QUIBBLES & BITS

. . . The L.A. Sentinel’s Alan Bell notes that “The Untouchables” makes 1931 Chicago look all-white--not a single black actor in the pic, he says, “not even an extra.” Bell discovered at the library that there were “233,903 of us” in the Windy City that year.

. . . What the left hand’s doing: Newsweek’s June 22 cover story on mobster movies mentions the biggest gallows laugh line in “The Untouchables”: Eliot Ness saying of villain Frank Nitti, “He’s in the car.” But, the story says, “to disclose the joke would spoil it.” But in a sidebar on the next page, another set of reporters . . . well, spoils it.

. . . Now that Mickey Rourke’s been announced as a lean/mean Tour de France bike racer in “Yellow Jersey,” we sure hope he shaves, showers and shapes up before production starts.

. . . Stop the presses: A classy press release and pic--at state government expense--arrived announcing that “Virginia Governor Gerald L. Baliles recently made his film debut as a day player in the NBC miniseries ‘The Ballad of Mary Phagan.’ ” Which locationed in the Gov’s state.

. . . Speaking of gallows humor: They’re casting a comedy called “Death Row.”