Rod Stewart’s Ex-Tended Family Reunion

Rooster-coiffed rocker Rod Stewart gets along famously with all his exes. Good thing. Stewart is expected Thursday at a grand opening party for the Cotton Box, a trendy fabric store on Melrose Avenue launched by former girlfriend Kelly Emberg and her new husband, British textile tycoon Gavin Brodin.

Also expected at the bash are Stewart’s former wives, Rachel Hunter and Alana Hamilton, as well as Alana’s first husband, tan man George Hamilton. Here’s the back story to help keep the players straight:

Fresh from his breakup with Swedish starlet Britt Ekland, Stewart married Hamilton in 1979 and they had two children. In 1984, he met Emberg, who romanced Stewart through his protracted legal battle with Alana Hamilton.

Emberg and Stewart never married but had a daughter. When they split in the late 1980s, Emberg filed a $25-million palimony suit. Then Stewart married Hunter, who was 21 and called Emberg “the sort of person who gives blonds a bad name.” Stewart and Hunter had two kids before she split in 1999.

Rod the Mod holds no grudges, and has hired Emberg and Brodin to redesign his patio. “Rod’s been very supportive,” Emberg told us.

The Curse of the Little Rascals

As a kid, Robert Blake played Mickey in the 1930s “Our Gang” comedy shorts. With his wife’s slaying, he’s just the latest Little Rascal to be touched by tragedy, scandal or an untimely death. “So many weird things keep happening,” the Rascals’ director, George Sidney, recently told the Las Vegas Review Journal. Consider the following:

Alfalfa (Carl Switzer) was shot to death at age 31.

Chubby (Norman Chaney) died at 22 after crash dieting from 300 to 136 pounds.

Buckwheat (William Thomas) died of a heart attack at 49.

Darla (Darla Hood) died at 47 from surgical complications.

Brisbane (Kendall McComas) committed suicide at 64.

Froggy (William Robert Laughlin) died in a motor scooter accident at 16.

Mickey (Mickey Daniels) died at 55 of cirrhosis of the liver.

Stymie (Matthew Beard) led a life of crime and drugs.

Scotty (Scotty Beckett) was beaten to death at 38.

Wheezer (Robert Hutchins) died in a military plane accident at 19.

Pete the Pup was poisoned by a person or persons unknown.

Coincidence? We think not. The Writing’s on the Wall

Blake’s attorney, Harland Braun, has spin for every weird bit of news, rumor and gossip that pops up during the media-saturated murder probe. When ABC News reported that police found a bizarre message--”I am not going down for this”--scrawled on a wall inside Blake’s Studio City home, Braun said it had nothing to do with Bonny Lee Bakley’s slaying.

It’s actually, “I am not going down,” Braun said, and the writing has been on Blake’s bathroom wall for more than a year to remind him to keep fighting his demons.

“This is a psychological thing he used,” the lawyer told us. “He’s been under psychotherapy for years, and one of the things his therapist encouraged him to do is to write down his thoughts and feelings.”

The Niki Watch

Supermodel Niki Taylor remains in critical condition with a lacerated liver and other internal injuries from a car accident more than two weeks ago, according to a spokeswoman at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital.

Taylor, 26, underwent several hours of surgery on May 3. Florida attorney Stephen Screnci has been investigating the crash on Taylor’s behalf.

Quote, Unquote

“As soon as you get to be 18, you got bills. All you got to do is look at people over 40. They ain’t smiling at all.”

--Rapper Chuck D., to high schoolers at the Museum of Tolerance.

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