QUIBBLES & BITS . . .

. . . A Chicago Trib review of ABT’s new “Sleeping Beauty” said the ballerina “gracefully pirouetted into her fish dives without a catch.” Taken literally, it means the poor dancer’s head crashed into the floor when her partner dropped her. Ouch!

. . . Maddie and David were puckering up, about to get together on last week’s “Moonlighting,” when the writers resorted to their usual tactics--the Big Madcap Chase. (This one involved a milk truck and ended in a bowling alley.) Still to come: the Big Finale of the four-parter about Maddie having to choose between her David and hunk Sam (Mark Harmon). Enough already.

. . . A Quibble Qudo to Duane Byrge for covering his bets in his Hollywood Reporter review of “Lethal Weapon”: “Warner Bros. is likely to see that this seemingly surefire has scored much further from the box-office bull’s-eye than it had anticipated. Still, based on Gibson’s wild and steely lead performance, it’s like to knock down substantial box office. . . .”

. . . Not long ago, Mickey Rooney was telling Larry King that the sleaziness of Hollywood was keeping the crowds from the Pantages Theatre--so Rooney planned to open his own circuit of more appealing suburban houses. If the neighborhood’s so lousy, why’s Rooney now risking another engagement there--beginning June 2 in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”?