Last episode (“A Clockwork Orange,” March 24), we told you about Assemblyman Robert Pacheco's proposed Assembly Bill 1085: Drug-Free Mobile Home Parks. We identified Pacheco as being from Riverside and “the Assembly Republican leader for about two minutes before the party leadership realized they'd put a Hispanic in a high-level position.” Brenda Quintana, Pacheco's district director, called Clockwork on March 27 to inform us that while her boss is a Republican and an Assemblyman and the author of the mobile-home bill, he's not from Riverside (his home office is in Industry Hills), and he was never the GOP leader. That was Assemblyman Rod Pacheco (R-Riverside). Wow, we asked, has anyone ever confused the two before? “Are you kidding me? Constantly,” replied Quintana. “Whenever this happens, Rod's office calls me—I have a friend over there —and says, 'Here it goes again.' One person actually put them together and called my Assemblyman 'Bod Pacheco.'”
We'd almost bought Quintana's story when it struck us: Has anyone actually seen Rod or Bob or Bod in the same room together? Is it not at least conceivable that the same politician is representing both Assembly Districts at the same time? To get to the bottom of this, we politely asked Quintana and her friend in Riverside to send photos of their respective assemblymen. Both agreed, but only one picture arrived—the one you see here of Bob. Or Rod. Or Bod, or whoever the hell it is. Something smells fishy on the 60 freeway, and it ain't Chino.
LOVE THAT BOD, ER, BOB Weekly writer Victor D. Infante sent word on March 28 that actor Bruce Davison had just taken part in an Internet chat to promote his role in the upcoming summer movie X-Men. Davison plays U.S. Senator Robert Kelley in the live-action adaptation of the popular X-Men comic books. When asked what politicians he based his bigoted, hatemongering character on, Davison dodged answering directly, although he did say, “There's Robert Dornan's flamboyance going on.” Flamboyance. So that's what you call it.
OH, HOW THE MOSSIMO HAVE FALLEN Irvine-based Mossimo Inc. announced on March 28 that its hip fashions will be sold in Target discount stores. Retail experts quoted in the Los Angeles Times and The Orange County Register—so it must be true!—characterized the deal as a move of desperation by a company that has repeatedly taken financial body blows over the past three years. Designer Mossimo Giannulli once wanted his name mentioned in the same breath as Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani and Donna Karan and talked of the “Moss lifestyle.” In 1998, after a turnaround strategy was developed to distribute clothes mainly through department stores such as Macy's and Bloomingdale's, Giannulli told the Reg, “I could have opened the floodgates by selling to [mass retailers like Target]—something that I'd now regret—but I didn't. I've always been determined to protect the integrity of the brand.” That brand will now be draped over red shopping carts filled with Scotts Turf Builder lawn fertilizer, 24 packs of Quilted Northern toilet tissue and supersize bags of Nacho Cheesier Doritos.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.