What to Do in a Tricky Spot? Laugh

The City of Hope has opted for comedian Garry Shandling rather than a musical performer at its $500-a-head Music and Entertainment Industry Chapter gala Sept. 28.

This is an annual dinner with major record-industry support (it’s expected to net more than $3 million) that traditionally has a band or singer headlining. With all the industry heavies in the crowd, it’s perceived as an ideal showcase for musical talent.

Part of the reason may have to do with the honoree: Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen and his L.A.-based company were in a widely publicized battle this summer with the band Pearl Jam over ticket service fees. There had been speculation that getting a band to play would have been a tricky situation.

But Bruce Resnikoff, chapter president, says: “Believe it or not, there are plenty of musical acts we could have had.”

A comic was chosen because “this is a crowd that tends to be jaded by music acts. I’ve seen them walk out. It’s a lot tougher to walk out on comedian than it is to walk out on a band.

“And another thing,” Resnikoff jokes. “If we had Pearl Jam, we were afraid they night ask us to reduce the ticket price.”

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The Prince’s Prints: He’s not exactly a starving artist, but Prince Charles is searching for an L.A. gallery to handle and display his art.

Anna Hunter, the prince’s art publisher, is in town looking for the appropriate space to display the royal watercolorist’s signed lithographs. Hunter is searching for a gallery that’s “suitable for the Prince’s visit . . . very smart and quite dedicated to selling prints.”

The lithographs come packed in a navy blue portfolio with the prince’s badge on the cover. They sell for $4,000 each with the proceeds going to charity. “It’s a lovely way to make a donation to a charity and get something special in return,” Hunter says.

Whether the prince will do any painting on his visit to L.A. this fall has not been determined.

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Hail to the Chief: Even though an acting career poses no clear and present danger to his position as artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum, Gordon Davidson was considered for the chief executive role in the current Tom Clancy novel adapted for the screen.

Even though he’s glad his friend, Donald Moffat, got the part (“He’s closer to the Reagan type than I am”), Davidson does voice one regret: “I could have been the first Jewish President.”

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No Pit for This Olive: The Olive, that cozy, unmarked Fairfax restaurant so dear to denizens of the night, will be closing temporarily in early October. It will reopen this spring at “a super double-top-secret location,” co-owner Sean MacPherson says.

MacPherson says the Olive’s new digs are “surprisingly nearby . . . spectacular and beautiful,” and “is a place people have seen hundreds of times and never realized is a potential restaurant space.”

The new site will be roughly the same size, although it will have a patio and a larger kitchen. Both the menu and the staff will stay virtually the same.