Only a few miles from the off-ramps...

Only a few miles from the off-ramps of the Long Beach, San Diego and San Gabriel River freeways, The Automobile in Art Gallery would seem a natural for motorists.

If not necessarily for some art critics.

“I used to be told every time I approached a gallery with my automotive art that it wasn’t really art,” said Ricardo Rodriguez, an auto racing photographer who helped found the Long Beach gallery.

“I want to show that if an artist chooses an automobile as a subject, rather than a landscape, he shouldn’t be ignored.”

Rodriguez has assembled a collection of paintings, photographs, posters, historical memorabilia and sculptures ranging from Steve Posson’s bronze of a 1956 Mercedes ($6,000) to Eric Davidson’s Jaguar-engine table ($3,400).

It’s a walk-through, by the way, not a drive-through.

Smog depictions are absent though Rodriguez, a car fan, says he’s willing to “show automotive art in all its phases.”

But the gallery is showing a pre-automotive bronze by Hector Cadermartori. It’s a horse.

Does KNBC-TV anchorwoman Kelly Lange deserve a truth-in-journalism award for her ad lib about a lawsuit against Madonna by some dancers who appeared in the Material Girl’s movie, “Truth or Dare”?

Lange promised that KNBC would be “all over this story like a cheap suit.”

Investment adviser Steven D. Wymer, accused of a $100-million swindle of various customers, including the city of Torrance, made the latest list of “the 100 best money managers” issued by Nelson Publications.

The New York financial publisher’s list was put together before Wymer was indicted on 30 securities fraud-related counts.

A Newport Beach resident, Wymer was released from the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in L.A. on Friday after posting $600,000 bail. He can’t rush out and buy a copy of the publication, however. Not only was he ordered to wear an electronic surveillance device on his wrist or ankle, but Wymer is permitted to visit only his attorneys’ offices or go to church. Otherwise, he must remain within 150 feet of his telephone.

San Diego, apparently recovered from being rejected in favor of rival Pasadena for the 1993 Super Bowl, now says it will bid for the 1996 game. This time, San Diego officials no doubt will bring their own snacks.

You may recall that during their last effort, San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor was scolded when she entered a hospitality lounge at the NFL meeting in Hawaii and picked up four cookies.

“Don’t do that!” barked a woman at a nearby counter.

“But I’m the mayor of San Diego,” O’Connor said.

“That doesn’t make any difference,” the woman said. “These cookies are for NFL staff members. They’re not for anyone else.”

“Original Box of ‘Thing,’ ” says a for sale ad in the Hollywood Reporter, referring to the famous home for the disembodied hand in the “Addams Family” TV show. “Documented authenticity by Ms. Jackie Coogan.”

If you’re interested, you better hope that the Getty Museum doesn’t enter into the bidding.

miscelLAny:

A business travel survey of readers of Euromoney magazine ranked Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as the eighth best in the world and LAX as the 10th worst.