Gene Wood

Television game show announcer Gene Wood, one of 30 candidates running for a city council seat on the Malibu incorporation ballot, has decided to abandon his campaign after being advised by CBS officials that his appearance on "Family Feud" might require the network to provide equal broadcast time to his opponents.

Gene Wood, 78, the announcer for some of television's most popular game shows over the last 25 years, died May 21 at Massachusetts General Hospital, family members reported. The cause of death was not reported. Born in Quincy, Mass., Wood served in the Army Air Forces during World War II. After the war, he earned a bachelor's degree in speech and theater at Emerson College in Boston.

Gene Wood, 78, the announcer for some of television's most popular game shows over the last 25 years, died May 21 at Massachusetts General Hospital, family members reported. The cause of death was not reported. Born in Quincy, Mass., Wood served in the Army Air Forces during World War II. After the war, he earned a bachelor's degree in speech and theater at Emerson College in Boston.

Television game show announcer Gene Wood, one of 30 candidates running for a city council seat on the Malibu incorporation ballot, has decided to abandon his campaign after being advised by CBS officials that his appearance on "Family Feud" might require the network to provide equal broadcast time to his opponents.

Saying that he does not have sufficient time to campaign, Robert W. Rhee has abandoned his race for the City Council and has asked his supporters to vote for Larry Wan. Rhee, a tax accountant, becomes the second candidate to quit the race. Television game show announcer Gene Wood said he was quitting his campaign after officials at CBS expressed concern that they might have to provide air time to other candidates as a result of Wood's appearances on "Family Feud."

France--Antonietta Potter, Glendale: "Europeds, 761 Lighthouse Ave., Suite H, Monterey, Calif. 93940; telephone (800) 321-9552, fax (831) 655-4501. One-week "Provence Combo" biking and walking tour in France had fantastic tour guides and food." Cost: $2,595 per person, double occupancy; land only. New York--Ron Lesovsky, Huntington Beach: "Hotel Bedford, 118 E. 40th St., New York 10016; tel. (800) 221-6881. Well-maintained older hotel in midtown. Attentive staff. Free continental breakfast."

Valley Bank of Moreno Valley, a four-branch Inland Empire financial institution, agreed Tuesday to be acquired by BBVA Bancomer, Mexico's largest bank, for about $16.7 million in cash. The purchase, expected to close in the third quarter, "is a pilot program" as Bancomer looks to expand in the U.S., said Bancomer spokeswoman Julissa Bonfante. Bancomer, a subsidiary of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, Spain's second-largest bank, will pay $5.

The Cal State Northridge men's doubles tennis team of Ed Charles and Robert Burns--and women's singles player Marla Reid-- advanced to the second round of the Ojai Invitational Tournament Thursday. Charles and Burns, two of eight Matador tennis team members at the tournament, won their first match by default when the Pomona-Pitzer men's doubles team they were supposed to play did not show up. Reid advanced after a bye in the first round.

THE GREAT PANCAKE ESCAPE By Paul Many Illustrated by Scott Goto Walker & Co.: 32 pp., $16.95 After a magician father bungles breakfast, magical hotcakes lead three hungry children on a wild chase in this rhyming tale of pancake pursuit: "We had no chance to stop them/as they leaped up on their edges,/skittered quickly out the door,/and rolled right past the hedges."

Malibu is the kind of place where being a celebrity isn't supposed to matter. In a town where lawyers, doctors and retired schoolteachers share neighborhoods with some of the entertainment industry's biggest names, people tend to think of themselves as equals.

From a corner booth at the Malibu Inn, where movie stars and just plain folks often congregate over scrambled eggs and coffee, retiree William Fried was holding forth on Malibu's future. "My ideal for this place," he said, glancing across busy Pacific Coast Highway to the waves lapping onto Surfrider Beach, "is that it remain as it is."

It was an extraordinary weekend. In Pasadena, while millions watched, the television industry honored itself with Emmys. And in Malibu, 43 gathered to name a driveway after Burgess Merideth. I mean Meredith. The events were in no way related, except by our tendency to elevate those in show biz to the status of sainthood. And while a driveway to a shopping center doesn't compare to an airport or a hospital wing, it's better than what most of us get.