People and Events

It was another nationwide first for health-conscious Southern California: A no-smoking prison.

The only problem was that some inmates were afflicted with nicotine fits that turned into mini-riots.

So the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles has lifted its 4-month-old ban on smoking.

“They had to balance the absolutely legitimate interests of the nonsmokers and the absolutely legitimate interests of the smokers, who are addicted to a perfectly legal substance,” defense attorney Paul E. Potter said.

Smoking had been banned by Warden Margaret Hambrick since the December opening of the 1,069-bed, glass-and-stucco facility, which holds federal prisoners awaiting trial and sentencing.

Almost from the start, defense attorneys told of some inmates trashing their rooms while in the throes of tobacco withdrawal.

An additional complication was that the prison staff was allowed to smoke in restricted areas.

As for the tobacco-addicted inmates’ reaction to the lifting of the ban, attorney Potter said: “This certainly calms them down.”

Duran’s Photo Lab, whose outside sign proclaims its specialty as “Passport Photos,” got caught up in the spirit of the Easter season Friday by offering passers-by a chance to have their photos taken with a giant bunny.

It was up to the customers whether they wanted the bunny in their passport photo.

Hollywood, Calif., is finding that there are more Hollywoods in the country than you can shake a beret at.

The U.S. Patent and Trade office gave Tinseltown’s 14 name-alikes a 30-day extension to file their opposition to a trademark application that would give Hollywood, Calif., the licensing rights to hats, T-shirts, pens and other paraphernalia bearing the name.

City Atty. Maria J. Khiaro of Hollywood, Fla., said the latest rival to step forward was Hollywood, Pa.

Don’t take off that green yet.

A (Day After) St. Patrick’s Day parade, from 1st and Hope streets to City Hall, kicks off at noon today. (It won’t exhaust you--it’s only five blocks long.) Then, the rival Hollywood version heads west from the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue at 1 p.m.

And for those who don’t want it to end there, the mayor of Dublin will be here Wednesday to receive a St. Patrick’s Day resolution from the City Council. Why not until then? He went to New York first for that city’s parade.

It wasn’t just the many green sweaters at the Roosevelt golf course that gave away the fact that Friday was St. Patrick’s Day.

It was also Brian Harris, the starter at the Griffith Park course, speaking into the microphone with an Irish brogue and attaching an “O” to each player’s name.

At one point, Harris declared that if the “9 o’clock foursome” didn’t report to his window in the next minute, their reservations would be “O’Gone.”