Saigon Duck: If you’re having trouble making...

Saigon Duck: If you’re having trouble making reservations at Wolfgang Puck’s famous eatery in West Hollywood, you’ll soon have an alternative--in Ho Chi Minh City. A restaurant named Spago, filled with paintings of Hollywood stars such as Marilyn Monroe, is being erected on busy Dong Khoi Street.

All of which comes as news to Puck.

“We hear of people using our name from time to time,” said Tom Kaplan, one of Puck’s partners. “It’s happened in several countries--Germany, France, Canada and Sweden, to name a few. But it’s difficult to do anything about it because the laws differ and it might wind up costing you a tremendous amount of money.”

As for us, we can’t believe the nerve of the owners of the Saigon Spago. Especially when they haven’t even sent

us an invitation to the opening.

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From dueling Spagos to dueling Elvi: The Flying Elvi are suing the Flying Elvises over who has the right to don costumes of the King and dive out of airplanes.

Richard Feeney, manager of the Flying Elvi, claims he came up with the marketing concept prior to 1990--before the Flying Elvises were formed.

But Elvises member Mark Miscevic contends in a suit filed in Las Vegas that the producers of the 1992 movie “Honeymoon in Vegas” originated the concept.

The Elvises say the Elvi do not have the permission of Presley’s estate. The Elvi contend that the estate owns no rights in this case “because during his lifetime, Elvis Presley did not perform as a sky diver.”

Complicating the picture is the fact that some Elvises were previously Elvi. Or is it the other way around? Sorry, we’re sort of lost in space.

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But did he hire Bob Shapiro?Publicity-wise, USC’s image hasn’t been enhanced by the doings in the Criminal Courts Building--or in Pershing Square. The recently refurbished park has a wall with an engraved passage from “Southern California Country,” in which author Carey McWilliams describes a day in that area in the 1920s:

“In front of the (Biltmore) hotel, newsboys were shouting the headlines of the hour: an awful trunk murder had just been committed; the district attorney had been indicted for bribery . . . a University of Southern California football star had been caught robbing a bank . . .”

We never got our day in court: When the L.A. Trial Lawyers Assn. announced that it was searching for a new name to enhance its image, we appealed to readers to help out. Eventually, we recommended the entry of Tom and Lisa Burkdall, who suggested the appropriately solemn title, Earnest Attorneys Trying in Los Angeles (EATLA, for short).

The result? We were ignored. Instead, the group chose Consumer Attorneys Assn. That’s Consumer, not Consuming .

miscelLAny Co-owners Stanley Ross and Hope Howard claim they’ve constructed a real first for L.A. outside the entrance to their Hampton’s Hollywood Cafe--a true car phone. It’s a 1959 Nash.