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Enron castaways  

bare all in ‘Playgirl’ 

HOUSTON — They’ve already lost their shirts to Enron Corp. Now they’re doing the same for Playgirl Magazine. 

Five former Enron employees went before Playgirl’s cameras Sunday for a daylong photo shoot for an issue due in stores in October. 

The issue will feature profiles of the men and their experiences with the former energy giant, which filed for bankruptcy in December after questions about the company’s accounting practices surfaced. 

“Enron made me bare it all,” said Mark Zebrowitz, who worked as a production manager for Enron Oil & Gas in India. “That’s all they left me with.” 

In return for the men’s willingness to show off what normally stays under wraps, Playgirl offered “more money than they made on their stock options,” magazine editor Michele Zipp said. 

Playgirl’s offer came April 1, a week after Playboy Magazine invited current and former female workers to pose for a “Women of Enron” issue. 

About three dozen men applied. The magazine narrowed its options to five. 

“We thought, ’Why not help these guys who were down on their luck try something different for a career, even if it is a day of fun,”’ Zipp said. 

Surprise – prom date changed 

LOS ANGELES — “Please don’t hang up! This is an urgent message.” 

The automated phone call from the Garfield High School senior class president alerted classmates last week that the prom was not happening Saturday night. 

It’s being held June 1 instead. 

The mix-up sent hundreds of students at the East Los Angeles school scrambling to reschedule hair appointments and tuxedo and limo rentals. 

Nearly 300 angry students showed up at a meeting of senior class officers after learning about the problem. 

“It was like a peasant uprising,” said senior Sylvia Torres, 17. “They were all talking at the same time.” 

It seems the confusion about the biggest social event of the year was the result of miscommunication between school administrators and the Long Beach Hilton. 

Assistant Principal Peter Luevano said he thought a signed contract with the hotel stating the prom would be held June 1 had been changed to May 18 after he made the request over the phone last fall. 

But the hotel’s director of catering, Ross Gagnon, said the hotel had no record of any such conversation. For a year, the hotel has been booked on May 18 for a different prom. 

School administrators have called limo companies and tuxedo rental shops to alert them to the changes. 

“No one has refused to hold the rentals,” said Assistant Principal Richard Bin. 

Not all students are furious. Some say they’re grateful for the delay. 

“My dress isn’t even done yet,” said 18-year-old Silvia Ramos. 

Wanted: Lewis & Clark 

BLAIR, Neb. — Listen up, Lewises and Clarks. A parade celebrating the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark expedition is in need of participants. 

Jim Morely is trying to get as many people with the same last name as famed explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as he can to sign up for a parade in Blair on June 15. 

The parade is a kickoff to Nebraska’s celebrations of the Lewis & Clark expedition that traveled up the Missouri River and reached Nebraska in the summer of 1804. 

The Blair parade is an attempt to celebrate the expedition, gain attention and raise money for celebrations of the bicentennial. 

“No one had ever thought of doing anything like what they did. It was the 1804 equivalent of going to the moon,” Morely told the Lincoln Journal Star for a story Sunday. 

Morely sent out more than 450 letters to those people with the last names as the explorers and got six replies. 

Morely said people may have thought the letters were junk mail or part of some marketing scheme and just pitched them. He added that anybody named Meriwether Lewis or William Clark would get to be in front of the parade group. 

- The Associated Press