You may recall that a month ago,...

You may recall that a month ago, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce forced Newhall’s Downtown Western Walk of Fame to change its name to the Walk of Western Stars. The chamber, ever-vigilant lest Newhall become the world’s entertainment capital, explained that it had copyrighted the phrase, “Walk of Fame.”

But . . . Hollywood types are known for showing favoritism toward relatives.

And, today, a sister city of Los Angeles--Nagoya, Japan--should pass the final hurdle to achieve its dream of installing its own Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Los Angeles Harbor Department’s Board of Commissioners is expected to approve a $60,000 expenditure to supply 25 prefabricated stars (celebrities haven’t yet been designated), with Hollywood’s blessing.

The Walk of Clones is intended to salute the 30th anniversary of the sister-city relationship, as well as Nagoya’s centennial. “We were trying to find something very truly American and certainly very truly Hollywood, very Los Angeles,” said Julia Nagano, a Harbor Department spokeswoman.

The Japan Walk, incidentally, will be housed in a section of Nagoya called Los Angeles Square. No doubt it will come to be known as Little L.A.

We’ve got everything from Dial-a-Pizza to Dial-a-Prayer. It was only a matter of time before the arrival of . . .

Dial-A-Planet.

That’s right, space buffs will be able to receive up-to-the-minute details of Voyager’s rendezvous with Neptune as the data is received and interpreted by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Cost of making the call (1-900-909-NASA) is $2 for the first minute and 45 cents for each additional minute. The service will be available from 6 a.m. Thursday until 6 a.m. Sunday. Then, Dial-a-Planet’s line goes dead until another area code in the solar system can be contacted.

When a guy’s determined, really determined, to BUILD THAT PATIO, he’ll pick up the supplies even if his car is disabled. For example, there was Al Fisher of Eagle Rock the other day, precariously balancing a beam on one shoulder as he made the uphill trip home from the lumberyard on a motorcycle.

Who knows if it’ll ever assume its proposed position above the Hollywood Freeway. But a model of the proposed $33-million “Steel Cloud”--seen by its backers as the West Coast’s Statue of Liberty--is on display this month at street level in the City Hall East lobby.

It’s about time. Like many a controversial production, “Cloud” opened out of town--in a San Francisco exhibit hall earlier this year, where it was described as everything from “a jungle gym for adults” to a symbol of “the fragmentary character” of society.

The miniature features such attractions as museums, restaurants and aquariums. It’s also decorated with tiny plastic palm trees (a nice L.A. touch), pedestrians and fewer cars than Mel Gibson encounters in the post-nuclear-war-era film, “The Road Warrior.”

Crescencio Rodriguez drives the real streets of Los Angeles for a living, so his opponents in the International Bus Roadeo may argue that he’s had an unfair advantage learning to avoid traffic hazards.

Whatever, Rodriguez, an RTD driver on the Wilshire Boulevard line, will represent Southern California in the safe-driving finals Sept. 26 in Atlanta.

He beat out 31 finalists in the district competition in the parking lot of the Santa Anita Race Track, where he was asked to negotiate a series of mazes featuring traffic cones and barrels. The lot was first cleared of its usual hazards, race track touts.

It’s been an odd year for folks in the Elysian Park area. Forty Medflies were discovered earlier this month near Dodger Stadium. And, for months before that, the anemic Dodger hitters have also been producing plenty of pop flies.