Advice From the Sidelines

Paramount Communications Chairman Martin Davis and prospective buyer Sumner Redstone of Viacom remain locked in an increasingly bitter tug of war over Paramount with QVC Chairman Barry Diller and cable television baron John Malone.

Now come a few appropriate words of wisdom from one of Paramount’s best-known employees: Pat Riley, coach of the company’s New York Knicks basketball team.

The former Lakers coach has just authored “The Winner Within.” The New Age-style book of advice is full of quotes ranging from Jefferson (as in Thomas) to Jackson (as in Reggie).

Mostly, however, Riley quotes himself in his “Riles’ Rules” of advice, some of it especially timely given the battle over Paramount. Among them:

* Riles’ Rule of Respect: “Sometimes you have to respect your competition so much that you treat them with no respect at all.”

* Riles’ Rule of the Magic Moment: “In every contest, there comes a moment that defines winning from losing.”

* Riles’ Rule of Change: “The changes in your life aren’t always the ones you hoped for,” something Paramount employees awaiting the outcome might keep in mind.

Close Encounters for a Fee

Here’s a different kind of meeting the Los Angeles Convention Center may want to lure to its expanded facilities.

The Pacific Palisades-based “UFO Expo” meets next month in San Mateo, Calif., offering for $25 to $35 a batch of seminars one doesn’t find at a typical convention.

One discussion involves “mind control aspects” of the John F. Kennedy assassination, including the “driver did it” theory. Another provides a “general overview of what occurs during a typical abduction experience.”

Still another seminar offers tips on how to remember if you’ve ever been abducted by extraterrestrials, just in case you forget.

School of Hard Knocks

The Learning Annex’s October course catalogue features a seminar on investing in foreclosed property hosted by Marina del Rey investor Stephen J. Murphy.

Described as a “real estate baron” and “respected real estate authority,” Murphy promises to share “valuable, hard-earned secrets on buying foreclosed property.”

Not everyone thinks his secrets were hard-earned. Murphy has just been accused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of allegedly defrauding investors and running a “Ponzi-like” scheme, a classic scam in which early investors are paid off with money from later investors.

Murphy denies any wrongdoing. No word on whether the course is still on.

Briefly . . .

More UFO news: The Los Angeles-based U.F.O. Information Club International offers extraterrestrial updates on a 900 number for $1.95 a minute, a fee skeptics might find out of this world. . . . Perfect for telemarketing calls: A security company sells a “Truth Phone” that it says uses a “digital voice-stress analyzer” to detect lies. . . . A Hong Kong company sells a book on tax havens describing “what’s legal, illegal and semi-legal.”