How down and out is budget-strapped Beverly...

How down and out is budget-strapped Beverly Hills?

Well, some of its own natives seem to be shunning the once-glamorous city. Beverly Hills High’s class of 1950 recently held its reunion at the Center Club in . . .

Costa Mesa.

If the change of venue was an attempt to lure a certain graduate of that class to the festivities, the ploy didn’t work. Donald Bren, the Irvine Co.’s bachelor billionaire, didn’t show, a Center Club spokeswoman said.

This in-your-face basketball contest began more than two years ago in Encino--and the final buzzer still hasn’t sounded.

One afternoon in 1989, Michael P. Rubin demanded that his next-door neighbors--Kenneth R. Schild, and Schild’s son, Jonathon--stop playing basketball so that Rubin could take a nap.

They refused. Rubin, 37, a personal injury attorney, sprayed them with a hose. Schild, 48, a tax attorney, and his wife, Gail, sued Rubin for emotional distress.

Rubin and his wife, Yifat, countersued, saying that their basketballing neighbors had reduced the value of the Rubins’ house from $720,000 to a mere $612,000.

Rubin won a permanent injunction, limiting the Schilds to six hours of basketball. But a state appeals court recently lifted the injunction, advising Rubin that the noise could be reduced by, uh, “closing the window.”

Meanwhile, the two lawsuits will go to court--not the basketball kind--possibly this year.

And you thought you had problems.

Another one of life’s little inconsistencies:

A Times reporter phoned the Publicity Club of Los Angeles, an industry group, the other day and asked to speak with a press representative.

He was told that the Publicity Club has no publicist.

Dropped by the chef?

A menu board at the cafeteria in the Ronald Reagan Office Building announced this delicacy:

“ Bruised Ribs.”

Johnny Carson, noting that scientists say the average temperature on the newly discovered planet is 200 degrees below zero, quipped: “But’s it’s still having a better summer than Southern California.”

Maybe it’s time for the L.A. Chamber of Commerce to reassemble the outdoor stand that it used for this circa-1925 gag shot.

Department of Redundancy Department:

A sign at Holloway Cleaners in West Hollywood proudly states:

“Open 7 Days a Week, Sundays, Too”

miscelLAny:

With a top speed of 70 m.p.h., Six Flags Magic Mountain’s Viper is the third-fastest roller coaster. The pace-setter is the Steel Phantom in West Mifflin, Pa. (80 m.p.h.).