it comes to some of themedia. It's really just shocking.'
Multimillionaire Michael Jordan -- who no doubt pays taxes partlyto support America's social welfare programs -- was seen stiffing astreet person Wednesday night outside Cafe Milano in Georgetown.According to our spy, the raffish-looking, colorfully dressedpanhandler, sporting a dirty beret, was across the street from thetrendy restaurant when he spotted MJ and several other tall guysemerging around 10:30 p.m. 'Mr. Jordan! Mr. Jordan!' he called out,stepping off the curb. 'You better back up, dude,' the Wizards part-owner called back, apparently warning his petitioner to beware ofcars. Then Jordan and Co. crossed the street and breezed past thesupplicant on their way to the parking lot. 'Mr. Jordan, please helpme,' the fellow pleaded meekly. 'I'm not going to help you,' Jordananswered icily. Suddenly the man shed his meek demeanor and explodedinto a profane and prolonged tirade that caused our witness to removehimself from the scene. Yesterday Jordan's spokeswoman, EsteePortnoy, had this to say about our little narrative: 'It must be aslow news day.' The Washington-Hollywood connection lives! We hearthat the preternaturally melodramatic James Carville plays himself inthe DreamWorks aging-fratboy comedy 'Old School,' scheduled forrelease next spring, and that television producer Ted Kotcheff of'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit' portrays Washington's own MartyPeretz, part-owner of the New Republic, in the Stephen Glassdocudrama, 'Shattered Glass,' currently being filmed in Montreal.Carville has a cameo part debating 'Old School' star Will Ferrell.And we hear that Kotcheff reenacts an incident during the Glassjournalistic fabrication controversy in which Peretz ordered NewRepublic staffers to make sure that there were two commas in everysingle sentence. Our sentences fall short. Sorry, Marty.
