OC INSIDER — Move Afoot to Form Tech Network; Mamie Still Va-vooming at 67

Everybody talks about how Orange County lacks the networking groups that make Silicon Valley and some other tech hotspots hum. Now a few local heavyweights are trying to do something about it. The Insider is told that UCI vice chancellor Tom Moebus (Viewpoint, page 67) has been meeting with Bruce Hallett, Chuck Martin (interview, page 5), Luis Villalobos, Walt Schindler and others about setting up an organization along the lines of UCSD Connect or the MIT Enterprise Forum to link entrepreneurs, technology and money. The group is also looking at how to raise more venture capital and start incubators Unlike most outside developers, the Irvine Co. has managed to make a home for itself in Silicon Valley, partly because local government people like the fact the company does homes as well as offices; the company has 3.5 million square feet of office and R & D; space and 3,400 housing units either built or on the way. Now, reported the July 12 Wall Street Journal, Irvine Co. is talking to giant Cisco, its million-square-foot tenant, about finding or building housing for the networking-equipment maker’s growing workforce Second Act: Who’s hot? One of Orange County’s best-preserved treasures, Mamie Van Doren, proprietor of a popular and steamy Web site (www.mamievandoren.com) and the subject of a feature story last week on Salon.com. “Bombshells away: At 67, Mamie Van Doren, natural wonder, B-movie actress and Nixon favorite, is selling nipple prints online and enjoying a comeback,” cooed Salon, which devoted four pages to the Balboa Peninsula beauty. The other ’50s M-girls, Marilyn and Mansfield, are long gone, but Mamie keeps bouncing along. She’s hired Howard Stern’s agent, Don Buchwald, and she recently shot a cameo for “Slackers,” an upcoming Destination Films picture. Some things never change,Mamie’s first film appearance in 15 years will find her in a bathtub, opposite star Jason Schwartzman. “I’m always seducing young guys,” the typecast Van Doren told the Insider.