SMOKE SIGNAL: Fountain Valley resident Mark Malone...

SMOKE SIGNAL: Fountain Valley resident Mark Malone stood up at Tuesday night’s council meeting to endorse the city’s planned ordinance regulating the placement of cigarette vending machines. Why was Malone’s support special? He’s a sales manager for cigarette conglomerate Philip Morris U.S.A. . . . Malone admits his vocal support may be “corporate suicide.” But he’s the father of a young son and was grateful for the city’s action: “This is a preventable disease.”

NEW CELEBRITY: Although the Freedman Forum Concert Theatre won’t stage its first public concert until Jan. 27, the circular stage of the former Celebrity Theatre near the Anaheim Civic Center returned to action Wednesday afternoon--with a private solo-guitar exhibition by rocker Eddie Van Halen. . . . He unveiled the “Wolfgang,” a new guitar model named for his son, for an audience of conventioneers who were in Anaheim for the National Assn. of Music Merchants’ annual trade show.

PICTURE THIS: La Habra Councilwoman Dorothy May Rush, terrorized by gang gunfire and other vandalism at her home, has a plan she believes can restore city pride and reduce such problems. She’s sponsoring a photo contest. The best photos of city scenes will be turned into postcards, and sale of the cards will go to buy city flags for those who’d like to fly them. . . . Says Rush: “I get tired of La Habra getting knocked all the time. I’d like to promote a good image. . . . Things are changing.”

CHAPEL CHALLENGE: Chapman University in Orange wants a new chapel--the one it has is small and a block from campus. So Tustin philanthropists Dee and Doy Henley have issued a fund-raising challenge--their $400,000 pledge for an all-faiths chapel on campus stands if it can be matched by others in the next six months. . . . Doy Henley is a Chapman trustee and president of the politically influential Lincoln Club: “We believe nurturing students’ spirituality is as important as educating their minds.”