‘Bewitched’ statue OKd for Salem, Mass.

Three centuries after executing 19 people for sorcery, Salem, Mass., is getting a new witch. Town officials late Tuesday approved the installation of a 9-foot statue of broomstick-riding Samantha Stephens, who was played by Elizabeth Montgomery on the 1960s TV comedy “Bewitched.” The bronze statue, a gift from the cable rerun network TV Land, has divided residents, some of whom think it will be a moneymaking tourist attraction and others who worry it will trivialize local history. “It’s like TV Land going to Auschwitz and proposing to erect a statue of Col. Klink,” says John Carr, a former member of the Salem Historic District Commission. Mayor Stanley Usovicz supports the statue, which will be unveiled in June.