Ask American Profile

What has singer Paula Abdul been doing? Does she have a fan club where I can write to her?
—John K., Illinois

You’ve probably already seen Paula Abdul as one of the judges on the new hit show American Idol, on which young singers compete to win a recording contract and the chance for pop stardom. Abdul, 40, certainly is qualified to judge what it takes. In the early 1980s, she landed a spot with the Los Angeles Lakers cheerleaders and soon became their choreographer. Her unique dance moves got her attention in the music world, and she worked with Janet Jackson, Duran Duran, and others before venturing out on her own as a singer. She succeeded in that field also, with such chart-topping hits as Straight Up and Forever Your Girl. She currently has a greatest hits album in stores. She runs dance and cheerleading camps, competitions, and scholarship programs throughout the country, and has done choreography for such films as American Beauty, Jerry Maguire, and Black Knight. An official fan website is in the works, or you can write to her at American Idol, P.O. Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213.

On one episode of Gilligan’s Island, a musical group was “stranded” on the island. What was the name of the group?
—Mark J., Louisiana

The Beatles-like group was called The Mosquitoes, made up of members Bingo (Les Brown Jr.), Bongo (Ed Wade), Bango (George Patterson), and Irving (Kirby Johnson). In fact, they weren’t stranded on the island—their crazed fans had gotten so out of control that they had themselves dropped on what they thought was a deserted island, just to get some rest and relaxation. Though The Mosquitoes wanted to stay and enjoy the privacy the island gave them, the seven shipwrecked castaways hoped the quartet would be their ticket off the island. To push the Mosquitoes into leaving, Gilligan and friends formed two singing groups—the men became The Gnats, and the women formed The Honeybees. Unfortunately, The Honeybees were too good for their own good. Feeling the threat of competition, The Mosquitoes sneaked off the island. Three of the members of the Mosquitoes (all but Bingo) actually made up The Wellingtons, the group that sang the Gilligan’s Island theme song during the first season.

My favorite PBS commentator, Paul Gigot, is no longer there. Is he now a Wall Street Journal executive? What is his nationality?
—Marg D., Oregon

Paul Gigot, 46, stopped appearing on NewsHour last September, when he became editorial page editor at the Wall Street Journal. The job required a move from Washington, D.C., to New York. A native of Green Bay, Wis., Gigot’s family background is French and Belgian. He graduated with honors from Dartmouth College and joined the Wall Street Journal as a reporter, first in Chicago in 1980, then in Hong Kong in 1982. Two years later he won an Overseas Press Award for his reporting. That same year he was named editorial page editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal. In 1987 he began writing his own column, Potomac Watch, winning a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for it in 2000. He started adding his gentlemanly, conservative punditry alongside commentator Mark Shields on NewsHour in 1994.

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