People

By Josh Tyrangiel

BUT HE'S NO PHONY

Pop culture teaches that if you really want to be left alone, a short dose of media ubiquity will usually do the trick. (Anyone want to hear another word from Richard Hatch?) But for Pete's sake, asking people to leave you alone is suicide. And be nice to your kids. J.D. Salinger is learning those lessons the hard way. Daughter MARGARET SALINGER'S Dream Catcher, the rare tell-all that does tell a lot, is expected to sell briskly when it hits stores on Wednesday. Among the Daddy Dearest revelations: J.D. experimented with Scientology, advised her to abort her baby, had a brief marriage to a Nazi and is now profoundly deaf. Margaret, 44, told the New York Times she's still close to her father, though "he probably hates my guts too, I would say operatically." Yes, probably.

QUIT THE CURSING, LITTLE DUDES

In Hardball, currently shooting in Chicago, KEANU REEVES plays a ticket scalper sentenced to coach some Little League ragamuffins from the Cabrini-Green housing project. Sounds saccharine enough for a Robin Williams flick, but the film, very loosely based on actual events, has Chicago Mayor Richard Daley fuming. A copy of the screenplay Daley obtained has Reeves' li'l sluggers acting like delinquents and making liberal use of the F word. (You'd think Daley might protest that the film's central plot device is stolen from that 1992 classic, The Mighty Ducks--but no.) "They just don't want this movie to portray all the good things they've done," Daley said about the real league's players and volunteer coaches. Public schools CEO Paul Vallas questioned why so many adolescent extras weren't in class, and branded the film "the Clockwork Orange version of The Bad News Bears." The producers couldn't have pitched it better themselves.

NEVER-ENDING STORY

All the money in the world can't bring back a dead heir. But it can make you want to uncover every detail of his death. So--although Egyptian billionaire MOHAMED AL FAYED doesn't think the U.S. government killed PRINCESS DIANA and his son Dodi--on the third anniversary of their fatal Paris car crash, he sued several U.S. agencies to find out if they know who did. Al Fayed seeks to obtain alleged secret documents held by the CIA, the Justice Department and the National Security Agency. A French investigation has concluded that the accident was caused by drunk driving at high speed, but al Fayed insists there was a murder conspiracy hatched to prevent his son from marrying the people's princess. The CIA denied knowledge of any plot to kill the couple.

HURRAH FOR THE PIRATE KING!

Ever since the Coreys--Haim and Feldman--stopped getting arrested and started their world domination of the straight-to-video shelf, there's been a profound lack of screwed-up teen heartthrobs. But BRAD RENFRO, 18, appears ready to step up. Last week Renfro, who made his debut in The Client in 1994 and has since starred in Sleepers and Apt Pupil, was charged with grand theft after he and an accomplice allegedly tried to steal a 45-ft. yacht from a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., marina. They might have got away with it had they only untied the dock lines. Police are investigating whether the duo was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, a touchy subject for Renfro, who had a 1998 drug-possession charge dropped after reaching an agreement with prosecutors. Renfro was freed on a $10,000 bond and allowed to begin work on Bully, a film co-starring other young tabloid favorites, Rachel Miner (Macaulay Culkin's soon-to-be ex-wife) and the reigning princess of trouble, Bijou Phillips.