Pro-vitamin Betty fans want her out of the rubble and into the bottle

YABBA DABBA DO: Betty Rubble is at last making her move to shatter the glass ceiling that has denied her vitamin immortality for 25 years.

South Bay residents got a chance last week to help overturn a historic injustice: the cartoon character’s omission from the Flintstone Vitamin jar that for years has welcomed her family and friends. Voters, voicing their views at Del Amo Fashion Center on Thursday and Friday, responded with a bipartisan 396-41 mandate to give Betty her due.

The vote culminates years of grass-roots activism that forced the hand of Bayer Corp., which chose to honor Fred Flintstone’s pet, Dino, and even his Flintmobile. Spy magazine, the 150-member Betty Club in Oregon and actress Rosie O’Donnell, who played Betty in the movie version of the cartoon, have all called attention to this blatant act of discrimination against women vitamins everywhere.

Even the music world has weighed in: A progressive rock band from Atlanta lodged its protest by naming itself Betty’s Not a Vitamin.

“This public outcry has made us rethink the original decision,” said Bayer spokeswoman Karen Lazan. “If America wants her, we’ll put Betty in the bottle.”

Current management at Bayer is unsure why its vitamin designers slammed the door on Betty in the first place. Some sources say they couldn’t make her distinguishable from Wilma, while others cite Betty’s petite figure: prototypes kept breaking in half at her narrow waist, Lazan said.

Whatever the case, Betty is not out of the woods until the final tally comes in from voters in Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago and New York later this month. Only then will her supporters learn whether they have at last vanquished this modern Stone Age policy.

NO PERM NEEDED: In rough economic times it is often wise to diversify, and a Carson pet grooming business is taking that financial advice to heart.

0 Diana’s Cozy Corner Grooming, giving in to pleas from local schoolchildren, has offered to work its wonders on a lamb that was abandoned by its mother and “adopted” by the children.

As members of White Junior High School’s agriculture program, the children were looking for someone who could give their new companion a sort of mammal make-over. Diana Mohler, owner of the grooming salon, tackled the job Tuesday.

Mohler, who said the treatment included “bathing, froufrou and a big bow on his neck,” said she made a preliminary scouting trip to the school after getting concerned about the animal’s size. “I had a dream about a lamb who had legs like Raquel Welch, six-foot-tall legs,” she said. “Luckily he’s pretty small.”

Mohler realizes this foray into farm animals may set an unwanted precedent, but she said she is willing to risk attracting a whole new clientele. “My husband would say ‘Bring on the elephants,’ if we can charge enough.”

--Compiled by DAVE GRIMM