People and Events

Call it the Post Office to the Stars. Naturally, it’s on the Westside.

One wall of the Rancho Park station’s lobby on Pico Boulevard is festooned with photos of celebrities, ranging from actors Bruce Willis and Julie Andrews to Olympic triple-jumper Willie Banks.

“We’re trying to bring the Postal Service and customers a bit closer,” explained Jeanette Walker, whose job title is “lobby director.” “This (display) gives the people who complain about waiting in line something to look at.”

Walker said the star section was a natural because “we have quite a few celebrities come through here.” She kicked off the tribute a few months ago by asking comic Marty Allen and Banks to contribute their mugs.

Other celebrities’ agents and managers couldn’t help but notice. “Someone from (television’s) ‘Moonlighting’ gave us Bruce Willis,” Walker said. “One of Julie Andrews’ managers sent hers.”

The star shots stand across the room from the more traditional wanted posters that feature felons on the lam.

Is there any danger that a newly arrived photo might end up in the wrong display?

“Oh, no,” Walker said. “The stars autograph theirs.”

Strike up the theme from “Psycho”:

Bathroom baritones, sudsy sopranos and others in need of a bath will compete in a singing-in-the-shower contest at Universal City this weekend. First prize is $5,000 from a soap company.

The 50 contestants, who won preliminary competitions around the country this summer, will warble under an actual shower spray in a tub on stage before Universal Studios Tour visitors Saturday.

Nothing to shock the folks back home, though. The singers will be costumed.

A flight aboard the Goodyear airship Columbia, a lunch with “Golden Girls” television star Estelle Getty and a pair of Ben Vireen’s shoes are among the prizes that will be auctioned off Thursday night at the Beverly Hills Hotel to benefit the California Special Olympics. The bidding will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

It’s the television show that sounds like the answer to every kid’s dreams--”Homework Hotline” on KLCS-TV (Channel 58).

But the call-in program, which runs weekdays from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. beginning Monday, doesn’t actually do the homework of puzzled or lazy pupils, director Bart Brown said. “Our tutors and teachers try to guide callers into using the correct procedure for their particular problems,” he said.

However, when adults call, they’re handled differently.

“We heard from a guy who was trying to work out some problem in designing his garage last year,” Brown said.

He added: “We gave him the answer.”

The world’s second-biggest diamond, a 3-ounce trinket worth about $20 million, was put on display in Beverly Hills on Tuesday. Christie’s will auction it off Oct. 19 in New York. If you can’t be there, you can phone in a bid.

When the school opened 85 years ago:

--Some students arrived by mule and by horseback. Those who trudged there on the dirt roads and cattle trails picked pineapples on the way.

--Surrounding farmers in the little cow town termed the $67,000 structure “a ridiculous piece of extravagance.”

--A school morals guide warned, “There are two forms of saying farewell: ‘goodby’ and ‘good night.’ Do not say ‘ au revoir .’ ”

--There was no drama class.

Source for the above: A new book, “Hollywood High: the History of America’s Most Famous Public School,” by John Blumenthal.

Hollywood: where even the schools have biographers.