Recall the Iron Man? Hermosa Beach City...

Recall the Iron Man? Hermosa Beach City Councilman Bob Benz is still receiving negative reviews for his part in a July cable TV production. It was a video of an unusual July 4 “Iron Man” competition in which participants were required to run a mile on the sand, paddle a surfboard a mile, then chug-a-lug a six-pack of beer without vomiting.

“A typical beach party,” said Benz, 32. “It’s been a tradition in Hermosa for 12 years.”

A local school board member recently chided Benz in a letter as a bad role model who showed no remorse over drinking on the beach, which is illegal.

A fellow council member threatened to have the L.A. County district attorney investigate him. Citizens are talking of recalling him.

Benz, who finished second in the competition (and did not vomit), claims that the drinking segment was held on the beach because the event’s hostess became too sick to hold it at her house. Rather than apologize, Benz said he and a friend have joked about marketing an “Own Your Own Iron Man” video on cable.

The councilman calculated that a recall drive would require 3,200 signatures to make the ballot. “I don’t know if there are that many people who hate me,” he mused.

Silver Lake’s trudge of fame: Though it’s a city of motorists, L.A. does offer a few illustrious stairways, including one stretch that starred in the 1932 Academy Award-winning comedy, “The Music Box.” That’s the movie where delivery men Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy get themselves into another fine mess. They have to lug a piano up 131 steps above Vendome Street, with predictably disastrous results.

Now, a group of preservationists and Laurel and Hardy fans are holding a stairway fund-raiser--a benefit showing of the boys’ old movies, beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday at the nearby Vista Theater. Price of admission: $5.

The fans hope to put a plaque at the base of the historic stairway.

Is there such a thing as an international warning symbol for piano-moving?

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Some dry wit: At a peace celebration attended by members of the Jewish and Arab communities at the Four Seasons Hotel the other morning, Don Bustany issued an unusual thank you.

Bustany, the president of the local American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said:

“I’d like to thank the staff of the Israeli Consulate for not throwing water down on my head when I was demonstrating outside so many times.”

miscelLAny:

We hear much negative comment about lawyers but here’s a tribute, of sorts. The athletic teams at Marshall High School in Los Feliz proudly call themselves the Barristers.