Ailing Orange-based subprime lender Ameriquest has given up its naming rights to the Texas Rangers’ ballpark and wants out of its Nascar sponsorship. The company no longer will be displayed at Angel Stadium, either. The local deal, which included a sign on the Big A and on the outfield wall, expired at the end of last season, says Angels spokesman Tim Mead …
Speaking of big A’s, local Democratic Party kingpin (and Citizens Business Bank poster boy) Wylie Aitken is backing fellow trial lawyer John Edwards for president. Aitken recently hosted a luncheon for Edwards at the Balboa Bay Club, then rode with him to John Wayne Airport where they met up with an energetic Elizabeth Edwards. This was just days before the Edwardses, and the nation, learned of Elizabeth’s cancer recurrence … Concordia U’s new Robert Alan Grimm Hall has state-of-the-art technology, panoramic views and paintings by Rembrandt, Dali and Chagall …
Allergan’s worldly boss David Pyott has met his linguistic match: He’s former BioLase CEO Robert Grant, who now runs Pyott’s booming Allergan Medical division (Botox, dermal fillers, breast implants, stomach clamps, etc.). Pyott says he’d already decided to hire Grant and wanted to have some fun with the job interview last year. So he segued from English to German to French. Not only did Grant keep up, “He spoke perfect Rhineland German while I used a rougher southern German/Austrian Schwarzenegger -style dialect.” Pyott tried to stump Grant with Spanish, but when Grant countered with Korean and Japanese, Pyott, who doesn’t speak either, decided it was time to return to English …
Hot new restaurant: Azmin Ghahreman’s Sapphire Laguna …
Want your own fan club, cold shoulders from neighbors and scathing write-ups in Mickadeit’s column? Then bring the whole family to the casting call for season three of “The Real Housewives of Orange County,” on Saturday, probably at Mission Viejo CC. Details at www.evolutionusa.com. Executive Producer Scott Dunlop says the next season of the cable hit will be more “kid-focused.” And tell your friends in Calabasas there will be a casting call there, too, for a new reality-show collaboration between Dunlop and Bravo …
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Hick town? EE RR with tumbleweed on Campus Drive by UCI |
Media barons speak: Freedom Communications CEO Scott Flanders, April 10 to a Forum for Corporate Directors dinner at the Hyatt Regency Irvine; OC Register publisher Chris Anderson, April 18 to an OC Forum luncheon at the Hilton Irvine.
