Word: langford
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...reality phenomenon gets compared a lot with The Truman Show, but this version of it is more like 1983's The King of Comedy, in which would-be comedian Rupert Pupkin (Robert DeNiro), an obsessive fan of late-night talk-show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), kidnaps his idol to get a shot at doing his stand-up act on TV. It's no longer enough for Pupkin to admire Langford; he must become him. If Pupkin had just waited 20 years, he could have got a show on E! network. E!'s The Michael Essany Show, starting in March...
...decency, pragmatism and fear of litigation triumphed. Says Jane Langford, the New Independent's owner: "It goes against the grain here to prevent people from using their own land." Plus, it's hard to stop them. Unlike locales that have contested the Mormons' current wave of temple building (a dispute in Belmont, Mass., seems destined for the Supreme Court), Nauvoo had no zoning laws and no desire to lock legal horns with an opponent worth some $30 billion. When the Mormons anted up $471,000 for town expenses, they got their permit. Most of the townspeople, says Wallace, "were proud...
...accordingly--longtime residents have every incentive to sell and leave. Meanwhile, temples like Nauvoo's serve as magnets for Mormon retirees, who take up spiritual tasks such as baptizing deceased ancestors of believers. It will take just 900 such immigrants to effect a Mormon majority in the town. Says Langford, the publisher, grimly: "They want to take back Nauvoo, and since they can't do it with guns, they are doing it with money." If so, in the first of what would no doubt be many social changes, Nauvoo would probably go dry. E-mails Sonja Bush...
...Back then, nobody would talk," says Rob Langford, a retired FBI supervisor. "You'd interview people, and they wouldn't want to testify. With the climate being different now, they are willing to cooperate." In the '70s, Alabama attorney general Bill Baxley successfully prosecuted "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss. But after Baxley left office, the case went mostly dormant and was not reopened until 1995. Langford, assigned to Alabama, met with local black leaders who were tired of delays. Says he: "What it took was a commitment to stick...