Unwise comparison

Chicago — The Chicago Police Department has apologized for issuing a community alert that described a suspect in a series of sexual assaults as resembling Ice Cube.

Police are searching for a man who sexually assaulted three woman in Wicker Park, a trendy neighborhood on the city’s North Side.

A police alert Sunday described the suspect as a black male in his mid-20s who “resembles the popular rap artist Ice Cube.”

“We acknowledged the information should not have been on the alert,” police spokesman David Bayless said Tuesday. “We took immediate corrective action. We apologize to Ice Cube for what was an honest mistake and came with no ill intent.”

Animal magnetism

Los Angeles — William H. Macy isn’t a fan of horses, although he understands the power of animals on the human spirit.

“They’re really dangerous. When you fall off a horse, you fall a long way,” said the actor, who plays fast-talking radio announcer “Tick-Tock” McGlaughlin in the new horse racing movie “Seabiscuit.”

“But there’s something about telling stories about animals that allows us to empathize even more than we can with people. People can see a person get hit by a car and it doesn’t do anything compared to seeing a dog get hit by a car. It’s just one of the things that makes us human.”

Meat is bad

Los Angeles — Alec Baldwin wants you to “Meet Your Meat.”

The actor has narrated a new documentary short for the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that shows images of animals raised for food.

In a letter to journalists, Baldwin said the film “documents the routine and horrific abuses that animals raised and killed for food endure and makes the case for Americans to adopt a vegetarian diet and enact humane legislation to weed out the worst abuses.”

The film is available for $5 at www.MeetYourMeat.com.

Meat is funny

Los Angeles — His show comes on television long after bedtime, so most little children may discover Jay Leno for the first time as a children’s author.

Leno, host of NBC’s “The Tonight Sow,” said Tuesday he’s written a picture book, “If Roast Beef Could Fly,” based on a family cookout in which mischief led to a ruined rotisserie of meat.

“I was a little kid and I was fascinated by the roast beef going around the spit,” the 53-year-old said. “So I took out my little plastic comb and stuck it in the meat. At one point the comb caught on the string used to tie the roast beef. So I went, ‘Oh, oh,’ and I didn’t want to break the motor. So I said, ‘OK,’ and I walked away.

“When my dad brought the roast beef out, he started to cut it and then — clunk! — a big piece of plastic fell off and the meat was pink underneath. Of course everybody was — ‘Eww!’ — sickened by this, and my dad started yelling in Italian, picked up the roast beef and threw it out the window.”