Some like it not: For the past...

Some like it not: For the past two years, Cortney Page, a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, has posed for photos with tourists outside Mann’s Chinese Theater, asking only for a tip in return.

“This is my livelihood,” she said, breathlessly, “and I make a lot of Marilyn Monroe fans happy.”

Less happy are L.A. police, who informed her Thursday that it’s illegal to conduct a business on the sidewalk.

“There are panhandlers all over the place,” Page pointed out. “It’s not fair.”

She said another street merchant, who sold tourists pieces of wet cement that they could autograph, has already been pressured into ceasing operations. Page, however, vows to continue, at least until she gets her Big Break as an actress. (She has a role as Monroe’s ghost in a coming movie.)

“I’d like to work in an air-conditioned studio some day,” she said. “It’s hot on the sidewalk. I’m getting quite a tan--and Marilyn didn’t have one.”

At least we didn’t suggest the Lettermen: Regarding our mention of the new jukebox in a city library branch in Boyle Heights, Joseph Carnazzo writes: “You date yourself by suggesting kids would study to (the Beach Boys’) ‘Be True to Your School.’ Today’s kids study to ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana, a Seattle--not an L.A.--band.”

Obviously, he wasn’t wearing his robe: Eric Jacobson was standing outside the Federal Building during the Rodney King trial when he fell into a casual conversation with another bystander. “He told me he used to live in Burlingame and that he was going to drive across the country,” said Jacobson, a losing candidate for a Community College Board seat.

Jacobson didn’t think about the man again until he saw him on the evening news, scuffling with officers. It was Thomas Robb, a Ku Klux Klan leader.

“I’m Jewish,” Jacobson said. “Had he told me who he was, we would have had a much more serious encounter.”

Disputing the final score: We mentioned the other day that David Stenn’s biography of Clara Bow appears to put to rest the rumor that the It Girl slept with the starting lineup of the 1927 USC football team. The yarn appeared in Kenneth Anger’s “Hollywood Babylon.” Our item prompted a phone call from Anger, who defended his assertion. He said his source was none other than “the late (sex researcher) Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey himself.”

We wonder if Kinsey was a UCLA supporter.

Euphemism of the day: After wading through some L.A. City Housing Authority “documents and guidelines,” writes Art Vinsel, “I discovered that one doesn’t pay off his bills in this town. One becomes de-obligated .”

Delighted to hear it.

miscelLAny:

What parking facility will be the first in L.A. to break the magic $25 barrier? The maximum charge at the downtown California Plaza is now $24.75.