Every deadbeat has an excuse: Just when...

Every deadbeat has an excuse: Just when we thought the recession might be easing, we learned that the city of Beverly Hills has been writing rubber checks.

Officials acknowledge the error but emphasize that the glamour capital isn’t really down and out. What happened--they say--was that the city had recently opened a special Bank of America account to speed the process for paying refunds after the dismissal of parking citations.

But a form authorizing the transfer of money into the new account never made it to the bank. Ten checks were written on the bum account, including at least one for $100, which the delighted recipient immediately tried to cash--only to have it, as they say, “returned.”

“The bank returned it without notifying us,” said Don Oblander, the city finance director. Now the city knows how the rest of us feel.

No word on whether BH will have to pay B of A one of those $10 penalties.

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Beast with a cause: The recent TV special saluting the career of KTLA Channel 5 newsman Stan Chambers made incidental mention of a forgotten movie role for the Griffith Observatory.

The film was “The Amazing Colossal Beast” (1957), a tale of a 50-foot-tall, bare-chested guy with a shaved head who has a habit of stepping on buildings and other things. Chambers, who played a newsman, gives this on-the-spot report at one point:

“Ladies and gentlemen, you’re witnessing a manhunt for the biggest man in existence. We’re in Griffith Park. It’s been surrounded by troops. . . . That building you see up there is the Griffith Observatory. . . .”

Although the Observatory has a bust of actor James Dean in memory of the scenes shot there for “Rebel Without a Cause,” it has somehow neglected to erect a likeness of the Beast, an oversight that we hope can now be corrected.

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Now we know where Rent-a-Wreck goes for tuneups: Dov Einhorn found a mid-town company with a slam-bang two-for-one offer (see photo).

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Just the guy to hold a benefit for Beverly Hills: John M. Wilson, plugging his book “The Complete Guide to Magazine Article Writing,” appeared on a cable show that was taped at Beverly Hills High. “I knew I was at Beverly Hills High,” he said, “because of the David Hockney prints along the hallways. True!”

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Can we wait until after the holidays to think about it?A freeway billboard appealing for organ donations says: “Most of us came to Los Angeles as transplants. Why not leave as one?”

miscelLAny:

Among those cited in Esquire’s “Dubious Achievements of 1993” are Mattel’s Earring Magic Ken doll, Dodger outfielder Darryl Strawberry for his comment about L.A. during the fires (“Let it burn down. . . .”), and actor Richard Gere, who asked the audience at the Academy Awards to send a psychic message to China’s leaders to give Tibet freedom. Gere shut his eyes and intoned: “So thought, we send this thought, send thought out, send this thought.”