Expect a crowd Manny Pacquiao’s turkey giveaway

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The last time the Philippines’ national boxing icon Manny Pacquiao tried to stage a public workout in historic Filipinotown (227 N. Lake St.) just west of downtown, so many people showed up that the appearance had to be scrapped in favor of an autograph session.

Now, less than two weeks removed from his epic Las Vegas showdown against Oscar De La Hoya, he’ll again appear there at noon Sunday to hand out 500 turkeys to fans preparing for Thanksgiving.

Certainly, hundreds, if not thousands, of people will be showing up. So I made a call to Pacquiao’s publicists to see what kind of organization and security has been put into place. I believe they’ve underestimated Pac-Man’s appeal. Publicist Fred Sternburg said the expectation was that ‘a few hundred people’ will come over ‘right after church.’ So, is the LAPD sending some patrol cars? No.

If you’ve ever visited Pacquiao’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, one of the first people you’ll see at the door is Rob, a great guy who supervises the gym and barks at those who’ve parked illegally in the gym’s strip mall lot to move their cars.

And Sunday at the turkey giveaway? ‘We’re not taking extraordinary [security] measures. It’ll be Rob and the guys,’ Sternburg said. Other publicists, Lee Samuels and Bill Caplan will be there too, but it seems like Sternburg may be directing some of the ‘security’ to watch Caplan.

‘We’re not allowing him to skim any turkeys off the top,’ Sternburg said of Caplan. ‘We guarantee 500 turkeys to the public.’

I called Caplan to see if he was planning a heist to secure a cheap family holiday. He promised he’d leave the birds alone, and noted, ‘The thing’s costing us $11,000,’ with Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum footing the bill.

When I expressed concerns about crowd control, Caplan calmly responded, ‘We think 500 will be enough. When the turkeys start getting low, Manny will leave.’

We’ll update this as events warrant.

-- Lance Pugmire