KING TUT MUMMY LODE OF GOLD FOR L.A. BUSINESSES HOPE TO WRAP UP BUNDLES OF CASH WITH TIE-INS.

Byline: Brent Hopkins Staff Writer

In his day, 3,300 years ago, young King Tut lived lushly, surrounded by gold and jewels. Now with an exhibit of his glittering effects opening today, everyone from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to fashion designers and souvenir hawkers hopes to cash in on his fame.

With Los Angeles serving as the first stop on a four-city, two-year tour for ``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,'' entrepreneurs of every stripe have geared up to try to take advantage of the ample commercial opportunities.

``King Tut's almost a brand that everyone recognizes,'' said John Norman, president of Arts and Exhibitions International, one of the tour's organizers. ``You don't have to explain it to anyone. An 8-year-old or a 78-year-old will immediately know what you mean when you say King Tut.''

Norman declined to speculate on how much money the tour would gross, but noted that it had sold 300,000 Los Angeles tickets before the show even opened. With adult prices at $25 during the week and $30 on weekends, that's serious money just based on tickets alone.

From a 1-pound box of King Tut chocolate truffles for $16.60, available at the LACMA gift shop, to the $35 official companion volume, there are plenty of merchandise tie-ins: Tut rag dolls, headdress hats and hieroglyphic magnetic poetry items.

And there are a lot of unofficial ones as well. Smokeshop.com offers the King Tut Herbal Smoking Blend for $31.95 an ounce.

To commemorate the Egyptian monarch's swing through town, Sprint commissioned Malibu-based celebrity accessory designer Jennifer Serig to trick out special King Tut model cell phones. With prices beginning at $395 and climbing as high as $900, Serig will stud phones with rhinestones to produce designs that evoke the mysterious ruler.

``It's not just a phone - it's a wardrobe piece,'' said the artist, who also makes custom-made crystal belts for the Hollywood scene.

``Five hundred celebrities have my stuff, but I've done it for thousands of regular people ... someone who wants to be different and stand out.''

The 30-year-old Serig, the designer and owner of Jenstone Malibu, has jeweled up phones for a client list ranging from rapper Nelly to actor Hugh Jackman to 1980s icon Boy George. Sprint picked her designs as an over-the-top way to tie in to the hype surrounding the mega-exhibit.

``People in L.A. are just so crazy about their cell phones and how they look,'' said Sprint spokeswoman Kathleen Dunleavy. ``Everyone wants to have the coolest one and the greatest thing on the planet. If you've got some extra cash and want to make a statement with your phone, this is a way to say: I love King Tut.''

There are plenty of other ways to say you love the boy king, from King Tut thimbles to replica coffins. A British Web site sells a collection of ``smells of the tomb,'' re-created with natural oils and fragrances based on scents recorded by discoverer Howard Carter. Online auctioneer eBay is selling more than 400 Tut-related items, ranging from a tick-tack-toe set based on his and Queen Nefertiti's heads to a sarcophagus-style incense box.

``Mummies are very cool,'' said Greg Zesinger, marketing director for Action Products International, an Orlando-based educational toy company selling archaeological dig kits in the LACMA merchandise kiosk. ``People are just fascinated with the whole Egyptian theme. It's something kids are perennially in love with: the mummies, the mystery.''

Brent Hopkins, [phone]

brent.hopkins(at)dailynews.com

``EVERYWHERE the glint of gold.''

That was British archaeologist Howard Carter's reaction when he first saw Tutankhamun's treasure-laden burial site in Egypt.

The same could be said of ``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,'' the glittery traveling exhibition opening today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Even with ticket prices in the $25-$30 range, advance sales are approaching 300,000, making it potentially the top-grossing museum exhibit ever in the United States.

The exhibit differs from the 1978 tour, when Tut was last in Los Angeles, with a wider variety of artifacts as well as computer animations of Tut's multilayered entombment and images of the mummy as Carter unearthed it in 1922.

The exhibit is expected to have an economic impact of $150 million in Los Angeles alone. The revenue will cover Egypt's $5 million per venue fee to raise funds for restoration of its historic monuments.

- Valerie Kuklenski

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) A King Tut statue, above, and part of a balustrade, below, are on display at LACMA's ``Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.''

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(3) Rhinestone cell phones have been created to mark the king's stay in L.A.

Box:

``EVERYWHERE the glint of gold.'' (see text)