Lettuce for the prosecution: Chicago attorney Charles...
Lettuce for the prosecution: Chicago attorney Charles Biggam was outraged when he read that defense attorney Leslie Abramson was soliciting funds from the public for the murder retrial of onetime Beverly Hills resident Erik Menendez.
Biggam asserted that the defense of Erik and Lyle Menendez in the first trial for the shotgun killings of their parents was of the “butcher-is-a-victim” variety . . . “preposterous sophistry” that “could only be accepted as sensible by judges and jurors in Southern California.”
The attorney even went so far as to speculate that Angelenos may be addled by exposure to the sun, commenting, “The absence of spring, fall and winter must truly exact a dear price.”
Not content to offer words alone, Biggam sent the office of Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti a check for $50, terming it “my contribution to the Menendez Prosecution Fund.”
Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the financially strapped district attorney’s office, said: “We’re keeping the money.”
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As an artistic disaster, its magnitude was 9.5: KTLA (Channel 5) is pitching tonight’s rerun of “Earthquake” (1974) by saying, “We all felt it (the Jan. 17 quake). Now let’s see if Hollywood got it right.”
Actually, this L.A. doomsday film is an unintentional laugh riot, with its phony scenery and soap opera-ish plot, which includes Ava Gardner playing the daughter of Lorne Greene. She was actually all of seven years younger than Greene.
The movie ends with a quote from Lloyd Nolan’s character, who surveys what’s left of the City of Angels and observes: “This used to be a helluva town.”
Come to think of it, we’ve heard that line more than a few times in recent years.
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They work over furniture, not vandals: A Venice reupholstery shop displays a sign that says, “We Do Caning.”
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L.A. milestones: One hundred and twelve years ago Wednesday, The Times ran an article entitled “Police Pickings,” which reported: “There were four nymphs du pave arrested last evening about 9 o’clock on Los Angeles Street and charged with violating a city ordinance.”
Our thanks to historian Ralph Shaffer for sending us that story, as well as a subsequent clipping revealing that the women “were fined $20 apiece for carrying on their business.”
Some things never seem to change. Of course, such nymphs have long since moved their business away from Los Angeles Street to more prosperous areas, such as the paves du Hollywood.
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All they had to do was ask Bluto and Olive Oyl: You may have read that the owners of Popeyes Chicken and Biscuits chain were pressured by breast cancer survivors into taking down new billboards that said: “The Best Breasts in L.A. Without Plastic Surgery.” With a name like Popeyes, shouldn’t the restaurant chain specialize in spinach, anyway?
miscelLAny:
Hop Li Restaurant in Chinatown advertises “special vegetarian sweet and sour pork.”