rants & raves.

--Nathan Lane, commenting on the 17th-place opening of his film Isn't She Great, starring Bette Midler as Valley of the Dolls author Jacqueline Susann, on Super Bowl weekend, as heard on the February 3 Broadcast of the PBS show Charlie Rose

"You've heard the phrase friend of Dorothy? My mother was Dorothy."

--Singer Lorna Luft, daughter of Judy Garland, at a Friars Club roast of Melissa Etheridge to benefit the No on Knight campaign against California's Proposition 22, which would ban recognition of same-sex marriage, held January 28 in Los Angeles

* "She was bisexual, so she could say, `If you don't like me, John Wayne, I can go elsewhere.'"

--Carol Channing on Marlene Dietrich, whose daughter told Channing that Dietrich repeatedly failed in attempts to seduce Wayne, as quoted in the February-March issue of Index magazine

* `I know he's gay, but l don't care. I'm going to change that."

--Touched by an Angel star Roma Downey on Rupert Everett, whose latest film, The Next Best Thing, opens March 3, as quoted in the February 17 issue of Rolling Stone