by Jeff Colbourne
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 10/97) - Northerners may be a fair distance away from the glamor and excitement of Hollywood but they still enjoy the gossip of the rich and famous.

That's judging from the reading material various residents pull from the magazine rack each day.

"Trash tabloids. We have em' all -- Enquirer, The Globe, Star, Soap Opera Weekly, National Examiner ...," said Warren Nekurak, general manager of Yamoria Grocery in Fort Providence.

"We always sell out of those things."

In addition to the tabloids, customers eat up People magazine, especially those with stories about the death of Lady Diana.

Romance magazines like True Confessions and True Love are also popular, said Nekurak .

Questioned why most people read these other types of magazines, Kekurak said it's because it's easy reading.

"It's mindless reading. It's like watching the Flintstones, it's easy to figure out the plot."

In Norman Wells, customers who shop for magazines at the Northern Store get their fill from People, Woman's World, True Romance and True Love and of course, the tabloids.

"There's a lot of women in town," said Marcy Lauchlin, magazine stock person for 18 months at the Northern Store.

The reason people turn to magazines, said Lauchlin, is because there's little else for them to do to keep entertained.

"People like to keep in touch with what's going on," she said.

Lauchlin estimates that the store sells between 15 and 20 People magazines a week and after the death of Diana, they couldn't keep it stock.

While most residents continue to stay well-versed about the goings-on in Hollywood, others remain in the dark, like in Igloolik for instance, where tabloids are as rare as Sorels on Sunset Boulevard.

"There's very little available in town in the way of magazines, except the Nunatsiaq News and in-flight magazines from the airlines," said Igloolik Co-op manager, Issac Gullage.

But Gullage is hoping to open up the tabloid magazine floodgates soon.

He recently put out an inquiry to Arctic Co-ops to ship the National Enquirer and other entertainment magazines to the community.

Gullage does manage, however, to get a few magazines of his own in Igloolik, including a couple of Newfoundland magazines and the Salvation Army's War Cry.

But he doesn't like to lend them out, he said.