PHIL & MICK: Will political sparks fly...

PHIL & MICK: Will political sparks fly this week between liberal TV talk show host Phil Donahue and conservative Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange)? Conroy, who recently flew to New York to tape Donahue’s show, says, chuckling: “I was surprised; I thought he’d be more belligerent. But then, the audience was on my side.” . . . Subject: Conroy’s controversial bill to return corporal punishment to public schools here. . . . The Conroy segment airs at 2 p.m. Wednesday on KNBC-Channel 4.

AFFIRMATIVE VISIT: Assembly Speaker Willie Brown might have a hard time holding office if he had to run in Orange County. But the Democrat will be in friendly company at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel Thursday and Friday for a Saddleback College diversity conference. Topics scheduled: affirmative action and Proposition 187. . . . Also speaking: local Human Relations Commission executive director Rusty Kennedy, who says dismantling affirmative action could divide society into “warring camps.”

INDEPENDENT DAY: It helps to have your own stars when raising money for a cause. Mission Viejo’s Victoria and Randall Curlee--they gained fame recently when she donated a kidney to him--will be special guests today for a major National Kidney Foundation fund-raiser at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach. Among the guest speakers is another independent thinker: Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, above, whose 1978 bestseller “A Woman of Independent Means” was recently turned into a TV miniseries.

MAN OR DOG? Dogs in police work are becoming more common. But you couldn’t blame city officials in Orange the past week for having a special ceremony for Rudy, the Belgian Malinois police dog. He’s retiring after apprehending 97 criminal suspects and sniffing out narcotics valued at $700,000 plus two drug labs. . . . Beyond that, Rudy also was named by a city newspaper to its list of “57 Most Influential People.” Rudy was 27th--just ahead of Jack Lindquist, then Disneyland president.