Son of Sting

Like Ziggy Marley, Julian Lennon and Jakob Dylan, Joe Sumner could find it hard to step out from behind the shadow of a famous musical father. Sumner, 24, is hitting the club circuit, fronting a virtually unknown rock band named Santa’s Boyfriend.

Sting is “rooting passionately” for his oldest boy, band manager Wayne Isaak told us, “but he’s also an artist and he knows the importance of allowing artists to have their own identity.” And so, Sumner the younger is “trying to stay under the radar,” Isaak said, to avoid the obvious comparisons to the Police, which his father joined a year before Joe was born.

Still, no DNA tests were needed after Sumner took the stage last week at the Viper Room in West Hollywood. Record label reps exchanged knowing glances while the scruffy blond Brit led Santa’s Boyfriend in an energetic set of short songs that sounded so Police-like that a woman in the audience asked, “How do they expect to keep it a secret that he’s Sting’s son?”

After the show, Sumner did the struggling young musician thing, hauling his own equipment to a parked blue van. When we asked for a chat, he demurred. “No, I don’t think so. I’m not really into that.”

Fame, Ain’t It a Kick?

You probably know A.J. Benza as the guy who says “Fame, ain’t it a bitch” on E! Entertainment’s “Mysteries & Scandals.” What you probably didn’t know is that he used to be a gossip columnist at the New York Daily News.

Benza’s got a new book out about his adventures in gossip, and a new E! talk show, “A.J. After Hours,” starting at the end of the month. So things are going pretty good for this Brooklyn street kid who used to make book for certain friends of John Gotti.

Benza signed copies of his memoir, “Fame, Ain’t It a Bitch” (Talk Miramax Books), at the Bel-Air home of Talk magazine’s Christine Peters the other night. “Don’t say anything bad about me,” he wrote in our copy as the sounds of Sinatra filled the evening air.

Paris Hilton made a dramatic entrance in black boots, body glitter, raccoon eye makeup and a white dress that looked like it had been caught in the office paper shredder. Also spotted were Marla Maples, who’s into Kabbalah these days; entertainment lawyer John Branca, Robert Evans, Jon Peters, Arianna Huffington, Steve Guttenberg, Bill Maher and Leigh Taylor Young.

It’s Good to Be the Kings

The courtside diversions at Sunday’s NBA playoff game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings at Staples Center was almost as entertaining as the action on the court. We went deep into enemy territory to get a look, up close and personal, at the Kings’ owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, who are credited with turning the Kings into contenders.

The brothers, who are 45 and 44 and made a bundle in banking, beer distributorships and casinos, don’t act like your basic billionaire playboys. They bring relatives and high school friends from New Mexico to the games, they don’t curse the refs and they don’t ogle the Laker girls. But they do occasionally schmooze with the Hollywood types.

Michael Ovitz, who watched the game with Jack Nicholson, slapped Gavin on the back, saying he hoped for a close game. “No, no,” Gavin protested. “We want to blow them away.” Ovitz took his cue to leave, saying: “If I’m seen with you, I could end up getting stoned.” Comedian Sinbad paid his respects, and director Penny Marshall made several visits to the Maloof cheering section, sporting Laverne-like purple shades and purple sequined sneakers. “She can’t decide if she’s a Lakers or a Kings fan,” Gavin said, laughing.

Woody on Wheels

When last we heard from Woody Harrelson, he was pedaling out of Seattle on April 12, embarking on a 1,500-mile bike tour down the coast to promote organic living. Harrelson phoned in from the road Monday, and we’re happy to report that he’s closing in on San Francisco. The Woodman seems none the worse for wear.

“It’s lots of fun. I’m a little bit sore. We have been using the wrong seats. We were using racing seats. As soon as we changed the seats, it got vastly more comfortable,” Harrelson said.

Woody and his entourage, which includes a bus fueled by hemp, have been on the road about five hours a day, covering between 40 and 70 miles, depending on hills. The jaunt ends May 20 in Santa Barbara.

The biggest challenge? “Just every once in a while, we’ll go, ‘Do we really have 30 more miles to go?’ ” Harrelson said. “There was one time we knew we had some major hill. A guy drops by in his car: ‘Are you guys nuts? Are you crazy? That’s a major hill and there’s rain coming.’ Psychologically, that kicked us in the butt for a minute.”

Sightings

Barbra Streisand, Steve Martin, Kate Jackson, Jane Curtin, Leonard Nimoy, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, checking out the goods at the Los Angeles Antiques Show in Santa Monica; Paula Cole, sampling gourmet pumpkin and apple pie tortillas at the farmer’s market off Beverly Glen Boulevard near Mulholland; Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, rocking in the front row at the Bon Jovi concert in Las Vegas.

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