NAMES IN THE NEWS : Esquire Sums Up 1989 Follies: Fright, Blight and Troglodyte

‘Tis the season to count our follies.

The Dubious Achievement Awards of 1989 are out, courtesy of January’s Esquire magazine.

“Fright of the Year” goes to fallen hotel queen Leona Helmsley, “Blight of the Year” to the Batman logo, “Flight of the Year” to author-on-the-lam Salman Rushdie and banned baseball biggie Pete Rose wins “Troglodyte of the Year.”

“Invite of the Year” is awarded to Malcolm Forbes for his birthday extravaganza in Morocco, dubbed “Rich Mammals on Camels,” and the savings and loan industry receives the “Parasite of the Year” award.

The magazine commends John F. Kennedy Jr. for paying $2,000 in parking tickets before becoming an assistant district attorney in Manhattan and jibes Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Tex.) for rejoining all three of the exclusive clubs he resigned from during the 1988 presidential campaign.

Donald Trump’s plans for a new television game show called Trump Card are termed “One Reason to Go On Living.”

For its part, this week’s People magazine weighs in with a “Field of Bad Dreams.”

“Zsa Zsa Gabor struck out swinging,” People said, and “Jim Bakker and Leona Helmsley complained loudly about the umpiring as they were thumbed out.”

The magazine commends actor Rob Lowe for “his career in the minors” and “Silent Sam,” former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel Pierce, who “went quietly, humming the Fifth Amendment all the way to the lockers.”