Virtual reality: CNN producer Laura Ornest was...
Virtual reality: CNN producer Laura Ornest was dining in Maple Drive, a Beverly Hills restaurant, when she noticed that Simpson attorney Robert L. Shapiro was at a nearby table.
“I wish I were waiting on him,” said Ornest’s waiter, Paul Witten. He quickly added that he normally doesn’t chat with customers, but in this case. . . .
“I play Ron Goldman in the movie,” he explained, referring to Fox’s coming “O.J. Simpson Story.”
*
A big anniversary card: To congratulate Angelenos for their recovery from the Northridge quake, Mayor Richard Riordan has initiated a citywide billboard campaign, using materials donated by Patrick Outdoor Media and Grey Advertising/Los Angeles.
P.S. to Mom Nature: You can shake L.A.--but we’d just as soon you didn’t.
*
List of the day: With hundreds of Hollywood Walk of Fame stars in temporary storage for Metro Rail construction, you might be wondering where to take visitors who want to walk all over some celebrities. Never fear. Some other patches of heroic pavement:
* Ken & Bob Starfish Walk, outside Tony’s Fish Market restaurant, Redondo Beach Pier. Inductees: Various listeners of the onetime KABC radio team, including Alan Hjerpe, founder of the mythical Topanga Mildew Festival.
* Aerospace Walk of Honor, Lancaster. Inductees: Chuck Yeager and other test pilots who worked out of nearby Edwards Air Force Base, among others.
* Sportswalk, San Pedro. Inductees: Local stars such as Dodgers third base coach Joe Amalfitano.
* Hispanic Starwalk, outside Million Dollar Theater on Broadway. Inductees: Latino entertainers, as well as the late city councilman, Gilbert Lindsay.
* Avenue of the Athletes, on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park. Inductees: Southland athletes as well as Babe Ruth.
* Walk of Western Stars, Newhall. Inductees: Cowpokes including Gene Autry, who also has four stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It was known as the Newhall Walk of Fame until snooty Hollywood claimed trademark rights to the phrase “Walk of Fame.”
* Country Walk of Fame, North Hollywood. Inductee: Eddie Rabbit. A dispute with the city has confined this 16-year-old sidewalk tribute to one star.
* Pershing Square Starwalk, L.A. Inductees: Polaris (the North Star) and others that inhabit the “constellations visible in Southern California’s summer and winter heavens.” None of these stars have agents.
*
Food fight: And so the war of the airwaves continues between the local all-news radio stations. KNX-AM 1070 likes to point out that it gives traffic bulletins every six minutes during newscasts, compared to every 10 minutes for KFWB-AM 980. (One day, we predict, they’ll both be all traffic, all the time.)
But KFWB’s latest fusillade notes that during the recent downpours, KNX broke from its coverage to broadcast its daily morning cooking show. While one station talked “about mud pie,” KFWB crowed, another was talking about mudslides. Enough with the mudslinging.
miscelLAny Al Hix of Hollywood recommends that in view of recent financial developments, one Southland chain of Mexican restaurants should alter the name of one dish--the one it calls “Lucky Peso Buffalo Wings.”
