Make my day, darling:You couldn’t blame Shelley...

Make my day, darling:

You couldn’t blame Shelley Gilad for getting wrapped up in the movie at the Mann’s Valley West theater in Tarzana. After all, a character on the screen was speaking to her.

It was boyfriend Ron Graening, delivering a 40-second marriage proposal. A 25-year-old graphic artist, Graening had taped the short subject in his back yard and arranged to have it shown before the start of the regular feature.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” it began. “Excuse the brief interruption, but I’d like to speak to the lady I love. . . .”

Gilad, a 25-year-old dental office manager, was stunned. But not too stunned to say yes afterward as Graening slipped a ring on her finger. The house lights came on and the audience cheered.

“It was a real neat experience,” Graening said, laughing. “She was really embarrassed.”

Not your usual hood ornament:

Sure, it felt like a summer Sunday. But CHP officers on the Harbor Freeway put an end to the sun-worshiping of a young woman, clad in shorts, who was sitting on the hood of a car. What really caught the officers’ attention was that the car was moving about 55 m.p.h. at the time.

Amateur Hour:

KNBC (Channel 4) broke for a news teaser at 7:59 p.m. Saturday night and viewers were treated to a shot of an empty newsroom for 20 seconds. No one ever appeared on camera. Fittingly, the blooper occurred at the close of Fred Roggin’s funny home-videos show.

It didn’t quite rank up there with the time last year when KCBS’ Jim Lampley opened the news by saying, “Good evening, I’m Bree Walker.” But it was quite an oversight by Channel 4. Unless, unless . . . it was a training exercise for earthquake coverage and anchorman

Kent Shocknek was under the desk again.

What chemistry class, Dad?:

You know how forgetful kids can be. Just in case it slipped the mind of any students at Birmingham High, the high school’s marquee recently informed parents:

“Report Cards Are Out.”

The other day we mentioned that Art Fein’s “L.A. Musical History Tour” recounts the story of Janis Joplin supposedly hitting Jim Morrison over the head with a Southern Comfort bottle at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood.

Reader Steve Morris phoned to say that he’d heard another rocker, David Crosby, tell interviewer Bob Costas that Crosby was present when the beaning occurred--at a party at John Davidson’s house in the Hollywood Hills.

Of course, considering the individuals involved, there’s no reason why Joplin couldn’t have conked Morrison at both locations. . . .

miscelLANY:

The Watts Towers are covered by more than 70,000 seashells.