PERSONALITIES

Academy Award winner Cher, who has taken an active interest in working for the homeless, will be in town today, joining a march to support Mitch Snyder and his Community for Creative Non-Violence. (Cher is also here to promote her new perfume, Uninhibited, and to visit the Lab School.) Snyder, who is on another fast to protest cuts in housing for the homeless, said yesterday that Cher had called to volunteer to become part of today's demonstration after reading Saturday's story in The Washington Post about Carol Fennelly's seriously deteriorating condition during her water-only fast for the homeless, which is scheduled to end at noon tomorrow, its 48th day.

Snyder said Cher had become acquainted with Fennelly, Snyder's longtime companion, last year when the entertainer came to Washington to participate in CCNV's annual Christmas party for the homeless. She and her son worked on the line serving food to a steady stream of the homeless, several of whom had no idea that Cher was someone famous. This morning's march, which is also to be led by comedian Dick Gregory, peace activist Dr. Benjamin Spock, Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn and Top 40 deejay Casey Kasem, begins at the Capital City Inn, where the city has housed a number of homeless families, and ends with a rally at the Senate side of the Capitol.

Out And About

The National Geographic is celebrating its 100th anniversary year this month with a dinner and the presentation of awards to 15 scientists, adventurers and explorers, some of whom have become household names. All the honorees, representing disciplines from mountaineering to paleoanthropology to space, are to be at the Nov. 17 dinner in the Sheraton Washington Hotel. All have had long associations with the National Geographic. Among the National Geographic Society Centennial Award winners are the conqueror of Mount Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary; undersea explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau; searchers for traces of ancient man, Mary D. Leakey and her son Richard B. Leakey; primate behavior researcher Jane Goodall; and the first American to orbit the Earth, Sen. John Glenn ...

Oliver North isn't the only veteran of the Iran-contra scandal to pick up a bit of loose change on the speaking circuit. She may not get the $25,000 fee North gets, but his White House secretary/shredder, Fawn Hall, is also sharing in the wealth of notoriety. She was at Weber State College in Ogden, Utah, on Thursday and earned a tidy $4,000 for her little recitation ...

Last week marked another milestone for all those people who grew up watching "The Honeymooners" -- Art Carney turned 70. A winner of three Emmy awards for his portrayal of Ed Norton, Jackie Gleason's sewer worker neighbor and fellow lodge member, and the winner of a Best Actor Oscar for his role in the film "Harry and Tonto," Carney spent his birthday at home in Connecticut with his wife Jean ...

Bill Cosby, the wealthy, one-man entertainment conglomerate, has decided to share a substantial chunk of his earnings. He was in Atlanta Friday with his wife Camille to donate $20 million to Spelman College for a new academic center, the largest gift in the history of the black women's college. A daughter of the Cosbys' attended Spelman, and episodes of his hit series "The Cosby Show" have been filmed there. When the donation to the 107-year-old college was cheered loudly at Friday's inauguration ceremony for the new president, Johnnetta B. Cole, Cosby joked that the crowd should wait with the cheers since the center isn't built yet, adding, "I don't know how long it will take. All of the best intentions can be circumvented by some plumber" ...

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.