This Is One Mile-High Club With an Unpleasant Initiation

Did a female passenger on an L.A.-to-San Francisco flight encounter swelling in her inflatable bra?

That story has been popping up lately, so the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society did some research.

The society, pointing out the lack of verifiable details, doubted the veracity of the tale.

But she noted that, “in light of the breast implant controversies and accidents over the past 10 years,” it’s interesting that the story dates back to at least the 1950s, when it appeared in a Herb Caen column in San Francisco.

Folklore society co-founder Barbara Mikkelson wrote on the group Web site (snopes.com) that the yarn resurfaced in a 1988 episode of TV’s “Delta Burke,” when a woman is cautioned against receiving silicone implants. “A Pan Am stewardess I know had hers done,” Burke says, “and they exploded on takeoff.”

Mikkelson added that a 1990s update of the legend “has the collagen-enhanced lips of either Barbara Hershey or Cindy Crawford exploding on an airplane.”

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MOVING ON TO MALE APPAREL: KNX radio newsman Ron Fineman heard a fashion reporter at the Screen Actors Guild Awards ask actor Jack Lemmon, “Who are you wearing?”

Lemmon--to his credit--didn’t realize it was a reference to his tux maker.

Fineman overheard someone else grumble, “L.A. is the only place where it can be grammatically correct to ask who you are wearing.”

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CRYSTAL BALL-GAZER ROW? An anonymous reader snapped a shot of an intersection that sounds other-worldly (see photo).

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BALLOT IMPLICATIONS: Remember those Albertsons ads touting its “marriage” to Lucky? Columnist Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Examiner wonders if, in light of the passage of Prop. 22, that marriage will no longer be recognized in California. It’s a same-sacks relationship, he wrote.

Steve Harvey can be reached at steve.harvey@latimes.com.