TRUMAN ON NIXON: Harry Truman was no...

TRUMAN ON NIXON: Harry Truman was no fan of Richard Nixon’s. But his daughter, best-selling author Margaret Truman, praises Pat Nixon in her new book “First Ladies.” . . . Pat Nixon, who is buried next to her husband at the presidential library in Yorba Linda, was the first first lady on record as favoring abortion rights, Truman points out--and the only one to fly over a combat zone. She calls her “a woman of great compassion . . . doing a job she intensely disliked because fate had handed it to her.”

SHARED BILLING: Animal rights was not a Richard Nixon pet cause. But they share billing on a huge Sunset Strip billboard. . . . Director Oliver Stone was allowed to promote his upcoming “Nixon” movie on the side of the old Playboy building if he’d also plug a charity. And Stone is a fan of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. . . . PETA’s Jenny Woods quips that she doubts Nixon would have minded: “His dog Checkers would be delighted.”

WOLF STORY: The religious art exhibit from Mexico City’s shrine honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe has been breaking attendance records at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana. To add spice to the exhibit--which closes Dec. 31--it’s presenting a free festival Saturday featuring Aztec folk music and a lecture about it by Bowers curator Paul Apodaca. . . . “Guadalupe,” explains Apodaca “means River of Wolves. It’s a river in Spain where there had been an earlier vision of the Virgin Mary. The Mexican apparition was named Our Lady of Guadalupe in honor of the feast day of the earlier one.”

WHINE AT SECOND: Newsday columnist Jon Heyman got a kick out of California Angels second baseman Damion Easley’s reaction to the team signing Randy Velarde of the New York Yankees for the same spot. “They’re crazy if they think I’m going to settle for being a utility player,” Easley said. . . . Heyman’s reaction: “A bold comment for a man who has hit .215 and .216 the past couple of seasons.” Velarde last year, by contrast, batted .278.