Mother of ReinventionPresident-elect Bill Clinton wants to...

Mother of Reinvention

President-elect Bill Clinton wants to “reinvent government.”

General Motors is being told it must “reinvent itself.” Business Week’s cover story is about “Reinventing America.” Our state is being told it must “reinvent the California dream.”

If nothing else, 1992 is the year of reinvention, the clear cliche of choice in describing the way to solve a problem. Since June alone, here is a list from the popular press of things reinvented or candidates for reinvention:

The United States, California state government, womanhood, schools, Home Box Office, innovation, the jobless, Madonna, nature, Compaq computers, displaced workers, President Bush, ourselves, actor Robert De Niro, the world and civilization.

Also, American education, designer Diane Von Furstenberg, Prince, the Republican Party, American business, Clinton, Bucharest, the hippie, the New York Daily News and, of course, the wheel.

Can’t Bank on It Here

Things aren’t going well for would-be Hollywood mogul Giovanni Di Stefano, an Italian businessman who says he has made an unsolicited $500-million bid for the historic MGM studio.

The French bank Credit Lyonnais, which owns MGM, refused to take the bid seriously. And the Hollywood publicity firm Rogers & Cowan has quietly distanced itself from Di Stefano.

Now state banking officials are cracking down on two banks in Beverly Hills that a Di Stefano-affiliated company, Elixir, has been touting as major new players in entertainment lending.

State regulators just issued a cease-and-desist warning to Premier Bancorp in Beverly Hills (no relation to Premier Bank in Northridge) and an office of the Cyprus-based Industrial Bank of Kibris. Seems neither is licensed to do business here.

Regulators said they were alerted when some bad cashier’s checks were issued to travel agents. One even listed the Industrial Bank of Kibris headquarters as being on the Mediterranean island of “Cypress,” as in the tree.

Maybe ‘Sony’ Is Available

Entertainment giant MCA has been running into an unexpected problem from a pesky foe in its battle to stop illegal “bootleg” versions of classic blues and rock recordings it owns.

According to MCA lawyers, England’s Charly Records has been trying to frustrate MCA by registering MCA-owned label names such as “Chess” in European countries before MCA can register them itself.

In France, Charly went one step further: It tried unsuccessfully to register the name “Matsushita,” the Japanese industrial giant that owns MCA.

Briefly . . .

Great way to discourage a freeway shooting: A civilian version of the “Hummer” used by U.S. troops in the Gulf War will be featured at the Long Beach International Auto Show later this month . . . Just the facts: President-elect Clinton’s staff boasts that one of its chief California business supporters is BankAmerica immediate past Chairman Leland Prussia, a title that actually belongs to longtime B of A executive A. W. (Tom) Clausen . . . Job retraining program: The Learning Annex is offering a course tonight in Los Angeles called “Be a Santa for Christmas: Earn Money Playing Santa, Mrs. Claus or an Elf.”