Finally, the Valley Receives Some Attention From Hollywood

Enough about “The O.C.” Now comes “Down in the Valley,” an unreleased drama that played at the L.A. Film Festival and is set in the San Fernando Valley.

It was written by director David Jacobson, who says he grew up “in the shadow of the 405 Freeway (literally).” He wrote most of the screenplay in Paris -- in the National Library.

“To be writing about a place whose major cultural achievement is the 12-lane freeway, while in a lovely rococo setting, is either insane or just perfect,” Jacobson said in one interview.

Puh-leeze. Jacobson is way out of line there. Everyone knows the Valley’s biggest cultural contribution was the Valley Girl.

Over the hill (cont.): “Down in the Valley” is about a rebellious teenager from rococo Reseda and her meeting with a mysterious stranger who fancies himself an Old West gunslinger. Good to see Reseda get a little attention from Hollywood.

The community has mostly been overlooked in the movies, although it had a big role in “A Kid in King Arthur’s Court.”

As you no doubt recall, that film is about a Little League player who time-travels back to visit the Knights of the Round Table. The boy tells ol’ King Art that he hails from Reseda, which he describes as “the bowling capital of the world.”

Another cultural contribution from the Valley?

From Valley talk to Valley spelling: Scott Andrews and Deborah Neikirk each spotted an auto garage banner in Studio City that might prompt English teachers to exclaim, “Gimme a break!” (see photo).

Sure, kids are growing up fast these days ... but Linda Gatons of Hacienda Heights was surprised to see a florist offering a discount on wedding arrangements to members of a high school graduating class (see accompanying).

A candidate for summer school ... would be the adult who put together the logo that Steve Adolph noticed -- the logo for a school’s “summer enrichment program” (see accompanying).

On thin ice: Here’s one milestone that will not be the subject of a proud press release from Paramount-based Zamboni: The first drunk-driving arrest involving one of the company’s ice resurfacers.

A 63-year-old Zamboni driver in New Jersey was pinched after a wildly careening cleaning job on the ice at an arena in Morris County, according to the website thesmokinggun.com.

The arena manager summoned cops after the Zamboni pilot nearly crashed into the rink boards.

Police didn’t get there in time to pull him over on the ice -- that would have been a sight -- but nabbed him after he had parked the machine.

The suspect blew a .12 on the Breathalyzer test. The legal limit in New Jersey is .08, so it was the penalty box for him.

miscelLAny: Back to Southland contributions to the world. There were 400 finalists for the American Film Institute’s top 100 movie lines. One that didn’t make the final cut was the classic put-down of L.A. by Woody Allen in “Annie Hall”:

“I don’t want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light.” Gee, Woody used to be so funny.

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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES, 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.