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- WORLD, Page 55World NotesNEW ZEALANDLange's Little Fantasy Thing
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- David Lange walked away from New Zealand's top political
- job on his own terms, abruptly announcing his resignation as
- Prime Minister last August. Now serving as the country's
- Attorney General, Lange, 47, evidently thought he could
- terminate his marriage in similar fashion. Two weeks ago, he
- issued a statement that he and his wife of 21 years, Naomi, had
- separated. There would, he said, be no further comment.
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- Fat chance. In New Zealand last week there was practically
- nothing but comment. Naomi complained in a newspaper interview
- that her husband had developed a "fantasy thing" for his
- 37-year-old speechwriter, Margaret Pope. Then David's
- 80-year-old mother Phoebe piped up, pronouncing herself "so
- angry I could behead him with my crutch." For his part, Lange
- declared that he planned to live with Pope and joked of his
- mum's dismay that she was "writing a soap opera called Lays of
- Our Dave."
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