Hipper Clippers

As anybody with a TV set must know by now, everybody who is anybody has courtside seats for the Lakers home games--but Hollywood wattage has been pretty dim at Clippers contests.

Until now.

Perhaps buoyed by the basketball team’s promising rookie draft choices, such stars as Billy Crystal, Arsenio Hall and O.J. Simpson have been on the phone trying to score front-row tickets. (Courtside seats run $65 apiece vs. $150 for similar Lakers seats.)

“Actually, I wanted tickets last year, but I’d done some Clippers jokes on ‘The Tonight Show,’ so I didn’t think it was a good time to be asking,” said Arsenio Hall.

Does Hall really think the Clippers are ready for Showtime? “I know they’ve been bad--I mean, Norm Nixon has been breaking his ankle every year just so he didn’t have to play on that team. But this is a beginning for them. . . . “

You might say Hall is still hedging his bets. He’ll be courtside at the Forum tonight, coaching one of the all-star teams in Magic Johnson’s 3rd Midsummer’s Night Classic, a charity exhibition benefiting the United Negro College Fund.