Well-Intentioned Samaritan Halts Shooting by Tackling a Gun-Toting Actor

A man with a gun was chasing three people through an alley in San Diego the other day when an onlooker jumped on his back. Cut! The onlooker didn’t realize he had interrupted the shooting of a scene from a movie based on the old TV series “Hunter.”

A city film commission rep told columnist Diane Bell of the San Diego Union-Tribune that neither the good Samaritan nor the actor was injured. Then again, the actor has bumped bodies before. He is 6-foot-5-inch Fred Dryer, the ex-L.A. Rams football star.

Sometimes bad Samaritans are star-struck too: The makers of the “Columbo” TV show once converted a vacant store on Wilshire Boulevard into a make-believe jewelry shop, stylish nameplate and all. After the first day of shooting there, some fake jewels were left in the front window. That night, burglars broke in and stole the unprecious gems.

Modern living: Today’s fashionable exhibits (see photos) include:

* An apartment that Ed Carter of Culver City suspects has “a tenant in the attic.”

* A home that might be in need of a ceiling (submitted by Brian Sullivan of Santa Ana Heights).

* And, finally, a restroom that would seem uninviting at first glance. But the sign was in Denmark, explained Shirley Myers of La Canada, and what we’d take for an ominous adjective actually means “bath.”

“Duh!” award winner? After I bought a pair of socks, I at first thought the label was telling me not to put them on over shoes (see accompanying). But For Bare Feet is the name of the company.

Another reason not to drink and drive: The crime log of the L.A. Independent reported that a driver became upset when someone pulled in front of her into a parking space. The angry motorist “shook her soda can at the man, getting him and his car wet,” the police log said. “The man became angry and kicked the door of the woman’s car.”

L.A. Insults of the Day: Recent stories about the possible moving of the Academy Awards ceremonies to New York wouldn’t have upset the character played by Maggie Smith in Neil Simon’s “California Suite.”

In the movie, Smith is a grouchy actress jetting into town from England for the Oscars when she hears the flight attendant announce the plane will soon be “landing in Los Angeles.” Says Smith: “I suppose we must?”

Her husband, played by Michael Caine, is reminded by the stewardess about the no-smoking sign. Caine points to the smog-shrouded city below and says: “I thought it was meant for the people down there.”

miscelLAny: The other day, Bill Fawcett sent along a “tide” reading for Beverly Hills that appeared on the Weather Channel’s online site. No mystery there, writes Deloris St. John. “It was for the swimming pools and spas,” she surmised.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LA-TIMES, ext. 77083; by fax at (213) 237-4712; by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A. 90012; and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.