The Insider hears rumblings of big names getting involved in Anaheim’s bid for an NFL franchise. League Commish Paul Tagliabue wants a deal with either the LA Coliseum or Anaheim (or both) before he retires in July. Meanwhile, Anaheim officials have laid down rules: The league has until its May meetings to grant Anaheim a franchise or the city will take other offers for the increasingly valuable site next to Angel Stadium, and the NFL must now buy all 50 acres, not just the eight or so needed for a stadium. But the city’s asking price of $53 million is being assailed as a giveaway by Councilman Harry Sidhu and other critics. All of which should make for an interesting luncheon April 25 when Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and the OC Biz Council host a talk by Tagliabue at the Disneyland Hotel …
George “Doc” Lopez is in the Cayman Islands trying to regain the U.S. free diving record. This week he’ll take a deep breath (no air tank) and attempt to submerge himself 53 meters, or 174 feet. In his spare time the 58-year-old Dr. Lopez runs San Clemente-based ICU Medical, a $500 million (market value) medical device maker …
The “Real Housewives of Orange County” are getting a real cold shoulder from some of their Coto de Caza neighbors. Another wife said, “At the clubhouse everyone was abuzz about just how disgusting a representation it is of the women here.” Diedrich Coffee CEO and Coto resident Steve Coffey said the Bravo reality series displayed “bad parenting” and likened it to “a car crash,you can’t stop yourself from watching.” Nobody denies there’s shallow materialism and dysfunctional families in Coto, but how widespread is it? Coffey said the vast majority of Coto’s 4,000 households aren’t like the ones depicted on the show, “but unfortunately it’s an accurate portrayal of a couple percent” … Nine months into his job as UCI chancellor, Bay area transplant Michael Drake has tackled the UCI Med Center controversy, won over skeptics and wowed nearly everyone with his sense of mission, intellect and quick wit. This week he finally gets inaugurated. “I call it installation, like putting in a dishwasher,” Drake quipped to a Center Club gathering of business leaders assembled by incoming Biz Council chairman Tom Phelps. Drake’s fellow physician, Surgeon General Richard Carmona, will join UC Regents chair Gerald Parsky and UC Prez Robert Dynes in the festivities …
The irrepressible Nick Yocca, new heart valve in place, is up and about again. His firm, Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth, is up and about, too (see story, this page) … State Sen. Jackie Speier postponed her fund-raising foray into OC last week to attend the funeral in Los Angeles of former Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh … TV personality Jane Pauley, who has struggled with bipolar disorder, keynotes the UCI Brain Imaging Center’s Silver Ribbon Dinner on April 25. Peggy Goldwater Clay will be honored.
