People and Events
Wisecracks and negative stories concerning lawyers abound, of course.
In the new film “The War of the Roses,” actor Danny DeVito asks: “What do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?” Answer: “A good start.”
And DeVito plays an attorney.
To present the other side, the Beverly Hills Today daily newspaper began a series, “Great Deeds by the Attorneys.”
“We would be most grateful to receive any good news about good things the lawyers have done, and we promise to print them in this new column,” the publishers said in early December.
Days passed. No instances of alleged lawyerly good deeds were reported. The newspaper ran a blank box to dramatize its plea.
Finally, last week, the newspaper received--and published--its first submission, copy editor Chris Sharp said.
No need for L.A. barristers to feel smug, though.
“It’s about a lawyer in Orange County,” Sharp said.
In these contentious times, it’s heartening to see that the American Sunbathing Assn. has inducted Ed Lange, director of Topanga’s Elysium Institute, into its Nudist Hall of Fame.
A decade ago, tensions between Lange’s clothing-optional camp, the Sunbathers and the Free Beaches Documentation Center grew so heated that a Nude Recreational Summit Conference was convened in Topanga.
Elysium charged that the Sunbathers “all but ignored . . . free beachers (nude beachers) as . . . embarrassments.” The Sunbathers condemned the absence of a “no-touching policy” at Elysium. The Free Beachers rejected use of the term “nudists.”
The differences were symbolized at the opening session when Lange and the Free Beachers’ delegate appeared fully clothed, while the Sunbathers’ rep wore a T-shirt but no pants.
But that’s all water under the Jacuzzi now. In case you’re wondering, Lange is still a nudist. Unlike the Baseball Hall of Fame, the nudists don’t require candidates to be retired for five years before they’re eligible.
The Hollywood Connection:
If Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic of Redondo Beach runs against Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) on the Democratic ticket, it will be the only election in which each contestant had either starred in a movie or been the subject of one.
That is, until some mogul produces “The Walter Mondale Story.”
Kovic, of course, is portrayed by Tom Cruise in “Born on the Fourth of July.” Dornan had the lead role in “Starfighters” (1964), described by the Motion Picture Guide as a “silly war yarn,” in which Dornan, playing the son of a congressman, tries “to prove himself a worthy pilot in a squadron his father disapproves of.” That’s old Bob. Always the radical.
Mayor Tom Bradley says L.A. will have no pro football team if the Raiders head off to Oakland or Atascadero or somewhere.
Of course, there’s an Anaheim team that still calls itself “L.A.” And interest in the Rams-Giants game seemed high at a Wrightwood ski resort Sunday. Ski patrol members crowded into their shack at the top of the lift around a tiny TV screen while skiers waited outside for word of the outcome of the cliffhanger.
For the moment, shushes replaced schusses.
Speaking of football, happy 77th birthday to ex-Whittier College bench-warmer Richard Nixon. Yorba Linda, Nixon’s birthplace, has declared today a holiday. To show his gratitude toward Orange County, Nixon said in an interview before the Rams game Sunday that he was rooting for the Giants.