Bunny Attack Spirals Into Quintessential L.A. Story

For another of those You’ll-Never-Read-This-in-Dubuque stories, Daniel J.B. Mitchell of Santa Monica recommended a brief that appeared in this newspaper’s Westside edition of Our Times.

A woman who was bitten on the finger by a rabbit at a Santa Monica animal shelter is suing that city for the cost of her medical treatment--”and for a $70 acting class in Beverly Hills she claims she missed.”

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A LITTLE TREMBLING MUSIC: A radio commercial for the L.A. County Bar Assn.’s referral service (877-SMART-LAW) acknowledges that many people “cringe” at the thought of hiring a lawyer. In case listeners miss the point, the ad is accompanied by background music from the shower scene in the movie “Psycho.”

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SOME BAD SPELLS: Brian O’Connell of Long Beach came across the work of a sign maker who has either (1) never played chess or (2) never taken the “Let’s Spell It Right” class or (3) both of the above. Also, “canceled” is the preferred spelling. Meanwhile, Shelly Brodsky of Sherman Oaks found a sign with some spelling that was Greek to him (see photos).

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SWITCHING TO BRONZE BOO BOOS: After it was revealed here that Joseph Cotten’s plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was in error (it says COTTON), Preston Neal Jones of Hollywood wrote that “another star has been crying out for a replacement plaque for years. The star for that wonderful actor Melvyn Douglas (“Ninotchka, “Hud,” etc.) identifies him as MELVIN Douglas.”

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THIS JUST IN! A colleague tells me that the plaque for silent screen star Laura La Plante says LE PLANTE.

I hope these are the last of the revelations of this type. I’d hate to see workers digging up Hollywood Boulevard again.

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EQUAL TIME: I mentioned the many anti-USC license plates on the road (BOOUSC, etc.). On the other hand, the only obvious anti-Bruin I could find on the DMV’s Web site was IH8UCLA. What are we to make of this? USC fans are more secure than their cross-town rivals?

As for USC’s snub in U.S. News & World Report, Larry Swanson, a USC dean, notes that the school was named “College of the Year” in the Time/Princeton Review rankings. Some Bruins are going to H8T that.

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CHASING BUSINESS: Until the televised three-hour cop pursuit of last week, the San Dimas-based PursuitWatch Network was sounding nervous. PursuitWatch, you’ll recall, contacts subscribers by beeper when a TV chase is in progress. The freeways had been free of such dramas for weeks. Earlier this month, the company wrote on its Web site:

“I know what you’re thinking, where are all the pursuits? June and July certainly proved to be quite slow which goes to show these things really come in cycles. Eighteen pursuits in the first five months, then all of a sudden, nothing.”

Who knows? Maybe car-chase participants take summer vacations.

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PERFORMANCE CLAUSES: There’s a small furor in Santa Monica over the new law that (1) forbids street artists from working within 40 feet of each other and (2) requires them to move at least 120 feet to a new spot every two hours.

“None of the good performers will want to deal with the hassle,” a local named Sonny Soohoo warned recently. “Only the people without a life will be here.”

You know it’s serious when Soohoo sounds off. He is a mime.

miscelLAny:

The Hollywood Reporter says that actor Mickey Rourke was dropped from the cast of “Luck of the Draw” because he insisted on having a companion appear in the movie. Not the first such demand by a star. Only in this case, columnist Stephen Galloway wrote, Rourke was demanding that his dog, Bo Jack, appear.

The dog doesn’t have its own agent?