Mum Puppettheatre, which shut down last month after more than 20 years, held a going-out-of-business sale at its Old City theater to dispose of props and memorabilia.

Mum is gone, but there's a string attached:

The storefront at 115 Arch St. is a mess, and the landlord wants someone to clean it out. It appears that employees simply locked the door after June 29's sale and went home. Pizza boxes last week sat on counters in the pantry, lunches rotted in the fridge, posters and puppet parts were scattered about, and the basement brimmed with props, sets, hardware and tools.

"I'm thinking, 'They'll be back,' " said Ronette Streeter, who works for building manager Hanlan Midgette Scriven. Streeter acknowledged that tenants broke leases all the time, but "our frustration and disbelief is in the condition the space was left, with absolutely no one taking ownership of the situation."

The landlord filed a judgment in Common Pleas Court seeking $64,000 owed on the remaining year of the lease. In a letter, Mum offered to find a new tenant, but Streeter wants to settle the cleanup.

Mum founder Robert Smythe, who resigned in May, referred me to board chairwoman Candyce Wilson, who sent me to Thomas Lincoln at Duane Morris, who handled Mum's legal work pro bono.

Lincoln said Mum was owed its security deposit - more than $14,000 - minus what he called "reasonable cleanup costs."

Sports talk

With Eagles season drawing near, Fox29 is edging closer to hiring a sports anchor to replace Don Tollefson, whose contract was not renewed. Though no one at Fox29 will talk, word is that news director Kingsley Smith is thinking local, and that WIP's Anthony Gargano is one of several names being considered. (Gargano, who contributes to Fox29's Good Day, wouldn't comment last week.) Tollefson is working the 10 a.m.-to-noon Saturday shift on WPEN (950); his shows this weekend and next are four-hour remotes from car dealerships.

WPEN has ESPN's Sal Paolantonio doing a weekly appearance with afternoon host Mike Missanelli at 5:25 Tuesdays through football season.

Locally connected

Sharp-tongued comedian Wanda Sykes (Crank Yankers, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The New Adventures of Old Christine) is living in Media, as she mentioned the other night at Azie, the high-style restaurant in the borough where she's a quasi-regular.

The wife of WRDW (96.5) morning man Tim "Chio" Acosta has filed for divorce after 20 years. Shawn Acosta's attorney, Lois Garber Schwartz, said the couple were "parting as the best of friends." Rumors of a filing surfaced late last month. Chio was hosting mornings at Q102 in late 2005 when he resigned to take a job in San Diego-Tijuana. The day after his arrival at XHTZ, after what he later called a troubling phone call from his wife, he headed back to Cherry Hill, jobless. He landed at Wired 96.5 in March 2006.

The Best of Philly issue of Philadelphia Magazine hits newsstands soon with cover models Chase and Jen Utley posing with dogs and cats from the Pennsylvania SPCA. (The Phillie and his wife were chosen best champions for a cause.) Among winners inside: WIP's Al Morganti, best sports personality; CBS3's Kathy Orr, best TV weather person; and Kathy Romano of the Preston & Steve show on WMMR (93.3), most patient woman in radio.

Philly-area singer-songwriter Lindsay Rush is touring through September with Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.

The circuit

The approaching 40th anniversary of the film Midnight Cowboy brought producer Jerome Hellman (The World of Henry Orient, The Day of the Locust, Coming Home) to a Q&A session last weekend as part of the Philadelphia Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The real dish came up at dinner. The festival's Thom Cardwell says he learned that real marijuana was used in the infamous party scene with the Andy Warhol "Factory" characters.

Center City's Il Portico hosted a few of the governors attending last weekend's National Governors Association conference. Among those spotted separately: Iowa's Chet Culver, Utah's Jon Huntsman Jr., and Arizona's Janet Napolitano, whose ribald tales drew blushes and grins from staff.

Chef Michael Schulson, who just opened Izakaya in the Borgata in Atlantic City, will have to get used to casino hours. Don Henley of the Eagles dropped in for a late dinner Wednesday and kept staff long past the 2 a.m. closing.

Billie Jean King, in King of Prussia last week for World TeamTennis, served up praise for the fitness center at the new Dolce Valley Forge hotel, telling sales director Michael Levine that as a woman of a certain age, she appreciates lighter weights. Not a backhanded compliment, either.

CN-ate?

On-camera TV workers are not the only ones concerned about their weight. A memo last week at CN8 calls on behind-the-scenes employees who use stepladders or "who have the potential of using stepladders" to attend mandatory "stepladder safety training" - and part of the training is a weigh-in. A note at the end of the memo assures that "weigh-in information will be kept strictly confidential." A CN8 spokeswoman says: "The safety of our employees is a top priority. We take great care to meet or exceed all OSHA and manufacturer ratings on equipment related to safety in the workplace."

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Contact columnist Michael Klein at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com. See his recent work at http://go.philly.com/michaelklein.