Another Clue in the Phone Game
Mention was made here Tuesday of a Pfizer patient survey that listed a phone number for what turned out to be a porno line. The recording began: “You like your women hot. . . .”
An innocent mistake, I’m sure.
Then again, writer Lee Harris noted, “I’m sure I’m not the only one pointing out that Pfizer may have INTENTIONALLY had that phone recording, since it is also the manufacturer of Viagra.”
MORE CATTINESS: Many a traveler buying a tour package has wound up with a strange companion. But Roberta Greenwood of Pacific Palisades noticed one tour that would require her to travel with an animal (see accompanying). “If I have to share a berth on an overnight train,” she said, “I’m glad the cat will be sleeping.”
BRAINY ORANGE COUNTY: First, the “X-Files” depicted a brain-eating extraterrestrial working at a hamburger stand in Costa Mesa. Then, said Hanna Hill of Irvine, “the Boston legal eagles team in TV’s ‘The Practice’ came to L.A. in an episode last Sunday. They encountered a very nasty judge who, it was said, was from Orange County.”
REASSURING WORDS? Phyllis Daugherty of L.A. found a laundry that is operated by some sweet-smelling individuals. And Lonnie James of Lancaster spotted an auto garage with an eye-catching guarantee, considering the subject is brakes (see accompanying).
CATCH OF THE DAY: The movie “Magnolia,” which is set in the San Fernando Valley, reprises the urban folk tale about a dead scuba diver who is found in full gear in the remains of a forest fire. Investigators determine that the unfortunate soul was swimming nearby when he was picked up by a Super Scooper aircraft gathering water to fight the flames, then dropped to his death. I wrote about it in this column two years ago.
Little did I know that I needed just another hour and 58 minutes of material and I would have had my own movie.
AND THE ANSWER IS . . . I mentioned that the quiz show “Winning Lines,” hosted by Dick Clark, had to cut a scene involving a question about how many actors starred as Batman on the big screen.
The producers at first accepted “three” (Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney) as the answer. Then, during a break another contestant pointed out that Adam West of TV’s “Batman” also appeared in a movie. At this point, the producers decided to drop the subject.
Several film buffs, including Michael Schlesinger of Sherman Oaks, wrote in to say the answer is six. He noted that 1940s actors Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowery appeared in movie serials as the Caped Crusader.
Schlesinger added: “Supposedly there’s an Andy Warhol movie with Batman, too, but I seriously doubt that qualifies.”
One wonders what type of action a Warhol version would show: Perhaps Batman staring at the same skyscraper for two straight hours.
miscelLAny:
L.A. school board member David Tokofsky sent me a fax “to show how much crap has been coming down from Sacramento.” Sure enough, it was notification that Belvedere Middle School and Figueroa Street Elementary School are each receiving $500 in grants for their garden programs from the Sacramento-based California Fertilizer Assn.
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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.
