Unscheduled act: Saxophonist Charles Lloyd was performing...

Unscheduled act: Saxophonist Charles Lloyd was performing at the Playboy Jazz Festival on Sunday when spectators at the Hollywood Bowl let loose with a roar. They were reacting not to Lloyd but to a naked couple who were making love on a distant ridge behind the stage.

“They probably thought they were pretty secluded because they were so high up you couldn’t see them with the naked eye,” said festival-goer Elaine Lawless. “Someone with binoculars must have spotted them and passed the word. After a while, it was as though 5,000 people had their binoculars up.”

Lawless said that when the couple “would change whatever they were doing, people would cheer them on.”

After about 10 minutes, the lovers realized they were on center stage.

“The man got up and took a bow,” Lawless said. “But the woman looked like she was trying to hide behind him.”

And thus there was no encore.

*

Civic slander: “We used to enjoy living on a street with a name like Friends,” wrote Sylvia Phelps of Pacific Palisades. “Had a nice ring to it. But since the city replaced a missing street sign a couple of months ago (see photo), we’ve been going through an identity crisis.”

At least the missing “r” should discourage trick-or-treaters.

*

A dummy behind the wheel: Safe-T-Man, the newly introduced mannequin that substitutes for an automobile passenger, isn’t the first of the species.

Jeff Spring notes that “Three Cars in Every Garage,” a history of the Southern California Auto Club, mentions a 1920 ad for a rubber dummy. That creature was described as “so lifelike and terrifying that nobody a foot away can tell it isn’t a real live man. When not in use, this marvelous device is simply deflated and put under the seat . . . Price $15.”

The sad difference between then and now is that the 1920 blurb assumed that the rubber guy would only be needed in a parked car. “No thief ever attempted to steal a car with a man at the wheel!” enthused the ad writer in those pre-carjacking times.

*

One pest Safe-T-Man can’t keep away: “If you’ve ever parked in West Hollywood, particularly in the neighborhoods with permit parking,” wrote resident John Wilson, “you know how zealous the meter persons can be. I’ve actually seen one running to the next car to scribble another ticket. How fast do they move? Take a look at the signature on one I got recently. “

miscelLAny:

The forces of good and evil met in a face-to-face showdown with two outs in the ninth inning Sunday when a Dodger pitcher named Gott ( God , in German) came in to pitch against a San Diego hitter named Teufel ( devil , in German). God--and the Dodgers--won.