IF THERE’S SMOKE: Booster clubs in Cypress...

IF THERE’S SMOKE: Booster clubs in Cypress are preparing to move their fund-raising bingo games from a public school there. Reason: There’s a new federal law taking effect in December that will ban all smoking at public schools. And when you’re waiting for the G-31 you might need to bingo, there is a lot of smoking. . . . “About 85% of our bingo players smoke,” said Dave Kinney, president of the Cypress Band and Pageantry Boosters. “If we didn’t allow smoking, we wouldn’t have any attendance.”

DON’T DRIVE IN: In the movie business, it’s often the drive-ins that have a hard time drawing a crowd. Pacific Theaters tried to keep its Twin Drive-In in Orange, just off the Santa Ana Freeway, in operation by providing Spanish subtitles--like last week for the double bill of “True Lies” and “Natural Born Killers.” But this week, it announced the theater is closing, apparently for good. . . . But you can still hit the swap meet there on weekends.

GOOD DIVORCE: Since financial planner Violet Woodhouse of Anaheim Hills is also an attorney, it was only natural for her to combine her two interests by specializing in family law. . . . “They go together,” she says. “In a divorce, the main question often is, ‘Do I give up the house or the pension plan?’ ” Woodhouse this month has been chosen by Worth magazine as one of the 60 top financial advisers in the country. Says the lawyer: “Too many people get ripped off in divorce because they know too few details about their financial status.”

NEWPORT SLUMMING: It’s spicy enough to have a Newport Beach mailing address, but the prestige piles on if you can say you live on “the Peninsula.” Not everybody on the Peninsula, however, is happy these days. . . . Some of its residents complained to the City Council this week about its dirty sidewalks, dilapidated buildings and youth-oriented businesses. But one resident incensed at these criticisms countered: “I wasn’t aware I was living in a slum.”