FRONT-ROW SEAT: Chris Bancroft of Anaheim was...

FRONT-ROW SEAT: Chris Bancroft of Anaheim was well aware how many millions were watching the O.J. Simpson preliminary hearing last week--they were watching it through his camera. . . . Bancroft, 31, a graduate of Magnolia High School and Cal State Fullerton, operated the courtroom camera--and decided the angles--for Court TV. Says Bancroft: “I covered the Menendez trial, and I thought that was a big deal. But this was a big deal. I could feel the responsibility. Fortunately, from the responses we got, I guess I did OK.”

NOT A BESTSELLER? Galal Kernahan of Laguna Hills Leisure World recently sent a postcard to the state’s Legislative Bill Room, requesting a current copy of the California Constitution. It was returned with this message: “Out of Print.”. . . . “I find it disturbing that the state is operating without its owner’s manual,” Kernahan joked. The Bill Room does have copies now, or you can get one from the secretary of state’s office.

MIKE SCHOOL: ESPN’s Roy Firestone has had numerous accolades heaped upon him as a top TV sports interviewer. So when he agreed to teach a session on broadcasting skills in the annual Sportscaster camp run by Roy Englebrecht, above, Firestone’s topic, of course, was interviewing. The camp--Englebrecht’s 10th annual--opens today at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Irvine and runs through Sunday. One of its 100 participants: former NBA star Walter Davis, who’s preparing for a broadcast career.

STILL AT IT: If you’ve ever taken a tourist bus in Washington, D.C., one of the stops is the famous monument “Flag Raising on Iwo Jima,” just across the Potomac River in Arlington, Va. The 78-foot-high sculpture is the most famous of 1,200 commissioned pieces by Felix de Weldon. Close friend Ellen Turnbull of Laguna Niguel says of Weldon, now 77, “He’s still sculpting!” And reminiscing. . . . The artist speaks this morning at the Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club at a gathering arranged by Turnbull.