From Bread and Cheese Comes This Immaculate Conception

Artifacts can be worth a lot of bread, but few are as unusual as the so-called “Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich,” which will be at Venice Beach on Saturday during an eating competition. It’s there for viewing purposes only, however, not for consumption. After all, it’s 10 years old.

The sandwich, said to bear the likeness of the Virgin Mary, was purchased for $28,000 by an Internet casino from owner Diane Duyser of Hollywood, Fla., a few months ago.

In late 1994, Duyser took one bite out of the homemade white bread and American cheese concoction, then was startled to see “this lady looking back at me.” She put it away in a plastic box with cotton balls and swears it has never crumpled or sprouted a mold. (It has cooled off, though.)

The buyer, goldenpalace.com, will set it out at 1 p.m. during the World Grilled Cheese-Eating Championships at Venice Beach.

As you might expect, the holy cheese sandwich has sprouted a number of spinoffs.

One entrepreneur is offering a “Virgin Mary Sandwich Toaster,” which comes with the proviso that it “may or may not reproduce the Virgin Mary image.”

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Food for thought: To me, the image on the grilled cheese sandwich resembles a young Joan Crawford.

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Wait till Rupert Murdoch finds out: Apparently the damage to profits wrought by the cable industry has prompted two of the television networks to branch out into the restaurant business (see photos).

True to tradition, they’re locked in a fierce rivalry. John Rabe of KPCC-FM (89.3) noticed they’re just a block apart in Chinatown.

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In case you’re wondering: There’s an NBC Seafood in Monterey Park.

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A roof and floor cost extra? A real estate ad spotted by Dennis Levin might lead one to conclude that $4.5 million just doesn’t buy what it used to (see accompanying).

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miscelLAny: One of President Bush’s favorite recent novels, the New York Times reports, is “I Am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe, a high-toned portrait of the sex-and-drinking high jinks at a Southern university. While Bush has recommended it to friends, the White House would not say why the president likes it. Wonder what he thinks about the scene where a visiting governor from California is observed having sex with a coed one night on a campus lawn. No joke -- it’s on Page 9.

Wolfe told one interviewer that it’s based on a real-life incident involving a governor, but not one from California.