EDITORIAL:Boom efforts applauded

It’s getting down to the wire for the survival of the Boom Boom Room and Coast Inn, two establishments that have been the bedrock of the gay community in Laguna Beach and beyond for some 60 years.

Gay activist Fred Karger, founder of Save the Boom!, is hoping that a gay angel — or more than one — will come forward with the money and wherewithal to purchase these ocean view properties and keep them as they are.

Steven Udvar-Hazy, the billionaire airline businessman who bought the scenic sites a year ago, has decided he’d rather not try to redevelop them, and has put them on the market. Price tag: $19 million.

It’s anyone’s guess what will happen to the properties at this juncture, but a gay buyer is being actively sought.

Now Karger has gone so far as to take out an ad in Variety asking actors Brad Pitt and George Clooney — who might just have $19 million or know where to get it — to step forward and “Save the Boom.”

Pitt and Clooney — currently in the spotlight due to the release of their new “Ocean’s 13” film — were originally linked through the rumor mill to a possible purchase of the Boom and Coast Inn before it became the property of Udvar-Hazy.

That rumor was vigorously denied by the stars’ publicity machine, but it made headlines around the world for its connotation of the two hunky actors joined in a possibly gay venture.

Karger’s ad may be a bit tongue-in-cheek — or a bit cheeky — but it’s doing the job he probably wanted: getting even more publicity mileage for his year-long campaign for somebody, somewhere to keep the Boom alive.

The Boom has a long history of linkages to Hollywood stars, of course, the most famous, and tragic, being Rock Hudson, who held court there during his golden days before he was felled by AIDS.

While the Variety ad has generated a lot of buzz, we doubt that Pitt and Clooney would want to be front and center in a “Save the Boom” bid.

Karger, a former publicist, is pulling out all the stops to try to save his beloved Boom Boom Room from erasure, and we give him a “thumb’s up” for his heroic efforts to keep part of Laguna’s storied and romantic past in the present.

Maybe he should take out another ad, this time asking Rosie O’Donnell and Ellen Degeneres to make an offer.

Having just left her TV talk show perch, Rosie just might like “the view” from the bar at the Boom Boom Room.