Basic Black Comes Back

Naturally your RSVP staff is invited everywhere, and we have noticed a certain unsettling trend in invitation design: Half a dozen summonses to recent festivities feature envelopes and contents that are an unfestive, if not downright depressing, black.

Reminds us of some of our all-time favorite invitations--like the one to a “fun sail away cruise” to benefit a local health charity that specified, “WARNING: Guests may not bring alcohol, drugs, bottles or weapons on board.” Then there was the gala film premiere invite that promised guests would enter through police barricades and get to sit in an electric chair (declined, as was our invitation to the state prison groundbreaking ceremony with a picnic to follow).

Grave Matters

The optimistic weekend grosses for the new film “Thelma & Louise” may yet bode well for financially beleaguered MGM/Pathe--or maybe not. When comedian Taylor Negron heard that the film was the weekend’s fourth highest-grossing film, he commented, “Well, it’ll buy MGM-Pathe a beautiful casket.”

Calling Around

ESSENTIALS/What you need to maneuver the L.A. scene: Manual dexterity. Now that car phones are as common as floor mats, drivers are learning to juggle items like Cirque du Soleil performers. Favorite pairings: Talking on the car phone while drinking coffee, reading the paper, scribbling on a note pad, applying makeup, checking the map or sending angry signals to other drivers. No problem if you should happen to get into an accident; you can always call the police from your car phone.