Dems Aren’t That Desperate for Fun

The committee selecting the site of the next Democratic Convention couldn’t help being impressed by its reception in L.A. for two reasons. First, the visitors were given tickets to the Lakers’ 1999 home opener. Second, the visitors were not given tickets to any Clippers games.

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THE DEVIL YOU SAY! Mike McCarey heard a Time-Life commercial promoting a Christian contemporary hits music album, accompanied by an 800-phone number whose first three digits were 666.

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L.A. TRIVIATA: South Dakota may have Mount Rushmore but Chatsworth has--or once had--a rock formation resembling our first president’s face. Mount Washington it was called on the caption of an early century snapshot uncovered in the Times’ archives (see photo). No other clues about its locale were given. Does it still exist? Or was it leveled for a mini-mall? I await word from an observant reader.

Notice, by the way, that George’s mouth is closed to hide those bad teeth. . . .

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RETURN TO SENDER: Doug Hawthorne of L.A. came upon a scene you don’t often see, even in downtown L.A.--a Denver boot attached to a delivery truck (see photo). The vehicle was parked in the red, next to a fire hydrant, and allegedly had several hundred dollars in unpaid parking tickets.

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WHAT GREATER TRIBUTE? Former KNX radio traffic reporter Bill Keene, a Tucson, Ariz.-area resident, visited Southern California recently when friends threw him a birthday party. The bash was in Malibu but Keene had to take a side route to get there. Why? There was a SigAlert on Pacific Coast Highway. Naturally, Keene, of all people, had listened to the traffic reports.

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GOOD OLD DAD: Actor Tony Randall was 78 when his wife gave birth to a son named Jefferson earlier this year, but he doesn’t hold the record for oldest celeb to father a child. The leader in this category appears to be Anthony Quinn, who was 81 when his son Ryan was born in 1996. Never on Sunday, indeed.

Some other late bloomers:

* Quinn at 78 (daughter Antonia, 1993).

* Randall at 77 (daughter Julia, 1997).

* Charlie Chaplin at 73 (son Christopher, 1962).

* Clint Eastwood at 66 (daughter Morgan, 1996).

* Hugh Hefner at 65 (son Cooper, 1991).

* Cary Grant at 62 (daughter Jennifer, 1966)

* Warren Beatty at 59 (daughter Isabel, 1997).

* Woody Allen at 52 (son Satchel, 1987).

Who knows what the post-Viagra period will bring?

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DIDN’T CATCH THE NAME (CONT.): On a related subject--celebrity kids with unusual names--Marian Purcelle-Soule points out that singer Bob Geldof’s offspring are Peaches, Pixie and Fifi Trixibelle. Honest.

MiscelLAny:

In answer to the question of Hollie Nawa, and a few other readers--No, your columnist is not related to commentator Paul Harvey. Now you know the rest of the boring story. Good day!