L.A. Stories / The Roving Eye
Fake Blake
Reports of Robert Blake’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
A quick search on Google reveals the former “Baretta” star to be not only incarcerated, but also dead. Type in “Robert Blake” and “Our Gang,” the series in which the actor appeared as a child in the 1930s and 40s, and out comes the following headline: “Robert Blake Dies of Heart Attack at 63.” That links to an article chronicling Blake’s acting career and his supposed demise in the Bay Area town of Milpitas.
A hoax? Sloppy reporting? Try an assignment for an Internet journalism course at City College of San Francisco, in which students learn Web publishing. For the assignment, students are given information some of it true, some fictional for the exercise of creating a Web page.
“It was just to write an obituary and see if we could put it on the Internet,” said San Francisco freelance journalist Ryder Miller, who created the page when he took the course in 1999.
As a result, without reading a disclaimer link in the corner of the page, it’s easy to conclude that Blake sold one of his Emmy awards on eBay and raised parrots after “Baretta” went off the air.
“Yikes! I didn’t realize it would be that easy to look for,” said Miller. “I sort of lost track of that one.”
Knight Moves
It may be daylight saving time, but State Sen. William Pete Knight, R-Palmdale, has Christmas on his mind.
Knight has introduced legislation to permanently name the lighted tree that graces the steps of the State Capitol the “Capitol Christmas Tree.”
A few years ago the desire to be politically correct prompted legislators to informally change the name of the tree to the “Holiday Tree.”
That was not at all to Knight’s liking.
“People in government seem to think that they have to speak in euphemisms because they’re afraid of offending somebody,” he said in a press release toting the bill. “That’s just silly. If you’re going to put up a decorated tree in December, then call it what it is a Christmas tree.”
In keeping with the holiday, er Christmas theme, Knight titled the press release, ” And to All A Good Knight.”
The bill passed out of committee last week and now goes to the Senate floor.
Galanter’s Goodbye
Thanks to redistricting, L.A. City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter is in the odd position of saying farewell to some of her constituents a full 14 months before leaving office. Under the redistricting plan now before the L.A. City Council, Galanter’s seat would move from the Westside to the San Fernando Valley this July 1, even though her term ends in June 2003.
“This may be the last time I get to speak to you as your councilwoman,” Galanter told scores of residents at the Westwood Homeowners Association annual meeting last week. “(The L.A. City Council) Redistricting Commission says I’m already over the hill literally.”
Before she finished, Galanter offered her solution to a new problem. Seems a huge billboard has popped up on Santa Monica Boulevard near the Los Angeles Mormon Temple advertising Bijan clothing. Some Westwood residents want Bijan and the billboard owner to remove the sign.
“I think we should sic the Mormons onto them,” Galanter said.
Clean Getaway
A mobile street-cleaning unit contracted out to the Hollywood Entertainment District was carjacked near the intersection of Hawthorn Avenue and North Orange Drive in the early morning hours of April 18. The unit, owned and operated by Gardena-based California Street Maintenance, and consisting of a pick-up truck and a steam-cleaning apparatus, has yet to be recovered.
The incident is believed to be the first street-cleaner carjacking in the city, according to Detective Wendi Berndt of LAPD’s Hollywood Division. The driver was unharmed.
“We had a truck stolen a year ago, but there wasn’t anybody in it,” said Kerry Morrison, the district’s executive director.
“Where’d he go with it? You got me,” said Berndt of the carjacker. “I think he just wanted the cleaning equipment.”
THE ROVING EYE
‘King’ of All Fan Clubs
Sports have them. So do pop musicians and movie stars. So why not the movies themselves?
That’s what Universal Pictures marketers figured when they started what is believed to be the first fan club for a motion picture with this spring’s budding blockbuster “The Scorpion King.”
For $29.95, fans can sign up for “The Scorpion King” MovieClub, which gets you a ticket redeemable wherever the film is showing, a poster, T-shirt, cap, special computer downloads and entry into a sweepstakes for a Las Vegas vacation.
At $69.95, The Ultimate Collectors Edition buys all of the above, plus a “Scorpion King” DVD, collector’s trading cards and a handful of other items. Fans can sign up for the club through the official Web site.
“We’re always looking for opportunities that allow us to have a more direct relationship with the moviegoer,” Kevin Campbell, Universal’s senior vice president of new marketing, explained in a statement. “‘The Scorpion King’ presented us with the ideal property to extend that relationship with the most enthusiastic moviegoers.”
It also stands to make Universal more money. The film was released April 19, grossing $36.1 million during its first weekend to shatter the previous April record for a movie opening.
The movie stars World Wrestling Federation icon The Rock, and Universal appears to have taken its cue for the promotion from the wrestling league, which operates fan clubs for many of its wrestlers.
You’re dealing with people who are already going the extra step to go on the Internet and go to that site,” said Paul Degarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. “That’s a group of people who are more likely to spend a little more money to get some of these extras.”
Darrell Satzman
