INSIDE SCOOP

-- Compiled by the Daily Pilot staff

Heather...

Will you...

Marry Me?

Heather Thompson got the surprise of her life last week driving down

the Costa Mesa Freeway. Across three consecutive overpasses, three large

banners hung, methodically communicating a message that could change her

life.

Caught with the masking tape still in hand, her beau, Joe Illiano,

said the pennants were just the beginning of his romantic plea.

He invited his girlfriend of three years to a birthday dinner at Joe’s

Crab Shack. The signs were hung to plant the seed, but the real shock

would come as she got out of the car, he said.

“I’m going to be at the valet station and open her door with a ring in

my hand,” Illiano said.

“I couldn’t do it just normal. I’ve never done anything in my life

just normal,” he added.

His scheme worked. She said yes.

A holiday card can be such an aphrodisiac

You’ve probably already looked at the accompanying holiday card (after

all, studies always show readers gravitate to pictures first).

It would appear Diane Coltrane managed to do it. She found, arguably,

an even more powerful Republican for her card than she had last year when

newly elected (well, it was all still kind of up in the air) President

Bush was there on her arm.

Yep, that’s the purveyor of power himself, former Sec. of State Henry

Kissinger, showing a hint of a smile. And we say he’s got more power than

Bush because we’re a bit skeptical that George the Younger will be around

some 30 years after he’s out of office.

It just doesn’t get much flashier than that. And we’re already

anxiously awaiting next year’s card “date.”