Not so fast. Smithsonian spokesman David Umansky confirmed the idea and said officials would be happy to provide expertise and objects. But the new museum wouldn't be part of the Smithsonian, he said.
Also, for the record, Barbara Sinatra, Frank's widow and Nancy's nemesis, hasn't been part of the plan.
COURIC FROM THE HEART * A tearful Katie Couric spoke for the first time about dealing with ``permanent damage to your heart,'' recalling how she coped with the death of husband Jay Monahan.
``The last year of my life is still too difficult to grasp and too painful to recount,'' the co-host of NBC's Today show told more than 1,300 people Thursday at an awards luncheon for businesswomen in New York. Monahan, a lawyer and legal affairs expert for NBC, died of colon cancer Jan. 24 at age 42.
``People ask how and why do you go on and do what you have to do,'' said Couric, 41. ``I do it because I have two girls who are depending on me . . . to show them what you have to do when life throws you a major curve ball.''
AUTHOR IN THE HOT SEAT * Spanish gay rights groups condemned Nobel laureate Camilo Jose Cela yesterday for anti-gay comments he made at a tribute to poet Federico Garcia Lorca.
Lorca, Spain's most revered poet, was killed by Gen. Francisco Franco's soldiers in 1936 during Spain's civil war. Biographers say he was homosexual. During celebrations this week to mark the centenary of Lorca's birth, Cela urged homosexuals to stay away from such events, adding, ``I would prefer that any homage paid to me after my death be without the support of gay groups.''
Cela, 82, is known as one of the Hispanic literary world's most outspoken figures.
Jordi Petit, leader of the Barcelona-based International Gay and Lesbian Association, called Cela's comments a ``gratuitous diatribe'' and absurd, given Lorca's homosexuality: ``It is logical that gays should be involved in tributes to Lorca. He is an international figure who contributes to the normalization and acceptance of homosexuality.''
CELEBRITY DOCKET * A federal jury in Boston gave actor Woody Harrelson something to cheer about yesterday when it ordered him to pay less than $5,000 to two photographers he attacked.
Harrelson had testified he broke Star magazine shutterbug Steven Connolly's camera and chased Hard Copy's Paul Adao when they wouldn't stop taking pictures of his daughter. The nastiness occurred in 1995 prior to the Martha's Vineyard wedding of fellow Cheers actor Ted Danson to Mary Steenburgen.
Connolly was awarded $4,826. Adao got $2.
This story contains material from the Associated Press, Reuters and USA Today.
