‘Cheers’ to Woody’s Venture

“Cheers” audiences might not be surprised that Woody Harrelson (who plays Woody Boyd, the show’s naive Indiana farm boy) is investing in a new company that makes round beach towels. He liked the offbeat idea, he says. As the sun moves across the sky on summer afternoons, Harrelson explains, “people don’t have to move the towel and get sandy; they just change directions.” Hmmm. Don’t think too hard about the actual energy savings there. Harrelson says the towels measure six feet in diameter, go by the name SunSpot and come with a standard rectangular beach towel, “for drying off.” Oshman’s carries them. For other stores, Harrelson is giving out a toll-free number, (800) 24 TOWEL. Cute?

Chris Loves Competition

Tennis star Chris Evert just entered the cosmetics competition with a skin and hair-care collection called Active Life. The line includes cleansers and moisturizers to be sold at chain drugstores starting in September. Can the tennis pro who has a lifetime record of 91% victories get this one over the net? The pressure’s on.

Photographer With a Cause

Dennis Hopper will sign autographs at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Sept. 12, but not on movie posters. He’ll be inscribing his photography book, “Out of the Sixties,” filled with pictures he’s been taking for the past 20 years of the art crowd and others--David Hockney, Jasper Johns, Paul Newman. Hopper says he got the idea while he was making “Rebel Without a Cause.” James Dean suggested the shutterbug habit after he heard what Hopper really wanted to be when he grew up--a director.

Order From ‘L.A. Law’

Corbin Bernsen, the Emmy-nominated actor from “L.A. Law,” dropped in at Fred Segal, Melrose, recently to get his hands on the latest shipment of Go-Silk sportswear. Menswear manager George Grimball tells Listen that Bernsen bought three baggy pirate shirts, in mustard, eggplant and blue, as well as some cream-colored slacks and an Eisenhower silk jacket in olive green. He wears the stuff with his Converse sneakers, notes Grimball. That same Eisenhower jacket caught the eye of singer Lionel Richie a couple of days later, and the entertainer bought the jacket in both royal blue and black. “He couldn’t make up his mind which color looked better on him,” said Grimball.

Color Them Red and Black

Listen to what Benetton people do, according to their latest publicity: They stroll along Via Veneto, backpack in the Rockies, shop the Ginza, sail on the Aegean. They throw parties at Spago too, like last week’s fragrance launch. The perfume is called Colors, so who would want to be seen in just your basic black? Not Benetton’s European female contingent, who stole the show with their outstanding tans and sexy garden-party prints. Italian actor Roberto d’Agostino was no slouch either, in his red tuxedo. Red was the primary color attached to Sally Fischer’s dress, which the New York publicity director quickly identified as a Patrick Kelly creation. The black, sleeveless cotton knit was festooned with red bandannas held in place by little heart-shaped rhinestone pins. Still on the subject of fashion, Fischer gave a detailed description of Diane Keaton, whom she’d seen dining with Al Pacino the night before at Osteria Romana Orsini on Pico Boulevard. According to Fischer, Keaton looked fabulous in a tight red-and-black suit, huge black hat, black boots and white anklets.

Later, ‘Gator

We heard, via New York, that Ralph Lauren had come up with “the ultimate driving shoe.” This, we realized, was something Angelenos would want to know about. So we phoned Tim Tattersall, on Lauren’s New York footwear team. He told us the shoes, in men’s and women’s styles, have an all-around exterior of brown American alligator, including the soles. The interior lining is butter-soft leather. On the ball of the foot and at the heel are cushiony rubber driving pads. The alligators come from Louisiana, and can be hunted only twice a year, for four days at a time. This makes them much more rare and therefore much more pricey than South American or New Guinea crocodiles, of which many fine shoes are made. The driving shoes won’t be in the new Lauren shop here until October, and they will cost about $930 for women, $1,000 for men.