OSCAR JR.: The Vietnamese Movies and Television...

OSCAR JR.: The Vietnamese Movies and Television Assn. is being revived with its first shindig at the Thu Do Theater on Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove tonight. It’s been dead since the 1975 exodus out of Vietnam. . . . “It will be like a Vietnamese Screen Actor’s Guild,” says Catherine Ai, actress and one of the organizers. “It helps preserve our culture.” The group has even had its own statuette, like an Oscar. Tonight’s kickoff will include pep talks and clips from old Vietnamese movies.

PULLED THE PIN? Washington journalists Jack Germond and Jules Witcover partly blame George Bush’s defeat on negative campaigning in their new book, “Mad as Hell, Revolt at the Ballot Box 1992.” . . . . One example: a Bush appearance in Orange County, when he let “hand grenade specialist” Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) accuse Clinton of “throwing darts and drinking ale” in an Oxford pub while young men died in Vietnam. The veteran journalists write: “Bush himself was careful to leave the personal shots at Clinton to such surrogates.”

DRINK TO IT: Remember two weeks ago when a transient hijacked a county bus and then stopped off to quench his thirst with a little booze at the Swallows Inn? Steve Nordeck, owner of the landmark San Juan Capistrano establishment, wasn’t about to let that one pass by. . . . He’s made up bumper stickers that say “Take a Bus to the Swallows Inn.” Says a spokeswoman: “Our customers just love ‘em. We’re almost out already.”

WHEELS OF JUSTICE: Members of Orange’s 6-month-old police bike patrol can pedal on the city sidewalks with a clean conscience--finally. . . . Turns out, officials learned, it was against the law to ride a bike on the sidewalks in Orange, even if you’re a police officer. The city council this week amended the rules to make them an exception. Did the bike patrol really fear their fellow officers would give them a ticket? Says Police Chief John R. Robertson: “I’ve seen things like that happen before.”