LOS ANGELES — When it came time to shout, “Action!” the earthquake was ready for its close-up. Tuesday’s 5.4 temblor rattled the heart of TV land, where cameras were rolling all around town.
Thus we saw “Judge Judy’s” Judy Sheindlin scrambling from her courtroom set, leaving the plaintiff and defendant to fend for themselves. At the set of “Family Court With Judge Penny,” Penny Brown Reynolds dived under her desk while galley spectators dashed for the door.
At CBS’s “Big Brother” house, a few of the residents appeared to be napping when they were startled awake at 11:42 a.m.
Then there were the surveillance recordings taken from hidden cameras mounted all over Southern California. They showed people running out of stores as everything from bottles of booze to bicycles crashed to the floor.
Because damage was minor and no one was seriously hurt, the plethora of videos of Tuesday’s quake mainly gave people something to laugh about Wednesday.
There was a long-winded discussion of trash collection fees at Los Angeles City Hall that was interrupted by Councilman Dennis Zine shouting, “There goes the earthquake. Earthquake! Earthquake! Earthquake! We’ve got an earthquake!” When things settled down and Council president Wendy Gruel asked him if he wanted to use his remaining 45 seconds of his time to continue talking, Zine said: “My comments already shook the Earth. So I think I’m done.”
