WW (Jan. 7, 2004)

* Neil Goldschmidt has brushed off media questions about his role in the proposed purchased of Portland General Electric and ducked a City Club invitation to debate the merits of the takeover, saying he couldn't talk about the deal until the bidding process was finished. But apparently it depends who's asking. The agenda for the Jan. 23 meeting of the board of Associated Oregon Industries said, "Our luncheon guest will be former Governor Neil Goldschmidt who will speak to us regarding the...proposed purchase of Portland General Electric."

* Leave it to Wieden & Kennedy, Portland's rock-star ad agency, to redefine "paid internship"--at W&K, it's the interns who are doing the paying. Next week, 24 candidates selected from hundreds of applicants nationwide will be trying out for 12 spots at a new on-site school named, appropriately, 12. Another number could be 13: Students will pay $13,000 in tuition to work at the agency for 13 months. So how is this educational program different from an internship? "How is a cat different than a dog? Completely," says Jelly Helm, director and founder of the school, which is licensed by the Oregon Department of Education. "Candidates will be doing real work for real clients--their own clients, not Wieden & Kennedy clients."

* As expected, the development firm Gerding/Edlen won the contract to manage the renovation of the historic Armory into a new home for Portland Center Stage (see "The Great White Hoax," WW, Jan. 7, 2004). Details of the contract released last week show that the firm, which is selling the building to the city, will get paid 3 percent of the renovation costs plus $7,500 a month to cover overhead. Gerding/Edlen officials say they will donate the 3 percent to Center Stage.

* While anti-tax Republicans threatened to find challengers for GOP lawmakers who supported Measure 30, Tom Cox has actually done it--and he didn't have to look far. The former Libertarian candidate for governor is running for the state Legislature in Hillsboro's House District 29, a seat held by Republican Mary Gallegos, who voted for the temporary tax hike. Democrats, who hold a razor-thin advantage in voter registration in the district, would love to see tax-hating Republicans and independents swing Cox's way in November.

* Over in District 43, meanwhile, Democrat Chip Shields, head of Better People, a nonprofit that helps ex-cons get back on the straight and narrow, is preparing to run for the open North Portland House seat being vacated by Deborah Kafoury.

* Some revealing candor by Portland filmmaker Gus Van Sant in a recent, unflattering Vanity Fair profile of Miramax's Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Turns out Van Sant never made a penny off the Academy Award-winning movie Good Will Hunting, apparently due to some creative accounting that made the film, which grossed almost $140 million at the box office, look like it was "$50 million in the red," as Ben Affleck put it. Said Van Sant, "I'm sure there was a couple of million dollars owed me, but small enough to hide.... In the end, it was easier for me to just do another movie than it was to try to get my money out of Miramax."

* It's not just us and Jay Leno who are noticing Portlanders' affinity for obesity (see "The New Urban Sprawl," WW, Jan. 14, 2004) and caffeinated doughnuts (see last week's Murmurs). In its recent "Dubious Achievement Awards 2003" issue, Esquire magazine lists the "supersized" ambulances that have been introduced in the Rose City for severely obese passengers.