Everybody’s business

Ballroom? I didn’t know I was crowding you
Developer Wayne Cook’s plans to include a ballroom in the Morehead Building at 336 Broadway, as an adjunct of his new Diamond Hotel next door on Fourth Street, means the offices of the Synthesis, a weekly entertainment tabloid, and its related businesses will have to move.

But there’s no hard feelings, said Publisher Bill Fishkin. Cook “has been great to us.”

Fishkin said The Synthesis wants to stay downtown and is close to signing a lease on another spot a few blocks away that’s roomier than its current 2,200-square-foot digs. “It’ll be nice to have more space,” he said. “This will give us a lot of room to grow.”

Cook’s phone rang off the hook every time I called, so I couldn’t ask him about his ballroom plans. Perhaps he’ll save the first dance for me?

Mourning Martha
America loves a fall from power and grace, and in the case of Martha Stewart it also means a fall from television. After Stewart was found guilty of being a big fat liar, Viacom decided to pull her syndicated Martha Stewart Living program from all CBS and UPN stations that Viacom owns.

But it’s unclear whether that will apply to KHSL Channel 12, the local CBS affiliate. The person who answered the phone at the Chico office assumed the show would be pulled (General Manager John Stall didn’t call back by press time). But KHSL is owned by Connecticut-based Catamount Broadcasting Group, not Viacom.

KOBI in Medford, Ore., is among the stations bucking the trend and keeping Martha on the air pending her appeal.

The show was supposed to be pulled starting March 8, but the next day CN&R Editor Tom Gascoyne and I were in his office enjoying an episode where Stewart visited some kind of orchard.

I kind of feel sorry for her. Just because the jury believed she lied doesn’t mean she’s lost her knack for simmering potpourri, weaving ribbons into baskets or having awkward chit-chat with kids during cooking segments.

As that Queer Eye guy said on Extra!, “Who will tell us when to clean our chicken coops?”

Posh spice
I haven’t been able to hook up with the owner of the new Spice Creek Café, which is taking the place of Cory’s downtown at 230 West Third St.

But they are taking job applications, so it shouldn’t be long before the new restaurant is open. Cory Lautin-Davis, who closed the 14-year-old eatery in December to focus on catering and a country inn, previously described the new proprietor as a professional chef who has owned restaurants in the past.

I’m not a leather gal
I got a message from Mervyn’s telling me they found a leather wallet with nothing in it but my business card. (Actually, when I called back it turned out there were cards from Kinko’s and Butte College in there, too, so I didn’t feel so special anymore.)

They’re hanging onto the wallet for a while, so if you had the good fortune to secure my business card and the bad fortune to lose your wallet, go pick it up.