Cyber Promise

Dick Cavett may not be the household name he once was when he hosted a talk show opposite Johnny Carson 25 years ago.

But as the corporate voice of such companies as AT&T; and Marriott--and as a CNBC talk-show host--Cavett has been able to climb back into the public eye over the past few years.

Now the question is: Will he disappear again?

That depends if one believes what Cavett promised in May during a cyber chat on America Online.

Cavett was asked by one of the chat participants: “How do you feel about the O.J. Simpson trial?”

Cavett’s response: “If he is acquitted, I will renounce my citizenship.”

Crystal Ball Was Once Fuzzy

In the wake of Wells Fargo’s $10-billion hostile bid for rival First Interstate Bancorp in Los Angeles, credit for predicting it has been going to longtime Wall Street banking analyst George Salem of Gerard Klauer Mattison. He’d been forecasting the deal for months.

But that wasn’t always the case. In 1993, Salem, then with Prudential Securities, scoffed at a potential deal.

At the time, Wells Fargo’s stock was fluctuating wildly because of the sluggish California real estate market. In a report, Salem called Wells Fargo’s stock “the most irrational and baffling that this analyst has ever seen.”

Salem added then that anyone betting on a Wells-First Interstate deal should reconsider.

“This was a great story four years ago when Wells was healthy and First Interstate was weak,” Salem wrote, adding that “the Wells bulls rooting for this deal to happen are likely to be disappointed.”

No Credits Where Credit Due

Normally, ads for movies are stuffed with credits for a host of people who worked on the film, ranging from the director and stars down to the film editor and costume designer.

Not so with “Powder,” which last week became an embarrassing powder keg for Walt Disney Co. when it was disclosed that the film’s director once served time for child molestation.

The disclosure about director Victor Salva sparked protests and picketing this weekend against both the film and Disney, whose Hollywood Pictures unit is releasing the film.

On Saturday, all of the credits were conspicuously missing from newspaper ads for the movie, with the space blank where they would have appeared.

A.K.A. Litigious

Sportswear maker A.K.A. Los Angeles wants it known it’s also known as a company that is taking on clothing giant Eddie Bauer.

The company is making noise with a lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against the giant Redmond, Wash.-based clothing maker, alleging that the company has infringed on its trademark by introducing a line of A.K.A. Eddie Bauer clothing.

An Eddie Bauer spokeswoman said the company won’t comment specifically on the lawsuit, but added, “we feel strongly that there is no basis for this claim.”