Checker demanded that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland put a statue of himself in the courtyard. "I want my flowers while I'm alive. I can't smell them when I'm dead. I will not have the music business ignore my position in the industry." (Checker has not yet been voted into the hall of fame.)

Hall of fame President Terry Stewart said the request was not reasonable. "The idea that we could elevate one individual with a statue out front would suggest I would have to do likewise for all the rest of the people in the pantheon."

Meanwhile, 35 years after Country Joe and the Fish made "I-Feel-Like-I'm- Fixin'-to-Die Rag" the anti-Vietnam War anthem, Babette Ory, descendant of the composer of the 1926 instrumental "Muskrat Ramble," is suing for copyright infringement. Joe McDonald, a.k.a. Country Joe, has put a copy of the legal complaint on his Web site.

SOMETIMES WE DO GET ALONG: Bill Clinton and Al Gore are friends again, and Washingtonian magazine provides word of another rift mending. George McGovern and Thomas Eagleton haven't been friends since 1972, when McGovern, running for president, kicked Eagleton, his vice presidential nominee, off the ticket after it was learned that Eagleton had received electroshock treatments.

Recently reading Stephen Ambrose's "The Wild Blue," which described McGovern winning a Distinguished Flying Cross for flying B-24 bombers during World War II, Eagleton was moved to send McGovern a congratulatory letter. McGovern responded in a friendly manner and another Great Divide was bridged.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind celebrated his birthday on Saturday night chez Bill and Vanessa Getty, who threw a bash that included the singer Seal, Minnie Driver, Amanda De Cadenet (who used to be Keanu Reeves' girlfriend and seemed to be a contender for the post of first lady of the honoree), and such local favorites as Stanlee Gatti, producer Jason Carmer,

filmmakers David Munro and Xandra Castleton, Naked Barbies singer Patty Spiglanin and Industrial Light & Magic special-effects man Scott Balcerek.

The birthday boy -- whose age was something of a mystery -- was heard discussing Gustav Mahler with Michael Tilson Thomas, but nonetheless, his true roots showed. When he arrived a half-hour late, Driver cracked, "Well, he is a rock star, isn't he?"

P.S. Elsewhere on the blowing-out-the-candles scene, MTT himself tossed a birthday bash for Supervisor Mark Leno recently that practical Leno converted into a kickoff for his Assembly campaign.

P.P.S. Driver, who appears in magazine ads for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, stayed there over the weekend, along with Seal, Stevie Nicks and Sheryl Crow.

ART STAR: Bonnie Grossman, whose Ames Gallery in Berkeley is packed with old-fashioned but fashionable kitchen gear, says that 50 or 60 of her objects were used in "The Deep End." Most prominently featured in the film, however, were collages spotted by the moviemakers when they came to the gallery. They were made by artist Sy Grossman, who is also a jazz musician, retired gastroenterologist and husband of the proprietor.

FINALLY: Prince Edward's Ardent Productions Ltd. issued a formal statement and apology after it was caught shooting footage for "A-Z of Royalty" at St. Andrews University, Prince William's school. All footage shot was returned to Buckingham Palace, said the statement, and did not contain pictures of William.

The company said it "utterly respects the need for him to be left alone to undertake his studies in private."

'She'd come in like royalty, have the unit polished. . . . She'd hover like a blow-up doll at one end of the wing and go out the other. It was, like, 13 Hail Bettys, and she'd go home."

-- Ozzy Osbourne recalling Betty Ford's visit to the Betty Ford Center, in Blender magazine.

Nuggets o' gossip welcomed by Leah Garchik at (415) 777-8426 or lgarchik@sfchronicle.com.