Parker: CU student who likes Martha Stewart isn't easily discouraged

By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 15, 2005 at midnight

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Shawn Auer, the CU sociology student who unsuccessfully bid on a charity fundraiser chance to meet with Martha Stewart last month, is bidding again.

This time Auer's got his eye on a trip for four to meet Stewart, get a backstage tour and tickets to her show Martha. The trip also includes airfare, car service, hotel and lunch prepared by Stewart's TV chef Wes Martin. Proceeds from the auction item listed on eBay go to City Harvest, a New York City nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger.

But Auer isn't interested in cooking and crochet tips with the domestic diva; he's after the answer to one question: "Did you lie or not?"

The 30-year-old student is working on an honors paper seeking the answer from Stewart to that question, in the wake of her conviction for lying to investigators about a stock sale. She served five months in prison, but has never admitted to wrongdoing.

Last month, a similar auction item went for $9,000. Auer thought he had a shot, but his sponsors bailed after he received negative publicity from the New York Post, which called him "stalkerish" and a "Martha enemy."

As of late Wednesday afternoon, bidding on the City Harvest auction item had gone above $13,000.

Auer says he's lined up one sponsor willing to donate $2,500 (he won't name the source), but he's guessing bidding could go as high as $20,000 by the time the auction closes at 6 p.m. Friday (MST).

If he can raise enough dough, Auer and Curtis Love, president of the CU-Boulder chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, would like to go along for the ride. If you want to donate, e-mail Auer through his Web site: realmartha.com.

"I am not trying to hound somebody or be harmful," Auer insists. "In order to get attention to the question, you have to make a spectacle."

FLY ME: The reality series following Frontier Airlines flight attendants through training school is ready for take-off.

I wrote in July about the 18-week series called Flight Attendant School on the Travel Channel.

The half-hour show, which follows a flock of 40 attendants through training, debuts at 7 p.m. on Jan. 12, with a second episode at 7:30 p.m. The series will focus on eight trainees who live together.

Frontier follows in the flight path paved by Southwest Airlines on the A&E series Airline. Southwest starts flying out of DIA next month.

HOTEL HAPPENING: Mayor John Hickenlooper and assorted Hyatt execs will cut the ribbon at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday to officially open the 1,100-room Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. After the snipping ceremony, the hotel will be open to the public.

At 5:30 that evening, hizzoner Hick, Gail Klapper of the Denver Convention Center Hotel Authority and general manager John Schafer will flip the switch lighting the hotel, followed by a big-bang fireworks show.

THE SEEN: Rockies manager Clint Hurdle taking in jazz artist Madeleine Peyroux's concert Friday night.

EAVESDROPPING on a woman talking to a man at the Broadmoor Hotel: "I live in Highlands Ranch."

"I'm glad I got to know you before you told me that."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-892-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMountainNews.com.

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