TOM VS. TOM: When county GOP Chairman...

TOM VS. TOM: When county GOP Chairman Tom Fuentes’ wife recently gave birth to a boy, Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) set politics aside to send him a handwritten congratulatory note--saying “children are a wonderful blessing.” Fuentes’ response: “I find that comment highly duplicitous in light of your public advocacy of abortion. . . . Frankly, I would much prefer that you at least be consistent in your public posture and your personal greetings.” . . . For fun, Umberg had sent the newborn a voter registration form. Fuentes did not return it.

TOUCH OF SENTIMENT: Laurel L. Wilkening will be formally inaugurated today amid much pomp and circumstance as UC Irvine’s third chancellor. And she’ll be wearing something special for the momentous occasion. . . . “It’s a diamond ring that’s been in my mother’s family for many years and was given to me on my 21st birthday,” she says. Wilkening adds that she has found preparation for today “very much like a wedding.”

STARS’ BUDDY: Roddy McDowall’s acting career has spanned six decades, and he has the pictures to prove it. The shutterbug will lunch at the Balboa Bay Club next Thursday with the Round Table West literary group (OC LIVE! P. 14) to promote the fourth volume of his “Double Exposure” books of celebrity photographs. . . . McDowall says no particular era has a lock on celebrity: “I think the reason people become successful--whatever time it is--is originality.”

CAPTAIN IDOL: Ray Wyman Jr. gave up his advertising agency in Orange to spend three years on a book about the legendary comic book writer Jack Kirby, now retired. Kirby had co-created “The Incredible Hulk,” “Captain America” and dozens of other major comic book characters in his 52-year career. The result of Wyman’s efforts: “The Art of Jack Kirby” (E1). . . . Making money wasn’t a primary concern for him and his backers, Wyman says: “We really wanted to get this book done because we felt Jack Kirby deserved it.”