DRAWING BLANKS

The billboard on Sunset and Queens in West Hollywood reads “Shoot Los Angeles.” It’s meant to encourage film makers to stay home. So how come “Armed and Dangerous”--the Columbia comedy with John Candy and Eugene Levy as inept security guards--couldn’t shoot scenes at that location?

A rep at the County Filming Permit Coordination Office said the request was turned down because of the “scope” of the scenes involved--cars weaving and crashing into buildings (and one car driving the wrong side of the street) for two week nights between 6 and midnight.

Still, the irony wasn’t lost on someone close to the picture, who noted that elsewhere--in places like Canoga Park, Glendale, Bel-Air and even MacArthur Park, “everywhere but beneath that sign”--permits came through.