Lastories/mike1st/mark2nd
Beyond the Limit
Seeking office space for their headquarters staffs, the campaigns of gubernatorial candidates Al Checci and Gray Davis both checked out a suite in the Museum Square building on Wilshire Boulevard’s Miracle Mile last year.
Because the building has a rooftop putting green, it was quite tempting for Lt. Gov. Davis, who played on the golf team at Stanford. But a Davis insider said the campaign ultimately decided to locate on the Westside. Reason: “That’s where all the political volunteers in L.A. come from the Westside,” the campaign aide said. “They don’t want to drive east of La Cienega.”
Apparently that wasn’t an issue for Checci, who moved into the space; with a fortune estimated at up to $600 million, he probably doesn’t need to worry about volunteers.
Actor, For Life
The presidency of the Screen Actors Guild became a political springboard for Ronald Reagan, who used the job as a platform to become governor of California and later President of the United States. Former SAG president George Murphy jumped into the U.S. Senate.
So does current SAG President Richard Masur have any political ambitions?
“No,” he said flatly. “I could never withstand the fund-raising. I’ve watched too many friends make phone calls to get checks. That’s why I am an actor. If I became a politician, I would have to become an agent representing myself.”
Going Postal, Online
They’re postal workers by day and super crime fighters by night.
It’s not the latest drama on Fox, but the United States Postal Service’s latest attempt to be hip.
The postal service turned to Beverly Hills-based digital production studio Digital Planet to develop “Super Postal Workers,” an original animated series for the Web.
It follows the adventures of two postal workers who work as normal employees by day. But when a crime is committed against the Postal Service, they become super workers to solve the case and save the day. A new episode will screen on the Postal Service’s Web site once a month for the next six months.
This isn’t the Postal Service’s first foray into entertainment. It first approached Digital Planet in June 1996 with a request to jazz up the agency’s Web site.
The result was “Mardi Gras, Masks and Mystery,” an original text-based soap opera that debuted on the Postal Service’s Web site in April 1997. The second installment of that soap was put up on the site beginning last week.
What’s That Smell?
Caltech chemistry professor Nate Lewis used the occasion of a South Coast Air Quality Management District seminar called “Scents and Sensitivity” to unveil his new invention this month.
It’s an electronic nose designed to track down offensive odors.
Appropriately enough, Lewis named his new contraption Pinocchio. And equally appropriate is the name of the Pasadena-based company that is licensing the product Cyrano Sciences.
