If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity...

If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to cheer for an attorney, here’s your chance.

About 1,000 legal beagles will be chasing each other, not ambulances, in the third annual L.A. Law Games for charity July 14 at El Camino College.

To show that lawyers have a sense of humor--something you always knew-- participants in one 400-meter-relay event will carry briefcases instead of batons, according to publicist Jeff Kowalczyk.

While the charity event runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., you don’t have to worry about being charged hourly fees. Admission is free, courtesy of the sponsor, Johnnie Walker Scotch.

The line separating national leaders and pop stars seems more blurred than ever these days. Perhaps that’s why one radio broadcaster referred to the City Hall visit of “Willie Nelson . . . uh . . . Nelson Mandela.”

At the ceremonies for the anti-apartheid leader, it wasn’t surprising that the spectators booed Mayor Tom Bradley and City Councilman John Ferraro, who made speeches before Mandela. After all, the program started late, and it was hot.

“Put a real leader at the podium,” one grumpy onlooker cried as Ferraro spoke.

It wasn’t the first time that local politicos found themselves overshadowed when they tried to grab a share of the limelight at City Hall ceremonies honoring others.

Supervisor Ed Edelman’s speech at one Dodger celebration was interrupted by fans chanting “We want Fernando! We want Fernando!” They were upset over the absence of the Dodger pitcher. Finally, Edelman responded plaintively: “I can’t give you Fernando!” Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda grabbed the microphone and ordered the spectators to be quiet.

Then there was the Laker celebration where broadcaster Chick Hearn overlooked City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky among the dignitaries. Later, Hearn introduced him as “Zev Zevalosky.”

Freeway Spill du Jour: A load of L.A. Dodger game programs, which scattered across several lanes of the Hollywood Freeway Thursday. Sad part is, there was no game that night.

After he wrote an article about Santa Fe, N.M., The Times’ Richard Kipling received a call from a French restaurant owner who expressed dismay that he wasn’t mentioned.

The proprietor asked Kipling if he’d heard of Citrus, a trendy French restaurant in L.A. “Yes,” Kipling said.

“Well,” the owner boasted, “I am the Santa Fe equivalent of Citrus!”

“What’s the name of your restaurant?” Kipling asked.

“Nectarine!” the owner said proudly.

The winner of this week’s Dueling Traffic Signs competition is the pair near the corner of 1st and Spring streets. The accompanying photo was submitted by shutterbug and Superior Court Judge Lance Ito.

miscelLAny:

If you thought the heat wave brought out the bugs and critters this week, imagine the effects it might have had a century ago. When an Austrian archduke visited L.A. in 1876, he commented that “tarantulas are numerous.”