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People

When Nien Cheng's sleeves fall back, the scars made by her prison manacles are still visible. But the ordeal is now decades in the past for the author of Life and Death in Shanghai, last year's best-selling account of surviving persecution during China's horrendous Cultural Revolution. Last week, on Liberty Island, Cheng, 73, took a further step away from the pain when she was sworn in as an American. "I had been practicing the Oath of Allegiance every morning," said Cheng, who now lives in Washington, D.C., a city she first visited and fell in love with nearly 50 years ago. Since she left China in 1980, first for Canada, then for the U.S., Cheng has traveled widely in Europe and Asia. But, she says, "I always have an overwhelming sense of joy when I come back to America. Now she can say she belongs.

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Taking liberty: Nien Chang

Jackie Stallone don't pull no punches. Auditioning women boxers for a new TV show, Sylvester's mom makes her requirements clear: "blond beauties with big busts, long legs and big butts." Yes, Stallone,

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Rambo's Mombo: Jackie Stallone

seventyish, is producing a pugilistic version of her hugely successful Glamorous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW). Called the Hollywood Hits, the show should be on the air by October. However, says Mama Stallone, no actresses need apply. After her son's messy divorce from Brigitte Nielsen, she has concluded that "an actress is someone with no ability who sits around waiting to go on alimony." Lest she have to defend such views, Stallone keeps herself in shape with a diet of carrots and celery and a little sparring on the side. Says she: "I don't put on boxing gloves to protect my manicure."


Who is that masked man? Gruff, stocky and paunchy, he is the kind of superhero who just won't fly in Metropolis. But in the megalopolis of Mexico City, Super Barrio is a force to be reckoned with. Since last year, the Daring Defender of destitute apartment dwellers has become a folk hero by swooping down on landlords intent on evicting their tenants. His pleas for mercy often work, especially since he usually has lawyers and the press in tow. No one knows his identity, though Super Barrio admits to once having been—no, not a bespectacled Clark Kent journalist—a professional wrestler turned street vendor. His mission came to him in a vision one day, he says, when a voice boomed: "You are Super Barrio, defender of tenants and scourge of greedy landlords." The voice was preceded by unearthly rays that bathed him in crimson and yellow light, leaving him garbed in a generously waisted hero suit. Villains, beware! Here comes the power paunch.


Holly Knight's achievements hardly go unsung. At 29, she has already composed four Top Ten singles: Tina Turner's Better Be Good to Me, Heart's Never and two hits for Pat Benatar, Invincible and Love is a Battlefield, Knight's personal favorite. Too bad her work is often overshadowed by the stars who sing it. But, she says, "when you write a good tune and put all your energy into it, sooner or later it's all going to come back to you." With the release this week of her first album, Holly Knight, she emerges as a singer too.

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Power paunch: Super Barrio in life and art.

And, in a switch, celebrity clients like Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates and Anne Wilson of Heart can be heard singing backup. Best of all, Knight finally gets to perform Love Is a Battlefield. All's fair in love, war and music.

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Her own voice: Holly Knight

What's a mother to do when her child is guilty of selling cocaine? With her son John Zaccaro sentenced to four months of community service in Burlington, Vt., Geraldine Ferraro combed the city for a "cell" he could occupy under his house-arrest program. Last week a brouhaha developed over the kind of digs that Mom found: a furnished two-bedroom, one-bath apartment with 12-ft. ceilings, cable TV and maid service. Despite the gilt, Ferraro argued that the $1,500-a-month apartment is very much a cage. She can visit John only twice a month, and he is allowed just an hour a week to shop. He must also stay in his room when not working at the local youth center. "It's better than being in jail," says Ferraro. "But he's by himself; he does his own cooking." Poor baby.

—By Howard G. Chua-Eoan. Reported by David E. Thigpen/New York

TIME, AUGUST 29, 1988                                       77