THE LABJ’S L.A. stories123

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Stealing the Show

Eddie Fisher really surprised the Hollywood Women’s Press Club by showing up to accept his Sour Apple Award, which is bestowed each year on performers who give women a hard time.

The crooner was singled out for making unkind remarks in his recent autobiography, “Been There, Done That,” about his daughter Carrie Fisher and his three wives Debbie Reynolds, Elizabeth Taylor and Connie Stevens.

Fisher was one of the few Sour Apple Award winners ever to show their face at the ceremony. And it wasn’t long before he started working the room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

By request, he sang “It Had to Be You” but changed the lyrics to “It had to be me.”

“He got a standing ovation,” said Lydia Boyle, co-chair of the event. “He started out being kicked by us and ended up having us in the palm of his hand.”

Reinventing Belmont

At a meeting of the Current Affairs Forum, state Sen. Richard Polanco spent much of his time at the podium roiling against what he called the “prison industrial complex.”

The L.A. Democrat said something is very wrong when a prison guard earns more than an associate professor in the UC system.

The topic then turned to the L.A. school district and its Belmont Learning Complex, the $200 million, half-built school that sits atop a toxic oil field. Polanco said the site should be abandoned and sold. But an audience member had an even more creative idea.

“Why don’t you turn Belmont into a prison?” asked Dominick Rubalcava, an attorney with the L.A. Department of Water and Power.

“It’s not good enough for the prisoners,” answered another audience member.

Crazy for Karaoke

For those of you who thought karaoke was dead, think again.

VocoPro, a karaoke equipment manufacturer in Industry, just launched a souped-up $359 model called “Duet.”

Besides playing CD instrumentals enhanced with video graphics, VocoPro claims the new machine offers high-tech features that actually make your voice sound its best. After just a month on the market, company officials say more than 3,000 of the machines have been sold.

Who’s buying them? It’s not just disc jockeys and bars. It’s also average Joe’s trying to spice up their parties, said Jason Hou, director of marketing and sales for VocoPro.

“I would say the consumer part of the business is growing almost 50 percent every year,” Hou said. “The way we’re looking at it, any new person who walks into a karaoke bar for the next five to 10 years (could) be one of our customers.”

This Promo Bombed

As direct-mail responses go, this one wasn’t exactly what the company had in mind.

The folks at Miller Nissan in Van Nuys ran a promotion recently in which the company mailed car keys in little cardboard tubes to San Fernando Valley residents. Recipients were invited to try their luck at winning a new car by bringing the key to the dealership. If the key fit, the winner would drive home a brand new automobile.

One recipient, however, didn’t get far enough into the mailer to realize it was a promotional stunt. Thinking the package looked suspicious, he took it to the North Hollywood police station.

It took the department’s bomb squad to untangle the mystery.

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