Under the Hollywood Sign, Babies Are Coming in Bunches

There’s something in the air of Hollywoodland, and it isn’t smog. The Beachwood Canyon area, where children were as rare as steak tartare five years ago, is now teeming with dozens of the little tykes, neighbors say.

And one street above all has been favored with fecundity. On a tiny cul-de-sac where there are only seven houses, one woman gave birth on Sunday and couples in four more homes are expecting before July 19.

The other two residences on the quiet street are occupied by a single man and an elderly couple.

“We’re probing the mysterious waters that bubble up (on the street) that cause everyone to get pregnant simultaneously--the secrets of fertility underneath the Hollywood sign,” said Bruce McKenna, whose wife, Maureen, is due in the middle of June.

“The other joke is, ‘Don’t drive this way if you don’t want one,’ ” Maureen McKenna said.

PEN PAL: Remember the not-so-subtle criticism of Robert L. Shapiro by fellow counsel Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. for signing autographs at the beginning of the O. J. Simpson trial?

Well, guess where Cochran was last Friday? In the lobby of the Doubletree Guest Suites Hotel in Santa Monica, graciously obliging dozens of autograph hounds.

Missing was the bank of television cameras that caught Shapiro’s pen work in front of the Downtown courthouse.

But Cochran got more than his share of attention.

The hoopla began when a worker in a nearby office building spotted the famous attorney alighting from his luxury vehicle. Soon colleagues and hotel guests were besieging him in the lobby.

“He was warm, thoughtful, very well-dressed and charming--one lady gave him four cards and he signed them all,” said Kathy Jackson, who works nearby. “The only thing I didn’t know was that he was so short.”

What Cochran lacked in height, he easily made up with bonhomie.

“What’s your name, miss?” he asked before jotting a personal “Best Wishes” to his admirer, complete with date.

Some have been flaunting the signatures ever since.

“I’ve been showing the signed card to friends and telling them I had lunch with him,” Jackson said.

BIG SHOES: Most new mayors come prepared for their inaugurations with speeches in hand. Culver City’s new mayor, Steve Gourley, went one better than that. He brought props.

Confident that his fellow City Council members would vote him into office--and they did, unanimously--Gourley was ready with his new California vanity license plates: “CC Mayor.”

Asked what he would have done if he had lost the vote, Gourley said, “I paid for them, so I would have had to keep them, but I definitely wouldn’t have put them on my car.”

A few minutes after he held up the license plate for the audience to see, hizzoner pulled out a pair of new shoes.

“I couldn’t fill (former mayor) Albert (Vera)’s shoes, so I had to buy new ones,” he said. He then removed his old footwear, slipped on the new and got down to business.