People: What's Ike really got to do with it?

IT ISN'T true, says Ike Turner. The bandleader and former partner, in music and marriage, of Tina Turner denounced her new biographical film What's Love Got to Do With It, in which he is portrayed as a wife-beater and drug addict. 'That has to be the biggest lie ever told,' he said. 'It's a total fabrication. The only thing I put my foot down on was the music.'

Ike, who produced, arranged and sang on most of the couple's Sixties hits is portrayed as an angry, frustrated man who could only watch as his wife rocketed to stardom. He is shown repeatedly beating, raping and verbally abusing her until she finally leaves him after 18 years. Since Tina broke free, Ike has been in and out of trouble, including serving an 18-month prison stint on cocaine charges.

'I gave them the rights to be me in the movie, but I didn't know they were going to portray me that way,' he said. Ike said he found it hard to believe that Tina could make so many people think she was 'an innocent victim' in their marriage. He asks: 'What's love got to do with it? What's Ike got to do with it?'

IT ISN'T true, says Whitney Houston. The singer has sued the New York Post over reports that she overdosed on diet pills after becoming depressed by a weight gain during her recent pregnancy. Her angry denial came after she appeared at a gala performance for President Bill Clinton showing no signs of ill health.

'This report is a total fabrication and written with such malice that immediate legal action will be instituted,' said Houston's lawyer, Sheldon Platt. 'It is absolute nonsense for a newspaper to even allege that a person could be admitted to a coronary care unit with acute heart arhythmia, which is life threatening, and be released 90 minutes later.'

The Post reported that Houston had entered Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami, but the hospital said it had no record of the visit. According to Mr Platt: 'She has never taken a diet pill in her life. She's outraged. She's hurt.' She's asking for dollars 60m ( pounds 40m).

IT ISN'T true, says the Federal Aviation Administration. Bill Clinton's infamous haircut aboard Air Force One did not cause delays to air traffic at Los Angeles International Airport. The New York newspaper Newsday, which obtained FAA records through the Freedom of Information Act, said the 18 May haircut caused no significant delays of scheduled passenger flights. There were no circling planes and no traffic jams on runways, the paper said, adding that commuter airlines flying routes supposedly affected by the presidential trim confirmed they had no record of delays on that day.

The FAA records show that an unscheduled air-taxi flight was the only one delayed - and for just two minutes - by the closure of two runways for an hour in anticipation of Air Force One's departure.

IT IS TRUE, says Iraq's ruling party newspaper. George Bush was right about one thing, according to Ath-Thawra: the foreign policy skills of Bill Clinton. 'It's a fact: the US attack showed that Millie, Bush's dog, is better versed than Clinton in foreign policy,' the Baath party paper said, referring to Sunday's Tomahawk missile attack on the Iraqi intelligence headquarters in Baghdad.