Insider

This was a nasty week for female bonding. When former James Bond beauties gathered for a Vanity Fair shoot in L.A., photographer Annie Leibovitz asked for a picture of Jill St. John with Lana Wood, who costarred with Sean Connery in 1971’s Diamonds are Forever. Bad idea. I’m told that St. John, who is married to Robert Wagner, the former husband of Lana’s late sister Natalie, was so adamantly opposed to the idea that it reduced Wood to tears. “It was clear that Jill didn’t want to pose with her,” says a publicist on the shoot. St. John’s publicist, however, says it was he who vetoed the photo: “I know [the Wagner family] would rather not have the current Mrs. Wagner shot with Natalie’s sister.”…

Meanwhile, at the Manhattan premiere of Ashley Judd’s new thriller, Double Jeopardy, big sister Wynonna refused to pose en famille with Ashley and their mom, Naomi. But as soon as she got booed by photographers, Wynonna quickly relented.

The reclusive Dudley Moore, using a walking stick, recently took in the show Crazy Rhythm: Manhattan in the 20’s at the Oak Room in New York City’s Algonquin Hotel. He dined with friends and sat ringside for the performance, which the Oak Room’s director says Moore “adored.”

In his column in The Cincinnati Post, Nick Clooney tells readers that the new Miss America, Heather French, is an old family friend who, as a baby, used to toddle around the tennis court in Augusta, Ky., while his son George Clooney played tennis with Heather’s father, Ron. Nick writes that at an event in Lexington, Ky., honoring the Clooney family two months ago, Heather, who was then Miss Kentucky, approached him and asked if it would be okay for her to speak to George. “Do you think he’ll remember me?” she asked. “I was such a little pest.” Nick took her over and George, he says, “was impressed—and chagrined—that anyone that tiny in his Augusta history could now be Miss Kentucky. He seemed in shock for some time.”

David Copperfield’s ex-fiancée Claudia Schiffer is spending more time with a new love—acting. In the upcoming film Black and White, costarring Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Brooke Shields, Schiffer portrays a manipulative grad student. The film explores racial and sexual issues in New York City’s hip-hop world. “I choose parts because they are not glamorous,” Schiffer says. “You can concentrate on your character and not have to worry about how you look.”

Fast Takes: Attention Boy Meets World lovers: Cory (Ben Savage) will. marry Topanga (Danielle Fishel), albeit after a few glitches, during November sweeps….

At the Rainbow Room bash that followed Saturday Night Live’s 25th anniversary show, Conan O’Brien spent several hours at a corner table alone with Snoops star Gina Gershon, talking intently….

Former New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg finally tied the knot with Kim Fey, the mother of his young son Xavier. On hand for the nuptials was Donnie’s brother, actor Mark Wahlberg, who’s costarring in Three Kings.