On Quitting While You’re Ahead, Or, This Guy Has Balls The Size Of . . . Well, You Know

After abandoning the piece at Bowling Green and using the site as his private showroom, Charging Bull sculptor Arturo DiModica now wants to sue businesses who use the image for advertising:

Arturo Di Modica is seeing red, accusing Wal-Mart, North Fork Bank and seven smaller concerns of horning in on the popularity of the 7,000-pound, bronze “Charging Bull,” which stands in Bowling Green Park.

In a suit filed in Manhattan federal court, Di Modica said Wal-Mart was selling photos of “Charging Bull” without his permission.

And North Fork Bank, based in Melville, L.I., is using the sculpture in a national advertising campaign — also without his permission, he says.

“It must stop,” an angry Di Modica told The Post yesterday.

“I’m tired of seeing all this work done. It’s bad for my career. What they’re selling is not a good representation of my work. It’s destroying my image.

“If they want to sell it, they must buy it from me. I see people making money off my work.”

Di Modica, who spent two years and $350,000 of his own money creating the 16-foot-long bull, trucked it to the entrance of the New York Stock Exchange in December 1989.

He said it was a Christmas gift to the people of New York, but the cops said it was illegal.

They seized it, but after a public outcry, the Parks Department installed it in Bowling Green Park.

. . .

Di Modica said he was inspired to create the larger-than-life bull as a symbol of hope after the 1987 stock market collapse. The artist, who copyrighted the bull in 1998, makes money from the authorized use of the sculpture’s image in movies and advertising.

If Wal-Mart had a sense of humor, they would buy the sculpture and have DiModica put their name on the plaque the artist once proposed.

Location Scout: Bowling Green.

As A Wise Woman* Once Said, “Money Changes Everything”

Hizzoner unveils his new plan to combat poverty — we’ll just buy it out:

In an unprecedented move to battle poverty, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that the city plans to copy a program that has worked in developing countries — and pay poor people to make sounder choices that benefit society.

The program would pro vide $24 million the first year in privately raised funds to poor parents who keep their kids in school, to poor pregnant women who keep doctors’ appointments, and to others who do the right thing to escape poverty.

A range of grants is being explored, from $50 to $1,500.

“The stress of poverty often causes people to make decisions — to skip a doc tor’s appointment, or to ne glect other basic tasks that often only worsen their long-term prospects,” said the mayor, releasing a 47-page report of a poverty commission he appointed earlier this year.

“Conditional cash transfers give them an incentive to make sound decisions instead.”

. . .

“What we’re trying to do is to create the economic incentive so that people are engaging in good behavior,” Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said. She described the impact in Mexico as “just phenomenal,” with sick days in schools down 40 percent for boys and 21 percent for girls.

The city’s program is to be developed over the next two months.

[*]

Pay To Campaign!

The 11th Congressional District is just a big ball of laffs:

Days after standing on the steps of City Hall and endorsing City Council Member David Yassky in his bid for Congress, the mother and brother of a slain council member, James Davis, returned to those steps to withdraw that endorsement and to call on Mr. Yassky to drop out of the race.

Thelma Davis and her other son, Geoffrey, said Mr. Yassky left about 200 senior citizens stranded in the rain July 21, when he failed to get enough buses to transport them to City Hall for a memorial service in honor of her son, James, who was killed by a gunman in the council chambers July 23, 2003.

“This is not only a horrible act against the seniors, but against society,” Ms. Davis said yesterday, holding a picture of her late son. Ms. Davis said she wants Mr. Yassky to apologize publicly and pay $20,000 to four senior centers left without transportation that day.

By that time, campaign fliers touting the endorsement — showing Ms. Davis solemnly looking at a sepia-colored photograph of her slain son — had already been mailed to voters.

But it doesn’t end there:

In response to the withdrawn endorsement, an invoice Geoffrey Davis submitted to Mr. Yassky’s campaign — showing Mr. Davis hoped to be paid $50,000 for campaign work — was released to reporters.

Mr. Davis said he has been helping the campaign since last July, with the expectation of getting paid at some point.

“When he reneged with the bus company, and made my mother that upset, I sat with him,” Mr. Davis said, recalling a meeting he and an associate had with Mr. Yassky and his campaign manager at a famed Brooklyn eatery, Junior’s. The meeting took place the Monday after the memorial service, he said.

