Not So Private Title

Hollywood executives have been tripping over themselves lately trying to cut a movie deal with radio shock jock Howard Stern, possibly to bring Stern’s raunchy autobiography “Private Parts” to the big screen.

Turns out there’s a complication. A Hollywood studio has previously released a film by that name, meaning that in all likelihood the name of any Stern film would have to be some kind of variation of his book’s title.

Studios encounter the problem frequently and usually opt for a similar title rather than pay for the rights to the original one. Recent films such as “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and “Geronimo: An American Legend” were so named because of the previous films “Dracula” and “Geronimo.” Likewise with “Kalifornia,” which was intentionally misspelled because “California” had been used.

In 1972, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film “Private Parts,” a bizarre comedy from offbeat director Paul Bartel, who later became known for such films as “Eating Raoul.”

Bartel’s film featured such touches as a character named Rev. Moon and an inflatable doll filled with water and blood.

MGM’s films from that era were sold by the studio as part of a library of the studio’s films bought by cable baron Ted Turner.

Not that MGM’s “Private Parts” was any great classic. Film encyclopedias and MGM histories note that the studio was so embarrassed that it released the movie quietly as a Premier Productions film instead of an MGM movie.

Star Struck in January

Santa Monica “Executive Astrologer” Paul B. Farrell is weighing in with his 1994 predictions, urging caution due to a rare 300-year planetary alignment next week.

Farrell’s advice for President Clinton on handling early 1994 problems: “Wait until February when your Mars is stronger.”

Yet Another Year-End List

For those who can’t get enough of year-end awards, here are our leftovers:

* “Isn’t that Paris in our back yard” award: “With its collection of clothing, lingerie, shoes, jewelry and other fashion stores, Hollywood Boulevard still lives up to its Golden Era reputation as ‘Style Capital of the World.’ ” (From the publication “Live on Hollywood.”)

* Best title of an economics working paper you’ll never read: “Tests of Microstructural Hypotheses in the Foreign Exchange Market” by Richard K. Lyons.

* “But isn’t that their job?” award: An Academy of Management Journal study concluded securities analysts “assess strategic moves made by companies more accurately than other experts do.”

Briefly . . .

Happy together: 1960s rock star Mark Volman of the Turtles has linked up with a Burbank company to market rock memorabilia. . . . Join the crowd: The Learning Annex is offering a course called “How to Start Your Own Cable TV Network.” . . . The Overpriced Stock Service newsletter on the Starbucks coffee chain’s New York expansion plans: “It has not been our observation that New Yorkers are particularly under-caffeined.”