I just saw on the news, Heather Locklear was arrested for driving under the influence of perscribed medication. I remember she had checked herself into some kind of rehab recently.

Some L.A. collectors/dealers, tell me she was usually good about signing autographs.

And, this reminded me of a story I saw in the L.A. Times a few weeks back.

Book Soup, on the Sunset Strip, has long been my favorite book store. They just get so many big names in their signing autographs.

Robert Wagner was there Saturday, only a few hours after I was in the store (although I didn't hang around to see him). They have Tim Reid and Tom Dresen coming up, two of my favorite comedians (Reid was Venus Flytrap on WKRP).

Spike Lee will be in, as well as Alexander Payne, who wrote a few of the best movies of recent years (Sideways, About Schmidt, Election).

But, back to the models.

The L.A. Times had Veruschka, a model I had never heard of. She was from Germany, and in the 60s, considered a "super model" before that term was ever used.

She had a role in Antonioni's film "Blow Up".

She was also one of the first models to ever pose in nothing but body paint.

When she did a signing at Book Soup, the hand-bound book of photos and interviews, went for $500.

I couldn't believe it. I mean, if it was a model from the 60s, like Twiggy, or....I dunno, someone I had heard of. And, for that price, I want to be taking the photos myself. Or applying the body paint.

I did pay $500 once for an autographed box set of musician Captain Beefheart. He's been real sick for a long time, and the thought of getting his autograph on a piece of his art, was just to appealing to pass up. I was very disappointed in the box set, though. It was said to have all these rare recordings, which ended up being a bunch of cryptic poems that I don't care about.