In hopes of capturing an interview with tabloid queen and Olympic silver-medalist Nancy Kerrigan, unauthorized camera crews and reporters descended on Bright Hockey Center last night for the Eliot House ice skating charity An Evening With Champions.

But they were turned away by event staff, house volunteers and, when things promised to get ugly, Harvard police.

Like pigs to mud, the media came to Harvard after the Boston Herald reported that Kerrigan is involved an affair with her agent, Jerry Solomon, which allegedly led to the end of his marriage.

The National Enquirer also faxed media outlets last week to say it would run a story calling Kerrigan a "homewrecker."

At first, the event coordinators and staff said they didn't know what to make of the day-long media assault, which began at the skaters' private morning practice.

"We didn't expect anyone to show up on Friday morning," said entertainment manager Danielle J. Belanger '95, who was helping to set up for the performance.

"We were busy with the show when a Current Affair or Hard Copy--that type of show, I'm not sure which one--got into the rink and Joe, the full time rink manager, had to ask them to leave."

Like rink staff, event coordinators said they were unprepared for the tabloid press' aggressive interest in Kerrigan's personal life.

"We were too busy on Friday morning to read the newspaper," said Lee D. Sossen '95, a co-chair of the benefit. "We first found out about it at about one that afternoon when [co-chair Chelsea A. Morroni '95] got a phone call from Entertainment Tonight."

The harried coordinators said they were talking in Evening With Champions' office in the basement of Eliot House when the phone rang.

"She said she wanted to come over and talk to us about the show sometime that afternoon, so we scheduled an interview between 1:30 and 2 p.m.," Morroni said.

Morroni, Sossen and the third co-chair, Mark T. Rosen '95, said they were initially delighted at the prospect of national publicity for the fundraiser.

"We were psyched," said Rosen. "How great would a spot on Entertainment Tonight be for the show?"

Morroni said she excitedly agreed to the interview, and the three co-chairs headed to the Eliot House courtyard.

"I happened to ask if there would be a specific theme for the interview," Rosen said. "And that's when [the reporter] started asking about Nancy Kerrigan. What she was like, if she was actually having an affair, if they could talk to her."

The co-chairs said they were stunned by the reporter's intentions.