Anything to break into the movies: The...

Anything to break into the movies: The Rockville Metro Center failed as a mall, but there could be a Hollywood ending to its story. Not necessarily a happy ending, but a noisy one.

The defunct Maryland shopping center was recently shopped in a Hollywood Reporter ad that was headlined: “USE AND DESTROY!”

The mall’s hard-working agent is the Maryland Film Commission, which hopes to find a filmmaker willing to blow its client to smithereens.

The commission listed the Metro Center’s vital statistics as: “Urban 70s, Bi-Level, 7 Acres--400,000 sq. ft.” How could a Stallone or Bruce Willis resist?

“We’re always getting offers from (Hollywood) people who want to blow up a certain kind of building, and we can’t find what they want,” a commission official told the Washington Post. So now, he said, the commission is taking the initiative.

Which reminds us. Has Long Beach perchance thought of a similar role for a certain big, money-losing ship?

*

Commitment to mediocrity: George Barnes of Louroe Electronics in Van Nuys received a fax from a Barcelona company offering to act as a distributor. But the Spanish firm didn’t help its case with this sentence:

“Our company disposes of highly qualified personnel in order to give technical support to our customers.”

*

Contract with West Covina?Just about everyone is familiar with the meteoric rise of the House Speaker. But isn’t it a bit soon to have a Gingrich Park in West Covina, which is really west of Georgia? After all, Gingrich hasn’t been elected President yet. Or been awarded a Pulitzer for his $1 book.

So, when we learned of the park, we phoned West Covina City Hall. But the folks there professed ignorance. County librarian Denise Dilley, however, determined that the park was actually named for Robert Gingrich, the city’s first Parks and Recreation director.

Of course, a Newt Gingrich Park is an inevitability, and one wonders how it will be designed. Will the grass be donated by townsfolk? Will there be public facilities? Children’s equipment? Or will kids be told to bring their own equipment rather than have some bureaucrat limit their choices?

*

First, there was Pavarotti and those other two guys . . . Now, we’re waiting for KCBS News to begin promoting returnees Jerry Dunphy, 74, and George Fischbeck, 72, as the Seven-Tenners.

miscelLAny Native Southern Californian Mary Bush thanked us for a recent item marking the unusual meteorological incident that occurred here on Jan. 11, 1949. Now, Bush says, maybe more people will believe her when she says that on the day she was born it snowed in L.A.