It’s curtains for Diller

Los Angeles Phyllis Diller, the comedian with the outrageous cackle and seemingly endless string of one-liners, has put an end to her standup career.

Diller, 84, gave her last live performance Sunday at California State University, Northridge, drawing the curtain on an act that first started in San Francisco in 1955.

Fans from all over Southern California traveled to get a laugh one last time from Diller’s 40-minute routine of self-deprecating jokes and barbs about Fang, her imaginary idiot of a husband.

“For the Queen of Comedy to just hang up her wigs and walk away, we don’t think so,” longtime friends Bob and Dolores Hope said in a joint statement. “Put them in mothballs, maybe.”

Grammer gives back

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Kelsey Grammer has made a six-figure donation to his high-school alma mater, Pine Crest School.

The exact amount of the donation wasn’t disclosed at the “Frasier” star’s request, but the private school’s vice president for development, Larry Edwards, said Monday it was in the six-figure range.

The money will be used to help the 1,600-student school build a middle school campus and make renovations to athletic facilities.

The school, which serves pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students, is in the middle of a $15 million fund-raising drive.

Eastwood loses title

Sacramento, Calif. It probably didn’t make his day.

Clint Eastwood, who used to own what was believed to be the nation’s largest known hardwood tree, lost that distinction last week when a new champion blue gum eucalyptus was discovered in Petrolia, roughly 200 miles north of Eastwood’s Carmel home.

Eastwood’s blue gum eucalyptus took first place in the official National Register of Big Trees in 2000. The registry is revised every two years.

The new champion is nearly 49 feet around and 141 feet tall, with a 126-foot crown. That gives it a point total of 759 on American Forest’s scale, dwarfing Eastwood’s 629-point tree.

Poetry and rainbows

Hanover, N.H. Poet and author Maya Angelou apologized to Dartmouth College students on behalf of her generation for “handing you a world so full of hate.”

But as the keynote speaker at celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the school’s Tucker Foundation, Angelou said Dartmouth students are “the best we have” and that they have the potential to change the world.

“Each of you, each student, has the possibility … of becoming rainbows for those who are yet to come,” Angelou said Friday night.