Constrained Celebrity: An Alphabet (in progress)

"Absolute zero's one get-go,* albeit a bleak..."  

specs Alexis,** who's married with children and swears, "Yeah, I’m Greek.”   

     * Possibly the so-called Great Get-Go, 

often confused with the Big Bang.
     ** Zorba (AZ)
 
"Be yourself! (HO* whom else would you be…?" asks (rhetoric'lly) Boris.**  

"To be anyone else might cause Mother*** some serious tsoris."

     * Russian Cyrillics for 'but' and pronounced
(roughly) 'noh.'
     * Yeltsin (BY)
     *** Mother Russia, of course.
 
"Contemn xenophobes! Contemn..." Rhumba King Cugat* repeats.  

(Just as he would be treated, each stranger this vir bonus** treats.)  

     * Xavier (CX (reverso))
     ** What the good man does is always right –
or so (someplace) suggest the Brothers Grimm.
 
"Do without! Pledge thy pounds to the poor," warbles Dionne* (a song bird),  

though 'tis Bacharach (Burt) who will best teach her right word from wrong word.

     * Warwick (DW)  
 
"’Every valley exalted shall be; every rough place made plain...’:   

I would dance thee that text," Edward* vows, "but in Balanchine vein."

     * Villella (EV)  
 
"I’m fed up! UFOs, URLs, UXBs..." fumes our Felix.*

"In the end, all they yield is some abecedarial helix."

     * Unger (FU) 
 
"Gin and tonic plus juice of one lime: pour the lot over ice..." 

prescribes Gene.* "Good advice," echoes Gene.** "To: innocuous vice!" 

     * Tierney (GT) 
     ** Tunney (GT)
 
"He v she…? The distinction's ambiguous," challenges Holly.* 

So (s)he's Shlomo. Still, what's in a name…? 'So long, Sol; hello, Dolly.'

     * Sweet (HS) 
 
"I, Robot, rest my case," in tones Rumpolean

roars Irene.* "I'd rap it, were I Rock 'n' Rollean."

     * Ryan (IR) 
 
"John Quincey ain't the seventh Chief Exec," corrects Jose.*

"He's sixth, post James Monroe…but what the heck!" (More: what the 

hey!!)
     * Quintero (JQ) 
 
"Key personnel…? Kevin…? Paul…? Rajon…? Ray…?" Kendrick* wonders.

Then Perk's traded, which trade shall yet prove one of Bean Town's big blunders. 

     * Perkins (KP)
 
Leigh/Olivier,* Lunt/Fontaine. Which duo's dropp’d from the list

of great thespian pairs…? Jolie/Pitt…? LOL! THEY'D be miss'd…?

     * (LO) 
 
"Mach'avellian, not to say cynical: 'twas just her way..." 

muses Mike,* as he pegs one-time partner, the late Elaine May.

     * Nichols (MN) 
 
"Not much!" mutters Norman,* when asked if he liked married life. 

 "Good when naked, but less good when dead: much depends on the wife."

     * Mailer (NM) 
 
Ozymandias: "Look on my burg, Mr. Big, and despair!"

(Or Orlando*: "Give ear to my music...or not: I don't care.") 

     * Lasso (OL)
 
[PK: Percy Kilbride]
[QJ: Quincy Jones]
[RI: Robert Ingersoll]
[SH: Sam Houston]
[TG: Theodor Geisel]
[UF: Ugo Foscolo]                    
[VE: V. Emmanuel]
[WD: W. Demarest]
[XC: Claudio Ximenes (reverso)]                  
[YB: Yul Brynner or Yogi Berra]
[ZA: Zufer Avdija (NBA power forward 

and father of current Wizards player 

Deni Avdija]

Rat Dance: Chemical Paint Aerosol Sprayed Through Paper Stencil Onto Painted Salvaged Lumber For Miniature Decorated Baltimore Salt Box

7" x 3 1/4"