Pumping Blood to Help Pat Boone’s Grandchild

Singer Pat Boone and his Hollywood friends had already rolled up their sleeves to help when Southern California’s blood shortage hit close to home. On June 19, a day after Boone, Shirley Jones and Charlton Heston smiled for the cameras and donated blood at the American Red Cross on Vermont Avenue, Boone’s 24-year-old grandson was critically hurt in a freak accident.

Ryan Corbin, a recent Pepperdine graduate who works as a writers assistant on the sitcom “Will & Grace,” tripped as he sunbathed with friends on the roof of a Brentwood condominium, Boone said. He crashed through a skylight and fell three stories, hitting a railing and the concrete floor. The accident left him with severe head and internal injuries.

Boone, 67, told us that paramedics didn’t expect Corbin to survive the ambulance ride to UCLA Medical Center, where doctors too prepared the family for the worst, telling Boone the prognosis was grim. “They were pumping in the blood, and it was coming out just as fast,” Boone said.

But now, two weeks, 36 units of blood and countless prayers later, Corbin is showing signs of coming out of his coma, Boone said.

It’s even possible that some of the blood Corbin received was donated by Jones, said her husband, Marty Ingels, because Jones’ blood type matched Corbin’s.

Corbin is the son of Boone’s daughter, Lindy. He’s engaged to be married in November.

Boone and his friends showed up again at the Red Cross on Monday to give more blood. Among them were Casey Kasem and David Leisure, TV’s Joe Isuzu. Record producer David Foster and former Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda also have pledged blood donations, Boone said. Meanwhile, the Boones have “taken over” a waiting room at the hospital, where 12 to 20 family members gather to pray for Corbin’s recovery. “It didn’t look good for two weeks,” said Boone, “but it’s looking better by the hour.”

O.J.’s World

We hear O.J. Simpson is none too happy with the New Yorker’s interview with him. He especially didn’t like it when writer Pat Jordan quoted him saying he’d still “hit on” slain ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson if he saw her on the street.

Venting to Fox News on Monday, Simpson claimed that Nicole stalked him . He admitted he’d still find her attractive today, “other than her attitude. If she had a different head, I would feel a little different.”

Simpson also clarified his most tasteless quote to the magazine writer, in which he refers to daughter Sydney, 15, as “her mom all over again. She’s got those German genes ....Those [expletives] will wear you out.”

He told Fox he just meant to say Sydney is “bullheaded.”

Simpson, unable to resist portraying himself as one sexy thang, told Fox, “I’ve got girls throwing me letters and trying to hit on me. I think that’s strange.”

To say the least.

Easy Rider

Actor Peter Fonda took a break from his wife’s bedside over the weekend to drive an Indian motorcycle from Las Vegas to Los Angeles for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Fonda’s wife, Portia Rebecca Crockett, underwent back surgery June 12. Since then, Fonda said, he spent his time channeling good vibes to her as she recovered.

“I sit by her bed at night and touch her places that are sore or bad,” he told us by phone. “I give her all my good energy.” He said he even “put out a good thought” for her the other night as he rode home under a sliver of moon. “It was a wishing moon,” he said. Fonda arrived at the Peterson Automotive Museum on Tuesday. He says that even though he’s mad for motorcycles and spends about three months a year on the road, his wife and family are his life. Fonda, who has been married since 1975, still gushes over his wife: “I’m blessed to have this wonderful person in my life.”

Home Cooking

Famed chef Wolfgang Puck flew home to Austria recently to cook up a storm with his mother, Maria, a former hotel chef. Puck, a pioneer of California cuisine, grew up outside Vienna in a country town surrounded by forests and dotted with lakes. It was there that young Wolfie fell in love with cooking during visits to his mother’s kitchen at the Hotel Linde.

“There was so much yelling and action I was confused,” Puck recalled. “I thought, ‘It’s so noisy, I don’t know how they can work.”’

Over the weekend, mother and son whipped up something special for the Food Network documentary “Wolfgang Puck: A Journey Home,” which will air next year. The menu is still top secret because Mama Puck planned it herself. But her son knew better than to expect his Spago-esque spicy chicken pizza or apple spring rolls. No doubt there was plenty of strudel and Wiener Schnitzel.

Times staff writers Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug contributed to this column. City of Angles runs Tuesday-Friday. E-mail: angles@latimes.com.