“From this point on, it is totally, strictly business,” Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Davis, who is unemployed, said he discussed the year’s worth of campaign work he did, and the field operation he planned to do in the crucial final weeks of the campaign.

“I said, ‘You got an hour to think about it,'” Mr. Davis told The New York Sun.

The following day, Mr. Davis submitted his invoice, which included $10,000 in administrative charges that Mr. Davis told the Sun he said was “my fee.” An additional $2,000 for a campaign office and petty cash were also listed.

And revealing all this is supposed to make you look better how?

Can You Pick Out My New 125-Story Building On The Banks Of The Bronx River?

The New York City Panorama at the Queens Museum of Art, recently listed by USA Today as one of ten places you should go out of your way to see, is slated for a “major multi-media update,” including an inventive way to pay for its continued upkeep:

QMA Director Tom Finkelpearl did not know ahead of time that the panorama would be making USA Weekend’s list.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “It’s not like it’s that surprising. It really is a kind of legendary place. Sometimes I’ve been a little frustrated that the panorama is more famous than the museum itself.”

The panorama was initially built for the 1964 World’s Fair by Robert Moses with the help of a 100-member team. During the World’s Fair, an average of 1,400 viewed the panorama each day. Finkelpearl said that when visitors first view the panorama, the first thing he sees them do is find their house. He said it also gives them a chance to get a different look at the city.

It’s kind of a spectacle. It has that excitement to it,” Finkelpearl said. He continued, “It’s the special thing that nobody else has and I think that helps differentiate us from other museums.”

From when it was first built, the panorama did not change a great deal until 1992, when it underwent a major renovation. It was a $1 million project that added approximately 6,500 buildings to the panorama.

Currently, the panorama, which is sponsored by The Roslyn Savings Foundation, will soon undergo a major multi-media update. It will include relighting the model.

Finkelpearl, who used to bring his friends to see the panorama even before working at the museum, said that the museum also hopes to embark on a program where companies could pay to have their building added to the panorama.

Emph. added because now my wheels are really turning . . . bwahahaha!

Next Up: Geritol And Depends Product Placement

Advertising has invaded the sanctity of the theatre:

Inspired by filmed commercials inflicted on captive moviegoers, the ad industry has come up with a new way of annoying audiences: pitches acted out at live productions.

In a nationwide first, a live ad hit the stage last night at the Orpheum Theatre right before the 8 p.m. performance of “Stomp.”

“Can we get a break somehow?” said Julie Chabot, 42, of Brooklyn. “It’s outrageous. When you go to a play, you don’t expect people selling you something.”

The ads were three-minute pieces encouraging tourism to London:

Jackie Green, a “Stomp” spokeswoman, said the show was making no dough from the ad, which was being staged because “Stomp” creators Steve McNicholas and Luke Creswell are Brits.

“People think, ‘Oh, they’re going to be doing breakfast commercials next,'” said Green. “This is a one-off for us. We have a connection to London and that was the reason for doing it.”

The Times ads (heh) some more details:

No, to answer your question, there is nothing sacred. The advertisement, which is itself advertised as the world’s first live theatrical commercial, is a creation of Visit London, a tourist organization. There have already been performances of the live commercial on stages in Dublin and Hamburg, said Ken Kelling, Visit London’s communications director, and there is to be another on Friday in Pittsburgh. “They’re a captive audience,” Mr. Kelling said. “They can’t switch channels or change over or walk out once the thing is started.” He said that he did not think this would open the door to live ads for detergents and soft drinks, and that Visit London had no plans to continue the ads after this Friday in Pittsburgh.

. . .

Last night’s ad began with a woman onstage putting the audience on notice that they would in fact be watching a commercial, “brought to you by Visit London.”

The audience, mostly foreign tourists and students from a Brooklyn school, clapped and kept chatting.

The cellphone rang in the audience and the mother-daughter scene followed, with an almost-inaudible daughter, onstage, recommending London attractions. And the British actress Parminder Nagra (Dr. Neela Rasgotra on “ER”) stood up for a cameo appearance.

Next, the audience was treated to an onstage couple on their London honeymoon discussing “a stroll along Shaftesbury Avenue,” in the West End.

A disembodied voice chimed in: “Whatever you like doing, you’ll love doing it in London.”

And . . . scene.

“It took a long time for everything,” said a Dutch-born New Yorker, Daphne van der Meulen, 29. “I think you can see from the people that it didn’t really — how do you say it? — didn’t really hit.”