People in the News for April 16, 1998

Thursday, April 16, 1998 | 10:39 a.m.

Barkeep, give us a straight shot of People in the News -- the good stuff, not that swill you serve everyone else -- with a squeeze of Jack Lemmon. Lemmon juice, in fact, is the big story in Malibu, Calif., where actor Jack Lemmon has helped oust the mayor. Prior to this week's municipal election, voters in the chichi celebrity enclave received a videotape mailed by opponents of Mayor Jeff Jennings. Over footage of downtown Laguna Beach -- a touristy community 55 miles down the coast -- Lemmon's voiceover warned that Jennings' policies (specifically his support for a huge mall/hotel complex) could turn placid Malibu into a Laguna-esque hellhole of plaid-shorted, sunscreened, fanny-packing visitors, "fouling the air and destroying the tranquillity that is Malibu." Sounding like a locals-only surfer protecting his home beach from Midwesterners on rented surfboards, Lemmon warned that Malibu could become "another crowded beach city filled with hotels, tourists and traffic." Ah, beach, beach, beach! Lagunans didn't take kindly to the slap at their city. "I think Malibu would be very fortunate and lucky if they could become another Laguna Beach," responded Laguna Beach Mayor Steve Dicterow. Apparently the voters disagreed; Jennings' wasn't re-elected.

Paper boy

As a kid on Long Island, Billy Crystal got a job at a newsstand. Among his duties: waiting outside with a bundle of Sunday papers for Cab Calloway. "So I stood there and a white convertible Cadillac pulled up," he recalls now. "And there was Cab Calloway in a tuxedo. He gave me $10. The papers altogether cost $2." Every Sunday, the process was repeated. Fast forward to a few years ago, Crystal's first Grammy-hosting gig. Who should he meet but Cab Calloway. "I said, 'Cab, thanks for the $8 you gave me every Sunday. I was the kid who would give you your newspapers when you'd pull up in that Cadillac."' Calloway looked at him carefully, memory and recognition beginning to dawn. "Yeah," Calloway told Crystal, still on the wings of reverie, "that was a good car."

'Mod' squabble

It's a Hollywood maxim: Everything old is new again, and therefore litigable. You'd think that the hardest part of filming a "Mod Squad" movie would be getting normally image-conscious actors to wear bell-bottoms and say, "Groovy, man, far out." But those are the least of producer Aaron Spelling's problems. A new lawsuit claims he stole the movie and merchandising rights to the 1968-73 ABC hit. According to the suit, Spelling paid the show's creator, the late Buddy Ruskin, less than the union-mandated wage -- then $5,000 -- for his work as a "Mod Squad" writer. Therefore, Spelling's hold on the movie rights is invalid. "It's like an old skeleton in Spelling's closet," said an attorney for Ruskin's heirs. "They don't really own it because of the dirty deed they did back in the '60s." That Ruskin agreed to the contract is immaterial, the attorney says. "(He) never realized how valuable it (the show) would become down the road." No comment from Spelling and nothing left for us to say except, Yeah, it was a good car.

Compiled by Scott Dickensheets

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