Tommy

Except that the title has already been taken, Matthew Witten's "The Deal" at the Back Alley Theatre could have been called "The Sting." It traces a small-town FBI set-up that goes awry, and it doesn't end with 19 rounds of gunfire. This is theater, not TV. Good theater, too. Witten writes tight and sticks to the evidence, rather like his hero, an FBI agent named Peter, not Pete (John M. Jackson). Peter is trying to get the goods on Jimmy, a two-bit ward boss (Michael Cavanaugh).

Don't let the title fool you. Keith Reddin's "Life During Wartime," which opened Sunday at the La Jolla Playhouse's Warren Theatre, is not about war in the traditional sense. It is about subdivisions of the word: urban warfare, the war within us and--mostly--political warfare as in sexual and office politics. Combat zones all. Outwardly, this unusual play is a richly comical examination of some of the territory covered by David Mamet in "Glengarry Glen Ross."

Can police corruption be funny? If it's of the screwball variety found on "The Job," the answer is yes, but only if you don't mind some extra vice in your vice squad. Comedian Denis Leary stars in and helped create this comedy series about New York City police detectives, which hit the air last season with six episodes on ABC. Thanks to some tinkering with the network's lineup earlier this month, the show has returned for the second half of this season.

One of the greatest challenges of any reporter, especially those of us who work in the outlying Orange County bureaus, is finding a hiding place from the editors. Because my bosses were reporters in another life, I'm sure they know this and would even admit to it if they weren't on deadline or carrying a fist full of assignments to farm out. So it is with great reluctance that I reveal where I've been spending some of my mornings on the job in Anaheim: Zaby's Motor Lodge.

Under the very downtown parking lot in which playwright Joel Bloom has staged his drive-in movie spoof, "Mayhem at Mayfield Mall," there might lurk the kind of toxic-waste time bomb that zaps innocent shoppers in Mayfield, Ohio. The L.A. cousin of Tommy the Toxic Waste Monster (Jay Bright) surely won't match him in cuddly charm and sloppy table manners. Tommy, you see, burps after meals. Wait a minute. Parking lot? Drive-in? This is the theater department reporting, isn't it?

If the World Series winds up being between the Cardinals and Blue Jays--a Series ABC no doubt will hype by inviting viewers to "Watch the Birdies"--St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog should consider a crash course in learning the names of the Toronto players before Saturday's opening game. He should also, of course, remember to bring along his passport and a guide on how to speak Canadian.

Merry Clayton's spine-chilling vocal on the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" is one of the most famed in '60s rock. But the 1969 classic brings painful memories to Clayton: The physical strain of the intense duet with Mick Jagger resulted in a miscarriage after the session. So audiences' frequent requests for "Gimme Shelter" might sting like salt in an old wound. Clayton, who performs at the Gardenia Room on Friday, says she was buoyed by her religious upbringing in combating the loss.

Ken Venturi, who won the 1964 U.S. Open golf championship in dramatic fashion and became a longtime television commentator, died Friday in Rancho Mirage. He was 82. Venturi, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame earlier this month, died at Eisenhower Medical Center after battling a spinal infection, pneumonia and an intestinal infection, his son Matt said. The U.S. Open victory was one of Venturi's 14 tournament wins as a pro. Though he suffered from a severe stutter as a youth, he worked as the lead analyst for CBS Sports from 1968 to 2002.

BEIJING - Exports of elegant Swiss watches to China have plunged. Sales of Mercedes-Benz and other premium sedans are slowing. And high-end restaurants, coming off their worst Chinese New Year festival in years, are starting to change their menus to lure ordinary families. At a Montblanc shop in downtown Beijing, sales clerks recall the days when they rang up as many as 10 of the top-selling fountain pens every day. And never mind the $1,400 price tag: The platinum-plated pen capped with a half-carat diamond was a particular favorite.

Josh Hamilton said he was assured by doctors this week that the allergies that lead to occasional sinus and throat discomfort and dizziness were not caused or exacerbated by his heavy cocaine use from 2002-2005. "You have a hallway up the middle of your nose and sinus cavities on each side," said Hamilton, whose addiction to drugs and alcohol led to a ban from baseball from 2003-2005. "When you breathe air, it goes up and down the hallway. "Same thing when you do drugs, it goes up the hallway, not into the sinus cavities.