Artist in a New Battle With Mural of Pearl Harbor

Sending his bombers aloft, a renegade artist has declared war on a new ban on Westwood “super-graphic” billboards by replacing his controversial Statue of Liberty mural with a 12-story movie advertisement.

Angry Los Angeles officials fired back Thursday by demanding that muralist Mike McNeilly take down the 120-foot-tall Wilshire Boulevard promotion for the upcoming film “Pearl Harbor.”

The huge sign depicts Japanese Zeros roaring out of the Hawaiian sky on Dec. 7, 1941, in the attack that led to America’s entry into World War II. It advertises the planned May 25 release of the Disney Touchstone film.

It popped up this week on the side of the Westwood Medical Building, where two years ago McNeilly was arrested by Los Angeles police for painting the Statue of Liberty mural without a permit.

The arrest prompted a complicated fight between the city and McNeilly over allegations that his right to free speech had been violated. In October, a state Court of Appeal sided with the artist and allowed the Statue of Liberty mural to remain in place.

But its replacement has triggered a flood of complaints that the movie ad is an unsightly commercial intrusion on the boulevard and a flagrant violation of a 2-month-old city sign law.

Officials said McNeilly and building owner Jon Muller will be given five days to remove the movie mural.

“It’s clear it’s an advertisement” and not the kind of noncommercial political or ideological message that McNeilly said the statue mural was, said David Keim, head of the city Building and Safety Department’s Code Enforcement Bureau. “It’s clearly an ad for a movie.”

McNeilly, 46, had plastered a huge “censored” banner across the half-finished statue mural after his Feb. 21, 1999, arrest. He said he set out to paint the Statue of Liberty figure as a Memorial Day tribute to veterans buried in the nearby national cemetery.

But city officials contended that the mural was painted in hopes of opening the Wilshire Corridor to off-site commercial advertising. Some Westwood residents suggested that the statue mural was actually intended to be an advertisement for the 1999 film “The Corruptor.”

Pointing out that McNeilly had unsuccessfully sought a permit to paint a commercial mural of a mermaid for the Disney on the same wall in 1997, city prosecutors filed five misdemeanor criminal charges against the him and Muller for the statue artwork.

McNeilly said he decided not to apply for a city permit for the statue mural because he figured the city would not issue one. He denied that the mural was intended to be an ad for “The Corruptor.”

Before McNeilly and Muller could be tried, however, their lawyers appealed on the grounds that the city permit requirement was the equivalent of “prior restraint on free speech,” which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.

In December, city officials responded to the appeals court ruling by enacting a new ordinance banning wall-size murals in commercial areas along Wilshire Boulevard between Beverly Hills and Santa Monica.

The ordinance was initiated by City Councilman Mike Feuer, who represents Westwood and led the initial fight to block McNeilly’s mural.

On Thursday, Feuer--who was bruised by publicity that McNeilly generated around the free-speech issue--was in no mood to talk about the new mural.

“From the beginning Mike simply wanted to prevent this part of Wilshire from becoming covered with giant advertising,” said Daniel Hinerfeld, Feuer’s spokesman. Hinerfeld said callers complaining about the “Pearl Harbor” ad were being referred to Department of Building and Safety investigators.

McNeilly could not be reached for comment. “He’s out of town on personal business,” said his spokeswoman, Gabrielle Camacho.