The 2004 Playboy Playmate of the Year,
Carmella DeCesare Garcia
, once got into a notorious spat with a woman in a Cleveland bar over former Browns quarterback
Jeff Garcia
,
whom DeCesare later married.
Now she's picked another fight in the Warehouse District. This time, the weapon is a lawsuit, not her foot.
DeCesare Garcia, who lists a Westlake home as her residence, filed suit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court against Sin Nightclub on West Sixth Street and First Class Mobile DJ Service for using her likeness on advertising fliers with the slogan, "Where naughty is nice."
Though the bikini-clad woman in the picture is not named, it's clearly her. And she didn't give permission.
"She's at a different place in her life. She is married and has two kids. She's not advertising any bars, especially with what happened a few years ago," her lawyer, Mark Obral, said, referring to the 2005 spat. He said she and Garcia have two children now and live mostly in California.
"Cleveland is her home," he said, "and she wants to have a good image."
Old school: Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan sounded like a cranky old man.
"How long do you think we're going to discuss this?" he asked as a painfully long discussion on purchasing county office supplies ate up the clock at a Thursday meeting.
"Let's wrap this up. It's my birthday."
What, did he have his eye on the early bird special at Perkins?
Joseph Gauntner, the county's employment and family services director, playfully wished Hagan a "happy 75th birthday." While controversy has aged Hagan in recent years, he's really only 64.
"He's 75 in county commissioner years," said Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones.
Later in the meeting, Senior and Adult Services Director Susan Axelrod helpfully encouraged Hagan to come visit her office for more information about programs for the elderly.
Drawing a winner:
A tip of the pen to
Chris Sharron
of Stow, a Kent State University senior who won a National Journalism Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation for the editorial cartoons he draws for The Daily Kent Stater. Sharron, who serves as an illustrator as well as a cartoonist for the paper, won the
Charles M. Schulz
Award from the Scripps Howard Foundation. It carries with it a $10,000 prize, which is a lot of ramen noodles for a college student.
Beauty of a song: Syndicated radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt fawned over the Lyseum school's "Schola Cantorum" on his show last week, playing clips of the Cleveland chorale and children's choir's music. He raved about 15-year-old soloist Taylor Tripodi for good reason after he played "Beauty of a Life," a song she wrote on her guitar and performed twice at the "Bringing America Back to Life" event Hewitt attended at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. The event was a Right to Life conference in Cleveland March 8 and 9.
The Lyceum, in Little Italy, is a small school created in 2003 to provide "classical Catholic" education to students in grades seven to 12.
Join the crowd: The buzzards came back to Hinkley Township last week, just as another rite of spring in Cleveland took flight .
More than a third of Cleveland City Council flew off to the nation's capital for the annual National League of Cities meeting.
Eight council members and Clerk Pat Britt attended the sessions. Council President Martin J. Sweeney said he limited attendance to those who are on League committees. Otherwise, he might have had to convene the council meeting in Washington. Council isn't big on sending, say, one or two people, to bring back information.
With so many gone, council – for only the second time Sweeney could remember – did not have enough members to suspend rules and pass legislation as it normally does, at its Monday meeting.
There were enough to hold a meeting, but only after some pleading by Sweeney, via an e-mail from Britt to council members explaining that the absence of so many members made it "imperative that those remaining members be present and on time."
Matt Zone, Terrell Pruitt, Phyllis Cleveland, Zack Reed, Eugene Miller, Mamie Mitchell, Kevin Conwell and T.J. Dow made the League of Cities trip. Dow returned in time for the Monday council meeting.
Council spokeswoman Diana Prodan said Friday she did not have the amount spent on the trips.
Rapid response: Two Regional Transit Authority employees are shoo-ins for agency awards this month after their quick action saved a life. John Romanchik, manager of training, rail and safety, and Transit Police Officer Lawrence Oryl left RTA's Tower City station to help a man who collapsed. They administered CPR, then used a nearby automated external defibrillator to shock the man's heart back into rhythm. He regained a pulse and Cleveland police and an emergency medical service crew took over.