TONY DODERO -- Editor’s Notebook

Memo to Phil Arst, co-godfather of the controversial Greenlight

Initiative and erstwhile political activist.

If Arst is looking for some extra cash to keep the Greenlight campaign

machine rolling, we suggest that he head on down to the Orange County

Market Place, better known as the swap meet, for a Regis Philbin

look-alike contest on May 7 at the fairgrounds.

Because the Daily Pilot staff thinks Mr. Arst (see photo) is a dead

ringer for Philbin, who has managed not only to make the annoying Kathie

Lee Gifford popular but has begun a TV game show craze with his hit, “Who

Wants To Be a Millionaire?”

Arst probably won’t make millions, but spokespersons for Animal Crackers

Entertainment, which is the agency searching for the look-alikes, claims

celebrity impersonators can make up to $200 to $750 an hour.

And for those not fortunate enough to look like Regis but bear

resemblances to Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ricky Martin, Ben Affleck,

Sean Connery or Gwyneth Paltrow, well, everyone is probably jealous of

you.

But take heart. You, too, can try out for the look-alike contest.

*

Have you heard the latest spin as to why Measure F passed so

resoundingly?

The reason, some say, is that voters were so confused by the measure that

they thought they were voting o7 (ITAL) forf7 (ITAL) an airport at El

Toro, not o7 (ITAL) againstf7 (ITAL) one.

A friend of mine pointed out that if that’s true, then the residents of

Newport Beach and Costa Mesa, the only two cities in the county that

voted against Measure F, are actually overwhelmingly against an airport

at the closed Marine base.

Now that would be a big news story.

*

With all due respect to our esteemed columnist Joseph Bell, who worries

that public schools are becoming too dependent on private money, I think

the Newport--Mesa school officials ought to be ringing Irvine Co.

Chairman Don Bren’s phone off the hook right now.

In case you didn’t hear, after failing to get two-thirds approval for a

parcel tax for a fourth time, Irvine Unified School District officials

got some good news when Bren, along with some other foundations, kicked

in some $3.9 million to jump-start the budget for at least one more year

and avoid layoffs of teachers and other employees.

Why should Irvine schools get such special treatment?

After all, Bren does live here on Linda Isle.

So if Newport-Mesa’s bond proposal somehow doesn’t get two-thirds, maybe

Bren and his friends can dig a little deeper in their pockets to help our

local schools, too.

* TONY DODERO is the editor of the Daily Pilot. He can be reached at

949-574-4258 or via e-mail at tony.dodero@latimes.com.