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Big Blue Disk 57
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YOUCANT.TXT
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1991-05-09
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4KB
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80 lines
|E╔════════════╦══════════════════════════════════════════╦════════════╗
|E║ |5Diskussion|E ║ ^1 I Didn't Know You Could Do That |E ║ |5Diskussion|E ║
|E╚════════════╩══════════════════════════════════════════╩════════════╝
^Cby
^CDan Gutman
^CCOMPUTING STYLES OF THE RICH & FAMOUS
Charlton Heston calls his Toshiba laptop computer "Igor." His NEC
UltraLite is named "Cleo." And his desktop computer is called
"Aggie."
Fawn Hall's NEC MultiSpeed is "Emily." The Macintosh used by Tawny
Coverdale of the heavy metal band Whitesnake is "Charlie." William
F. Buckley has no name for his computers, preferring to think of them
as very non-living tools.
This vital high-tech information comes from Mark McIntire, known
throughout Hollywood as "Computer Guru to the Stars."
McIntire (who has a Compaq named "Eleanor" and an NEC UltraLite named
"Carlyle") goes to celebrities' homes, sets up their computer systems
and shows how to use them.
In addition to the famous names above, he has worked with Richard
Dreyfuss, Debbie Reynolds, Nicholas Cage and Neil Simon's wife. He is
currently talking to Barbara Bush (who wrote her bestseller "Millie's
Book" on a laptop).
"My services are mostly for people who are too busy to read books and
manuals," he says. "They need somebody to come to them and get them
around the corner quickly."
"He's an absolute genius with computers," raves William F. Buckley.
"I pay him a lump sum each year and he simply does everything."
McIntire charges $125-$150 an hour for his services. Pretty
reasonable, considering the clientele. But as he puts it, "I don't
discriminate against people because they're rich and famous."
I asked McIntire why somebody like actor Nicholas Cage ("Peggy Sue
Got Married," "Moonstruck") would need a computer consultant.
"He called me up and said, 'I'm about to write a movie script and I
need a screenwriting program.'" McIntire went over to Cage's
Hollywood apartment and set him up with a program called "Movie
Master" on a Toshiba 1200 laptop.
Cage learned exceptionally fast. He had never touched a computer
before, but after two sessions he was already working on his script.
I asked the same question about Fawn Hall, Oliver North's secretary
who became an instant celebrity during the Iran/Contra hearings.
"It was kind of a movie script meeting," McIntire recalls. "I drove
up the Pacific Coast Highway to Malibu. The ocean was on the left and
the sun on the right. I arrived at her beachhouse. The waves were
crashing under the building. And there's Fawn Hall! I said to myself,
'This has got to be a movie. Somebody's filming all this.'"
It would have been a pretty dull film, however. Hall, who goes around
the country giving speeches, simply ushered him inside and led him to
her laptop computer, which was having some problems.
"She was trying to run Wordperfect on a dual floppy NEC Multispeed and
print it out on a Diconix 150 printer," he explains, shaking his head.
"Can you believe?!"
It can be awe-inspiring to be face-to-face with celebrities, but
McIntire reports they're usually quite businesslike. "When I arrive,
they don't think of themselves as famous and important and above it
all," he says. "It's 'Hi, how are you? Let's get to work.'"
By now, McIntire's name has gotten around the jet set and he's become
pretty famous himself as Computer Guru to the Stars. In fact, when he
met Richard Dreyfuss for the first time, the actor walked up to him
and said, "I recognize YOU."
"Excuse me, Mr. Dreyfuss," McIntire responded, "but that's MY line."