1980 S Decade

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union sparked a revolution that shattered Communist control of Eastern Europe, was named Man of the Decade by Time magazine Saturday. The Soviet president, previously named Time's Man of the Year in 1987, was chosen because he is "the force behind the most momentous events of the '80s and because what he has already done will almost certainly shape the future," Time said.

It was the decade of crack and cocaine, hunger and homelessness, acid rain and a hole in the ozone layer--but it was also the year in which freedom set down new roots in Eastern Europe. As Charles Dickens said in another context, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . ." "I'm not sure you can sum up the decade of the '80s," Peter Jennings said in an interview, although he will be doing just that tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC when he anchors a news special, "Images of the '80s."

It was the decade of crack and cocaine, hunger and homelessness, acid rain and a hole in the ozone layer--but it was also the year in which freedom set down new roots in Eastern Europe. As Charles Dickens said in another context, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. . . ." "I'm not sure you can sum up the decade of the '80s," Peter Jennings said in an interview, although he will be doing just that tonight at 10 p.m. on ABC when he anchors a news special, "Images of the '80s."

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union sparked a revolution that shattered Communist control of Eastern Europe, was named Man of the Decade by Time magazine Saturday. The Soviet president, previously named Time's Man of the Year in 1987, was chosen because he is "the force behind the most momentous events of the '80s and because what he has already done will almost certainly shape the future," Time said.

MTV's 'Decade': MTV, which was launched in 1981, will look back over the 1980s in "Decade," a two-hour retrospective which the cable network says is one of its most ambitious projects to date. The program will first air on Dec. 13 (9 p.m.), with repeats on Dec. 17 (2 p.m.) and Dec. 21 (9 p.m.). News clips, sound bites, film footage and interviews will bring back people and events, from Michael Jackson and Guns N' Roses to Chernobyl and the AIDS crisis.

Los Angeles has been a fighting a tide of runaway production of big-budget movies and television dramas. Now it may face an emigration of another homegrown industry - adult entertainment. That's the specter raised by some of the hundreds of porn producers in L.A. after voters approved Measure B, which requires performers to wear condoms and establishes a new permitting system for adult entertainment shoots. PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments The law was advocated by AIDS activists who argued it would protect performers from disease outbreaks.

If the prospective presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa were a movie, it might be titled "Abe Lincoln Meets Harry Truman in Camelot." But would it sell to California voters? Sure, Harkin said Friday.

The tenuous bright spot in the gloom of the home-building picture for 1990 was multifamily homes--condos, apartments and the like. Although December's total of multifamily home permits was the lowest number issued during any month in the last five years, it was enough to leave the 1990 total, 8,556, just slightly lower than 1989's 8,608.

The Academy Awards are the biggest fashion runway on the planet. When Jennifer Lawrence, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and other stars step out onto the red carpet Sunday, they will be primed to talk as much about what and who they are wearing as about the films that got them there. But it wasn't always this way. The first Academy Awards, held in 1929 at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, was a low-key affair - a small dinner and 15-minute ceremony. There was no red carpet, and no one's dresses were on display since the event was not televised.

The incoming chairman of the New York Stock Exchange took to the pulpit at a Manhattan cathedral Sunday to denounce the materialism of the 1980s and the gap between rich and poor. During his 25-minute sermon, William H. Donaldson, who will take office in January, called the 1980s a decade in which "it was easy to see how good things were for some people and even easier to not see how bad things had become for others."