L.A.’s topless mayor: A bicycle-helmet company’s ad...

L.A.’s topless mayor: A bicycle-helmet company’s ad in California Active magazine pokes fun at Mayor Richard Riordan’s failure to wear headgear--and his choice of tight-fitting shorts--during a recent outing on a two-wheeler.

Created by Stein Robaire Helm for Giro, the spot prompted a Riordan aide to quip that in terms of public interest, “it’s getting so Riordan bike rides rank second to Clinton jogs.”

Certainly the ad wasn’t as barbed as the billboard displayed several months ago by a Chinese restaurant that took to task another L.A. official, then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates, for ignoring requests to resign. That billboard, touting the restaurant’s take-out food, said: “When You Can’t Leave the Office. Or Won’t.”

Although Jiro sent Riordan a helmet, the millionaire mayor didn’t need one. Following the publication of newspaper photos of the bare-headed bicyclist, the mayor’s aide said, “concerned citizens” have sent His Honor “about a dozen helmets.” We love a happy ending.

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But is she in a Nielsen household? Judge Stanley Weisberg cautioned jurors in the Menendez murder trial to be careful not to watch any TV show related to the case. He was referring to the Tom Brokaw-Katie Couric show, “Now,” which had taped an interview with suspense novelist Dominick Dunne, who is covering the drama for Vanity Fair magazine.

Defense attorney Leslie Abramson, though not under a similar court order, said she wouldn’t help the show’s ratings, either. Of Dunne’s credentials, she said: “I understand it’s being promoted as ‘inside the minds of the Menendez brothers,’ so I assume he’s taken up brain surgery as well as writing.”

Believe it or not, Dunne has written skeptically of the M&M; boys’ claims that they were the real victims in the multimillion-dollar home.

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It was no time to be swimming toward Japan: L.A. County lifeguard Greg Allen plunged into the water off Cabrillo Beach with his paddleboard to rescue a swimmer 300 yards offshore the other morning. But when Allen reached him, he found himself lost at sea. The reason: thick fog.

“It was eerie,” said Allen, a lifeguard for 30 years. “I couldn’t hear any surf. There was no swell. I couldn’t tell which way the current was going.”

Luckily his yells for assistance were answered by a woman who happened to be walking on the beach with her dog. And so the two were able to make it safely to shore on the paddleboard.

It’s unclear whether Allen knew the swimmer’s occupation. He’s a lawyer.

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Deadbeat update: The bearded panhandler, whose trademark is a sign that says, “Hell Why Lie I Want a Beer,” was recently spotted in Los Feliz. This follows sightings of the bearded gent in Topanga, Santa Monica, Anaheim, Pasadena and Colton. We presume it’s the same guy, unless he’s franchising the signs.

miscelLAny:

Judge Weisberg, who holds undergraduate and law degrees from UCLA, has designated the two sets of panelists in the Menendez trial the “blue” and the “gold” juries.