Taper is no match for Begley’s Best

IT seems unlikely that playwright David Mamet, known for his liberal use of profanity, will ever clean up his language. But thanks to cast member and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr., a lot of other cleaning up is going on behind the scenes at the Mark Taper Forum, where Mamet’s newest play, “Romance,” is currently onstage until Nov. 20.

During early rehearsals, Begley, who portrays one of the attorneys in this courtroom comedy, wanted to use the microwave oven in the Taper-Ahmanson theater annex, across Temple Street from the Music Center. But when the actor opened the microwave -- well, the preternaturally positive Begley would never call it dirty, but a CTG staffer confirms that its interior layers represented the History of Lunch since the brown bag was invented.

So Begley trotted out to his car and fetched a bottle of Begley’s Best, the new environmentally friendly cleaning product the actor has been marketing since March. He’s even been delivering it himself to Whole Foods stores and other health-conscious markets throughout Southern California -- short distances in his electric car, longer ones in his wife’s hybrid Prius. “I’m sort of a one-man show,” Begley says.

(As an aside, Begley’s quick sprint to his electric vehicle came in advance of the mountain-biking accident that occurred two days before the opening of “Romance” and left the actor with a broken pelvis. Staging was altered so Begley could sit or lean most of the time and thus would not need to use crutches. Begley, also at work on the Christopher Guest film “For Your Consideration,” thanks his directors for their understanding.)

Begley left the bottle of cleaner by the microwave for everyone to use, and a member of the theater crew noticed -- and asked for one. “And I thought, ‘Well, I can’t just give it to one member of the crew or cast,’ so I brought in a case of it,” Begley says. “I just handed it out to everybody as sort of a rehearsal gift.”

The plant-based product contains extracts of pine and palm as well as citrus, maize, sugar cane root and olive seeds. Sounds tasty -- but does it work? Begley says that even Mamet likes the stuff.

“I’ve given him some, and he seems to approve,” the actor says.