If it weren't for Mayor John Hickenlooper and Democratic National Convention Committee CEO Leah Daughtry, Denver would have looked like the dwelling for dunderheads who don't know Obama from Osama.

Quick-witted Hick played along amicably with Mo Rocca during Wednesday's Tonight Show With Jay Leno "Convention Preview" segment on Denver, home of next year's Democratic National Convention.

Rocca to Hickenlooper: "I understand this is going to be the greenest convention ever. Are you recycling the confetti?"

Hick: "Of course, we are."

Cut to Rocca and the mayor cutting up paper in the mayor's office. Hick: "I'm cutting as fast as I can, Mo."

Rocca: "Are these financial documents important?"

Daughtry took Rocca inside the Pepsi Center, site of the DNC, where the two of them had a "heavy" discussion about balloons.

"Mo is a gem, and he has so convincingly conveyed his concerns about the balloons to us that we're going to put him on balloon duty next year and give him his own helium tank," Daughtry said Thursday. "Should Jay decide to join us in Denver next year, I've offered him his very own parking space for the bike."

The man-and-woman-on-the-16th Street Mall interviews, however, did not make us proud. When Rocca showed a local lovely a picture of Barack Obama, she called him Osama. Another guy claimed to be a convicted felon, and yet another man accused Rocca of being on acid.

Hickenlooper viewed the entire segment - the good and the sketchy - as unpaid advertising for our town. "To get the equivalent value to our city would be almost a half-a-million dollars," the mayor said, citing an estimate from Denver's advertising agency.

UNKINDEST CUT: I'm not sure what karma cards you're playing with when you do an interview with a 106-year-old Denver icon then leave him on the cutting-room floor. But that's what happened during the Tonight Show's segment on Denver Wednesday night.

"I was shocked," said Steve Weil about his grandfather, Papa Jack Weil, who was interviewed by the Tonight Show's Rocca last month. "All along, they said he was going to be in, then he wasn't."

Somehow, Steve was told, the interview with the Rockmount Ranch Wear founder was included in the rehearsal, but was cut when the show aired. There's still a chance, however, that the Papa Jack interview will air during the Tonight Show's coverage of the Democratic National Convention next August . . . when he's 107.

GRAMMY GAL: Country music star and Grammy winner LeAnn Rimes will headline this year's Western Fantasy, a benefit for Volunteers of America, on Oct. 27 at the National Western Events Center. Reservations: Michael James, 720-264-3322 or WesternFantasy.com.

OUI, OUI: If you're a Palm person, you'll recognize the face at the door of French 250 Restaurant, a traditional French restaurant opening for lunch and dinner Aug. 18 in the old Adde Brewster space at 250 Steele St.

James Poplin, former assistant Palm pilot, is the new eatery's GM. I gave a look-see at the posh place Wednesday that has been given upscale treatment, complete with a punched-tin ceiling over the dining room.

EAVESDROPPING on a 5-year-old boy to a commercial airplane captain: "Can you shoot stuff down with this?"

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-954-5224 or e-mail parkerp@RockyMountainNews.com.