Valley Talk Whassup, You Stooge? Glendale-based C3 Entertainment Inc., which owns the image of the Three Stooges and has filed a number of copyright infringement lawsuits over the Stooges, was in court last week defending itself against trademark infringement charges brought against it by Anheuser Busch Companies Inc. The St. Louis-based beer producer claimed that C3 was illegally using its “Whassup?” catch phrase from its Budweiser beer commercials. Anheuser Busch claims the word is used without permission on T-shirts marketed by C3 on its Web site. C3 attorneys, however, said the catch phrase is in the public domain and not protected by the beer company’s trademark. A Rose by Any Other Name It appears that at least one member of the Local Agency Formation Commission, the panel weighing a Valley secession, has had more on his mind than just hammering out issues concerning the division of city assets and alimony. During one recent LAFCO meeting, Commission Chairman Henri Pellissier revealed he’d been working on what he indicated was a little problem pronouncing Los Angeles County Supervisor and LAFCO Commissioner Zev Yaroslavsky’s last name. After announcing very slowly the supervisor as a speaker, Pellisier added “he’d been practicing it over the holidays” because it was a New Year’s resolution to get it right. LAFCO Executive Director Larry J. Calemine offered to help simplify things for Pellissier, suggesting Yaroslavsky simply be bestowed with the title of “Your Imminence.” If at First You Don’t Succeed Burbank City Manager Robert “Bud” Ovrom had a recent suggestion for Ben Reiling, president of Zelman Development Corp., concerning the Burbank Airport Authority’s decision to increase passenger access fees for off-site parking companies and impose levies on their gross receipts. Zelman is preparing to break ground on a $7 million two-story parking garage near the airport. Instead of fighting the levies and fees in court, where both the city of Burbank and the airport have been battling it out for years over terminal expansion plans, Ovrom suggested an alternative. “It is pretty clear that the airport is going to do anything they can to make life miserable for (Reiling’s) parking lot project,” said Ovrom in a recent memo to the Burbank City Council. “Ironically, he might be better off paying them $200,000 to $300,000 per year in blackmail, rather than get tied up in endless litigation. “We know better than most how litigious the airport is.”
