MISSING IN ACTION: When the Lakers played...

MISSING IN ACTION: When the Lakers played the Cavaliers recently at the Forum, one of the fans screaming loudest for the home team was none other than Chrissie Hynde, prompting the inevitable “whatever happened to” question.

Hynde’s last album with the Pretenders, 1990’s “Packed,” made barely a commercial ripple, and the fact that the group still exists at all may be a surprise to some. Hynde is the only remaining original member of the group that was one of the most successful acts of the ‘80s post-punk explosion.

Two original Pretenders, guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon, died of drug overdoses after just two albums, while drummer Martin Chambers left following a creative clash with Hynde in 1986. Yet Hynde has kept using the band name rather than go officially solo.

Though Hynde is 40 and has sometimes seemed more interested in recent years in playing mom than guitar (she has two daughters), she has been living in London and preparing a new album for Sire Records, which expects to release it later in the year. Sire General Manager Howie Klein said that he’s heard three songs from the new album and swears they’re “tremendous.” He also said the group will tour, something it did not do to support “Packed.”