Battle Royal Takes Shape Over Lady Di’s Laundry

Diane Storoni says it’s just a business gambit, a display of the old-fashioned American entrepreneurial spirit. But the British consul general is not amused.

Storoni and her partner, Gennaro R. Marinelli, have just opened dry-cleaning establishments in Vista, Carlsbad, San Marcos and Encinitas.

The stores are called Lady Di Dry Cleaners and their slogan: “Cleaners to the Royal Family.” Stand back for culture clash.

After receiving a complaint from a North County resident of “commonwealth descent,” the consul general in Los Angeles sent a starchy letter to Storoni and Marinelli informing them that such unauthorized use of the royal name is frowned on as bad taste in the United Kingdom.

“We simply pointed out to them that, in Britain, it is usually thought to be inappropriate to use the Royal Family in any form of commercial solicitation,” said consulate spokesman Angus Mackay. “It’s been our experience that most nations follow that example.”

The Lady Di owners are not budging.

“I’m not ripping off anybody’s name,” said Storoni. “People have called me Lady Di for years, long before the Princess of Wales.”

As for the motto, Storoni added, “it’s our way of saying that all the families who send us their clothes are treated like royalty.”

The consulate may be even less happy once Lady Di starts its advertising campaign on radio. It features an impersonation of Margaret Thatcher.

Ripple on Lagoon

What is known is that a lot of beach residents and visitors don’t like the three big billboards sitting in the marshy shallows of San Elijo Lagoon, facing Old Highway 101.

What is generally not known is that the billboards sit on land owned by the San Elijo Lagoon Foundation, which receives money from lease payments and spends it on restoration and cleanup projects.

But now the billboards have caused a rift between two natural allies, the San Elijo Lagoon Foundation and Earth First!, the sometimes-radical environmental group whose slogan is “No compromise in the defense of Mother Earth.”

Earth First! members would like the foundation to renounce the billboard money as ecologically tainted, seek to have the billboards removed, and, at the very least, not renew the lease with Martin Outdoor Advertising.

“We think the signs are garbage, much like the other garbage that the foundation has had removed from the lagoon as environmentally damaging,” said Earth First! member Claude Mathis.

Foundation President Scott Englehorn retorts that the billboard company had an unbreakable lease when the property was deeded to the foundation five years ago. He declined to say when the lease expires and whether the group will renew it.

“We feel there are lots of needs for enhancement in the lagoon,” Englehorn said. “When we’re confident those needs will be resolved, then we might not need to continue our efforts. In the meantime, we need the money.”

Englehorn declines to reveal how much money the billboards fetch but says income from them provides the largest part of the foundation’s budget.

“We’d be the first to admit the billboards are not pleasant to look at,” he said. “But they do not provide significant negative impact on the resource except in terms of visual.”

Mathis said the Earth First! members who chopped down the signs two years ago were dismayed that the foundation allowed them to be replaced.

“People in the environmental movement need to be ethical,” he said. “You can’t condone something destructive to fund something positive.”

Englehorn finds the Earth First! position akin to the holier-than-thou stance of those who were aghast when the Audubon Society magazine began accepting advertisements about 10 years ago.

“I don’t see the big irony in what we’re doing,” he said.

Bidders Out of the Gate

The opening last week of bids to run the horse racing operation at the Del Mar Racetrack brought several surprises.

Marge Everett, operator of Hollywood Park, did not make her long-expected bid for part of the Del Mar action. Auto-painting magnate Earl Scheib, who has never run a race track, asked, at age 80, for a 20-year lease at Del Mar.

But the biggest surprise may have been the joint bid by the Nederlander Organization and Ogden Corp., which promise to revolutionize the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

Nederlander, the New York entertainment firm that runs the Greek, Pantages and Wilshire theaters in Los Angeles and an amphitheater at the Orange County fair, has promised to use an all-new grandstand at the Del Mar Fairgrounds for year-round concerts, not just during the 19-day fair.

“We’re talking Frank Sinatra, Lionel Richie, Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow, all top-notch,” said attorney Neil Papiano. “If anybody can do it, Nederlander can. They’ve done it for 30 years.”

A rival bidder may assert that the Nederlander bid is outside the scope of the official request for proposals. A public hearing is planned Aug. 23 at the fairgrounds.