People: Nov. 4, 1996

ALARMING NEWS! MODELS PREPARED TO SHOW OFF THEIR BODIES

The problem with using shock tactics to get a message across is that they must get more shocking each time. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has taken its antifur campaign beyond nudes on billboards. During fashion week in New York City, 15 male and female models from the Boss agency, which has declared itself “fur free,” are planning to create a living PETA billboard. The models (including Calvin Klein poster boys MARCUS SCHENKENBERG, third from left, and JOEL WEST, fourth from right) will climb out of limos, drop their white terry-cloth robes in public and, as the ad says, “turn their backs on fur.”

HIS PROSECUTOR–OR BRO?

It’s been a big week for Death Row Records owner MARION (“SUGE”) KNIGHT, one of the most controversial impresarios in an industry not known for blandness. First, he was arrested for failing to take a drug test that’s part of his probation requirements on a 1992 assault charge. (He has been scarce since Tupac Shakur was shot in a car he was driving.) Then the Los Angeles Times disclosed that the prosecutor overseeing his case, Lawrence Longo, had been removed, after the D.A.’s office learned that Knight had given Longo’s daughter a record deal and had rented a luxury house from him. Longo denied any impropriety, saying, “I told Suge Knight before he signed her that he wasn’t going to get any special treatment from me. That’s all there is to it.”

SEEN & HEARD

Loaded and lonely? Maybe Oprah can help. Oracle CEO Lawrence Ellison, a thrice-divorced billionaire, mentioned on Oprah that he was hoping to marry again. He didn’t mention that he was worth $6 billion, has a predilection for things Japanese and owns several flashy cars. Nonetheless, both Oracle and Oprah were flooded with offers.

Gabriela Sabatini, the most glamorous woman on the pro tennis circuit if not the hardest hitting, is retiring. She has had a bad year, but says that isn’t the reason for quitting. “Now I’ll be able to do the things I couldn’t do while playing,” says Sabatini, who made almost $9 million from tennis. Fans can content themselves with her brand of perfumes and home items.

HER, AGAIN

Remember GENNIFER FLOWERS, the Arkansas lounge singer who caused Bill and Hillary Clinton to have a pointed TV chat about their marriage? She’s getting married Nov. 2 to longtime on-again-off-again boyfriend FINIS SHELNUTT, who Flowers’ publicist David Hans Schmidt says is a “prominent institutional broker.” He’s also a former in-law to Whitewater figures Webb Hubbell and Seth Ward. The couple are planning a candlelit ceremony with just family, friends and PEOPLE magazine.