A Summers ally departs; Kennedy hails Yushchenko
CHEERIO Just when he may need her most, Larry Summers's no-nonsense spokeswoman Lucie McNeil is leaving. The senior director of communications for Harvard's embattled president is taking a public relations position in Washington with the National Geographic Society. A Brit who once worked for Tony Blair, McNeil has been at Harvard for 2 years. (Boston magazine recently printed a McNeil e-mail in which she advised her boss to decline an interview request from ''Harvard Rules" author Richard Bradley. ''I still want to slam it," she wrote of Bradley's book.) In a brief e-mail exchange this week, McNeil told us she's leaving for all the right reasons. ''Tis true and i am v excited," she wrote in electronic shorthand, ''lots of running around doing what I love." Alan Stone, Harvard's VP for public affairs, said McNeil brought ''intense energy and skill in deftly handling the most complex communication challenges," leaving us to conclude that someone else must have counseled Summers to withold that transcript for so long.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, RHODE ISLAND As Boston readies for Martin Scorsese to start shooting ''The Departed," Rhode Island is making a full-on legislative push to woo potential film and TV projects. Flanked by writer/director Bobby Farrelly (''Fever Pitch" and ''There's Something About Mary"), director Michael Corrente (''Outside Providence" and ''American Buffalo"), and Blake Masters, creator of the new Showtime series ''Brotherhood," Ocean State House Speaker William J. Murphy and Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano yesterday announced a series of incentives to attract more film projects. The measures introduced in the Rhode Island House and Senate include investor tax credits, sales and use tax exemptions, a labor tax incentive, and hotel tax waivers.
COURAGEOUS PROFILE The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation announced yesterday that Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, who survived an assassination attempt and overcame his Russian-backed political opponents, is the recipient of the 2005 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. ''Viktor Yushchenko amazed, awed, and changed the world through one of the all-time great examples of political courage," said Senator Ted Kennedy. Yushchenko -- whowas sworn in Jan. 2 after contestedelections, demonstrations, and court battles -- suffered a near-lethal dioxin poisoning that disfigured his face late last year.
BOSTON WINS The gang at Boston magazine is breathing a little easier after a US District Court judge dismissed a defamation and invasion of privacy suit brought by a young woman whose picture was used in a May 2003 story about teenage sexuality and promiscuity. The plaintiff claimed she was harmed by a photo accompanying the magazine piece -- headlined ''The Mating Habits of the Suburban High School Teenager" -- that insinuated she was involved in the behavior discussed in the story. In his ruling, Judge F. Dennis Saylor criticized the magazine for ''dubious judgment," but he found that a published disclaimer stating that ''the individuals pictured are unrelated to the people or events described in this story" protected the magazine against the defamation claim. ''Overall, I think the decision relies on First Amendment principles and concepts," said the magazine's attorney Amy Serino. The attorney for the plaintiff could not be reached for comment.
HOT TICKET Head up, yo. The biggest music tour of the summer is shaping up to be a triple bill of Eminem, 50 Cent, and Linkin Park. ''It's in the works," a Warner Bros. spokesman confirmed yesterday. It would be a stadium tour, meaning the likely local venue would be Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.
Mark Jurkowitz of the Globe staff contributed to this column.. Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.
