What’s the Newport Mall?

It was a nice, hot summer day. Probably not the day to be hanging

around a shopping mall, but if you absolutely had to, Fashion Island

made as much sense as any place else.

Open air. Fountains. Take your pick of stores. Maybe meander over

to a restaurant bar for a drink to cool off.

It’s what Fashion Island is all about. Everybody knows that.

Except for one woman, apparently, who was walking near the

fountain by Robinsons-May and talking on her cell phone.

“I’m at the Newport Mall,” she informed the person on the other

end of the line.

Newport Mall? You could almost feel Irvine Co. bigwigs shuddering

at the pedestrian title.

So much for branding.

KNOW YOUR CANDIDATE

Last Monday’s Greenlight fund-raiser and candidate introduction

got just a little too familiar at one point.

As well-known Newport Beach resident Jean Watt introduced the even

more well-known Allan Beek, who is among the four Greenlight-endorsed

candidates running for a seat on the Newport Beach City Council this

fall, she presented the gathered crowd of a 100 or so with a list of

Beek’s accomplishments.

She knew all about him, she explained, because she had “intimate

knowledge” of Beek.

The laughs were quick and plentiful.

-- Compiled by

Daily Pilot staffers