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The winds of fashion
As if the billions of dollars in flood damage and loss of life and limb weren’t bad enough, fashion, it appears, took a beating in the recent spate of winter storms hitting the country.
“Winter weather reeks (sic) havoc on hair nationwide, leaving locks limp and lifeless,” reports Freeman Cosmetics, the Los Angeles maker of politically correct beauty products.
Not to miss out on a chance to hype its wares, Freeman rushed out a press release last week announcing that two of its new conditioners can help those with hurt hair.
Both Hair Rescue Conditioner and Papaya ProVita, the company assures readers, will repair, renew, replenish, protect and serve weather-ravaged hair.
After all, observed Freeman spokeswoman Nancy Burns Gilberti, “Who really cares if your house floats away as long as your hair looks good?”
Zorro shoes
If HYI has its way, the distinctive Nike “swoosh” on your kids’ tennis shoes will be replaced before the end of the year by another famous icon: Zorro’s rapier-slashed “Z.”
The Covina-based shoe company, which also holds the exclusive footwear licenses for Dunlop Golf, Coleman and Brunswick, hopes to have Zorro-themed footwear in stores by the fall of this year.
That will coincide with the expected release of “The Mask of Zorro,” a $60-million Sony/TriStar/Amblin film starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins.
HYI didn’t buy the Zorro license in advance of the film or a syndicated Warner Bros. Zorro cartoon that will hit the airwaves this September. It has held its previously unused license for three years.
“It really is quite a nice opportunity as it turns out,” said Roy Shuman, director of licensed footwear for HYI. “All good things come to those who wait.”
HYI’s Zorro-themed footwear, which will be targeted at pre-school through pre-teen children, will consist of 55 styles of tennis shoes and western boots with the “Z” logo, a silhouette of Zorro on horseback and a “Z” with a rapier laid across it.
And Shuman is predicting that products featuring the long-dormant Zorro image will be as big as “The Lion King” or “Beauty and the Beast” products. “I expect you will see some sort of Zorro blitz,” he said.
Office cards
Next time you accidentally spill coffee all over your co-worker or tell your boss what you really think of her, fear not.
Hallmark Cards Inc., the hallmark itself of touchy-feely greeting cards, is introducing a new line of politically correct cards for use in the office, including cards to help diffuse those potentially awkward situations.
Included in its new line of “Out of the Blue” cards are messages like “I.O.U. big time,” and “I wish life came with a big fat eraser.”
There are also cards for more commonplace office situations, featuring messages such as “You’re a winner Congratulations,” and “Welcome to our little group The best just got even better.”
Sorry, nothing for the employee who just got fired.
Paper profits
Frederick’s of Hollywood’s 43 percent jump in first quarter net income was driven more by paper than silk.
The company reports that the bulk of the earnings increase was the result of lower expenses in the company’s mail order subsidiary essentially the benefit of lower paper costs, according to George W. Townson, the company’s chairman, president and chief executive.
Frederick’s is currently involved in negotiations with a number of parties for the possible sale of the company.
Where’s Paula?
Has Paula Boland seceded from the City of Los Angeles?
Don’t count on it.
Although the long-time lawmaker has taken a low profile since being defeated in her bid for the California State Senate by Democrat Adam Schiff, she’s by no means seceding from public life.
The former assemblywoman returned this week from a relaxing, post-election cruise with her husband. And, apparently, she’s done relaxing for a while.
Later this month, Boland, who led a failed bid by the San Fernando Valley to break away from Los Angeles, will launch a new organization aimed at breaking up the Los Angeles Unified School District. She also plans to run for a seat on Mayor Richard Riordan’s charter reform commission in April.
In the meantime, she’s moved out of her rented condominium in Glendale where she moved after being term-limited out of the assembly and is back in her house in Granada Hills.
