Rick Shoemaker and Jeff Maxwell (pictured, left to right) have come a long way since they first met as neighbors at a Studio City apartment complex. The former ascended to personal management and the presidency of Warner Chappell Music Publishing, while the latter played the recurring role of Private Igor Straminsky on M*A*S*H and developed several TV projects.

This dynamic duo is now at the helm of Breaking In with Rick and Jeff, a new CRN Digital Radio Network talk show airing live Saturday nights from 7 to 8 p.m. Each week, they will dispense helpful advice to the same sort of LA showbiz aspiring types that they and their apartment complex neighbors once used to be. In the show blurb, each co-host shares an “interesting factoid:

Rick’s father was Irv Shoemaker, one of the creator-writer-voices (Cecil) for the Emmy winning kids show Beany and Cecil.

Jeff created and produced a TV pilot for CBS Daytime starring Cher’s mother and Sylvester Stallone’s mother. It didn’t sell.

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Theis week’s announcement that female-to-male transsexual Chaz Bono will be a contestant on the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars has proved a controversial choice for the hit show. ABC’s DWTS message boards have been flooded with transphobic remarks, with some viewers accusing the show of pushing a political agenda.

Today Conrad Green, executive producer of DWTS, responded to the controversy. He told The Hollywood Reporter:

We don’t have an agenda of any sorts. I think of the 120 celebrities we’ve put on the show, we’ve had, I think now, three transgender or gay contestants. If that’s a homosexual agenda, we’re not doing very well at it.

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64-year-old Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen was shot at least five times in the chest late last night and died. Her body was found in her car, which had crashed into a lightpost in Beverly Hills.

The LA Times has the rather gory details of a neighbor discovering her body:

Nahid Shekarchian, a 33-year Beverly Hills resident of the neighborhood who lives just south of the house where Chasen’s car crashed, told The Times that sometime after midnight she heard gunshots — “boom-boom-boom” — and opened the curtain of her upstairs bedroom.

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Publicist Ronni Chasen was murdered last night on her way home from an after-party after the premier of the new Cher film “Burlesque.” The 64-year-old was, according to police, shot five times in her car. LAT reporter Andrew Blankstein explained that the police are not releasing the detail of if she was shot from the inside of her car or the outside. Chasen is right in the center of the Hollywood community and connected to many in the press as well. “It’s a crime that sends shock waves through LA,” said Blankstein.

Indeed. Especially since it happened in one of the nicest areas of Los Angeles, where you move to so you won’t get shot to death in your car.

At this point the motive isn’t clear, what has been made apparent, at least to reporters, the case is pretty wide open.

Rest in peace Ronni.

Manager and legal precedent advocate Rick Siegel is backing personal manager Judy Coppage in her fight with Ronald Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis over a lawsuit about whether Coppage tried to get Davis a screenwriting job.

Siegel has been fighting this good fight, first for himself, now for any managers like Coppage who attempt to represent writers, directors and actors though they’re not allowed by an antiquated state restriction that prevents managers from procuring work — even though hundreds of managers exist in Los Angeles all the time by getting work for clients.

Below are the details regarding Coppage and Patti Davis:

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The Stars — A Line: Cher, Madonna, even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will have to stand in line today (or hire someone to do it for them) to buy an iPhone.

Amazonian To Helm YouTube Rival: It’s gonna take a big man to take on YouTube, but NBC and News Corp. chose Jason Kilar, a little-known ex-Amazon exec to head up their joint online video venture.

Welcome To Womanhood: How funny that now that Mike Penner has become Christine Daniels she gets to encounter not only the wonders of uncomfortable footwear, but the joys of insulting assignments. Her new assignment is to write the “Day in LA” column. Could anything sound more toothless than “Day in LA?” Sigh. Welcome to the club, Christine. Trust us, it doesn’t get better.

At least one Oscar winner isn’t worrying about what to wear on the red carpet on Sunday. Sherry Lansing, who’ll receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on Sunday, says she thinks the emphasis on dressing to impress the scores of reporters or arm chair critics that consider the broadcast a three hour fashion show is ridiculous. “The pressure, the dresses — the meanness — so and so should have worn that, shouldn’t be wearing that. What are we talking about? When Cher would come with her typical Cher personality wearing her outfits I loved her for it,” says the former studio head turned philanthropist. “It just not authentic now.”

Lansing learned first hand just how out of control Oscar’s fashion derby has become when it was announced she’s be receiving her award. “One of the sad things is that the very first question so many people asked me was, ‘What are you going to wear? I’m a 62-year-old woman. What difference does it make what I wear? I ain’t going to look 22. Hopefully, I’ll dress appropriately — it will be fine for all of my 45 seconds.”

— Diane Clehane