Entertainment news for June 27, 1997

For when you care enough to send the very…weirdest, Gibson Greetings has just launched a line of cards based on the July 2 alien combat film, Men in Black. But don’t look for birthday wishes from Tommy Lee Jones or Will Smith. These greetings star cute extraterrestrials only. Featuring such alienesque salutations as ”Earth? It’s not so bad once you get used to the smell. Happy birthday,” the four different cards are aimed at — big surprise — a twentysomething audience. ”The way people communicate now, particularly Gen-Xers and baby boomers, is through shared experiences,” says George White, general manager of Gibson’s alternative-market division. And since MIB could lure record numbers to the multiplexes, he says, images from the film are bound to become just that. Gibson has also issued tie-in Lost World cards and plans a series for Fox’s upcoming animated musical Anastasia. Now well-wishers can live by this credo: Never say for yourself what a darling dino, ‘toon, or spaceman can say for you.