At the very end of Ted Chen’s report on NBC Southern California about the Stanley Cup’s stopover Monday in Hermosa Beach comes the strangest LA Kings championship mental image yet:

“Joining the cup at Strand House restaurant in Manhattan Beach Sunday night were some other celebrities including Cuba Gooding Jr., Sharon Stone and Jerry Bruckheimer.

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Under the pseudonym of Jozef Rothstein, one-time wannabe LA actor Gene Duffy has compiled a comical look at his dogged pursuit of the Hollywood dream, funded by years of day-job toiling at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Studio City. For the book’s title, Duffy chose an expression he liked to use with co-workers when describing the daily pastrami-and-rye-clatter routine: As the Matzo Ball Turns.

Duffy is now safely back in his native Pennsylvania and due for his next book signing June 16. Speaking recently with the same local reporter who wrote about him when he headed west in the late 1990s, Duffy highlighted some friendly celeb customers (Adam Sandler, Shaquille O’Neal…) and not-so-great famous folks (Sharon Stone…). He also suggested that beyond the hundreds of auditions, he got a taste of another staple of the Tinseltown trample:

“From 2002 to 2010, I wrote five screenplays… I wrote one about football because that’s what I knew. But someone in the business told me there were too many football stories that I should use a different sport. So I wrote a hockey drama and shopped it around. The next time I saw it, it was on the screen without my name.”

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A couple of years ago, the Recording Academy loosened eligibility rules for the category of Best Comedy Album. It’s OK now for the soundtrack of a TV program to be considered an “album.”

It’s only because of this rule change that Kathy Griffin is in the running again this weekend with 50 & Not Pregnant, a product put out by Universal Network Television. That does not sit well with Dylan P. Gadino, editor of Laughspin.com. He recently told LA Times reporter Deborah Vankin that Griffin does not belong in the category for a fourth straight year:

“You shouldn’t be able to take audio from a television show and call it a comedy album,” says Gadino. “Original intent, editing and production should come into play.”

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It sure didn’t take long for Phil Bronstein to make some major additional impact on California Watch. Just weeks after leaving the San Francisco media world for the vanguard non-profit’s Berkeley boardroom, the Bay Citizen is reporting that its own two-year-old operations may soon be folded into CW.

It makes sense, mainly because the founder and benefactor of the Citizen, San Francisco investor and philanthropist Warren Hellman, passed away in December at age 77. Per the report:

In the weeks before Hellman’s death, sources say, he began discussions with Bronstein, then a vice president at Hearst Corporation, to take over as chief executive of The Bay Citizen when Liz Frazier stepped down. Her last day on the job is Monday. She declined to comment for this article…

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At the New York Times “Wheels” blog (a.k.a. The Nuts and Bolts of Whatever Moves You), contributor Tori Tellem has a fun rundown of the VIP party events that surrounded the November 17th-18th press preview days for the Los Angeles Auto Show. It’s not entirely A-list caliber stuff, but it’s still the kind of celeb smorgasbord that few other American cities can rival.

At the Lotus end of the show floor, the unholy trifecta of Sharon Stone, Billy Baldwin and KISS member Paul Stanley helped unveil sparkling new automotive offerings. Sorry to say, but if this were a movie, it would go straight to VOD. Other celebrations were a little more high-brow.

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Basic Instinct 2 has been nominated for seven Golden Raspberry Awards, including picture and actress for Sharon Stone. Nominations traditionally come out a day before the Academy announces Oscar nominations. Brian Hegleland has won both in one year, but not for the same movie. Thus far, only James Coco and Amy Irving have been nominated for both awards for the same performance–both lost, as well. FBLA lives for the day a Razzie-winning anything gets an Oscar.

Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Simpson are competing with Stone, and we predict that Simpson has a long future ahead of her in this category.

The Damon Brothers comedy Little Man also had seven, including worst film and actor (both Shawn and Marlon Wayans).

Others up for the worst film award include BloodRayne, Lady in the Water and The Wicker Man, which seems unfair. Surely big budget bombs should have their own category, but then so should Uwe Boll.

Anyone can vote on the Razzies, and you can join at the site.