Bill Higgins

One lesson to be learned from Saturday's Moving Picture Ball is that it's a lot less painful to endure hotel ballroom food and tribute speeches if guests actually like the honoree. And John Travolta's colleagues like him. Yes, they like him. They really, really like him. Really. They like him enough for Gene Siskel, who owns the white suit from "Saturday Night Fever," to praise Travolta's disco mega-hit and read dialogue from it.

One lesson to be learned from Saturday's Moving Picture Ball is that it's a lot less painful to endure hotel ballroom food and tribute speeches if guests actually like the honoree. And John Travolta's colleagues like him. Yes, they like him. They really, really like him. Really. They like him enough for Gene Siskel, who owns the white suit from "Saturday Night Fever," to praise Travolta's disco mega-hit and read dialogue from it.

The Scene: Party Thursday night after the MTV Video Music Awards in Universal Studio Tour's Streets of the World section. These are the adolescent's Oscars. To be 15, to be there and, more importantly, to let your high school friends know you were there, was to die for. Of course, there's no justice in the world: Most of the crowd was over 30. Who Was There: Among the 3,000 guests packing the streets were Lisa Marie Presley, Kim Basinger, M.C.

Just as Republicans were big winners in '94, chickens should do well in '95. After what one exasperated caterer calls "two years of chicken, chicken, chicken," look for New Year party menus to wing away from "health" rations and fly back to red meats and mashed potatoes. The party world is overdue for a nostalgic return to comfort (read: fattening ) food. The new motto: Eat now, aerobicize later. As for movie premieres, the trend that began in '94 will continue full steam into '95, moving away from blockbuster tented parties and back toward the more cozy gatherings of 10 and 20 years ago. Most films will debut with mid-size affairs on studio lots or at the retro-fashionable Motion Picture Academy.

Remember when people went "looking for America?" It was a 1960s phenomenon that usually occurred in Neil Diamond songs or films starring Peter Fonda. A '90s version of this is Stringfellows. It's where people come looking for Beverly Hills. Nestled in the elbow corner on Via Rodeo (that's the new shopping street with the Disney-gone-Gucci proportions across from the Regent Beverly Wilshire) is the restaurant/disco that Peter Stringfellow opened six months ago.

What kind of music do you like to listen to when you operate? Dr. Lawrence Schwartz, ophthalmologist: "Based on patient preference, we play everything from Thai folk music to Mozart. The only music I don't allow is heavy metal and rap--it's just not very soothing for relaxing patients for cataract surgery. My personal favorite is Neil Diamond, but we're at the mercy of anesthesiologists. They're the ones who supply the cassettes.

Just as Republicans were big winners in '94, chickens should do well in '95. After what one exasperated caterer calls "two years of chicken, chicken, chicken," look for New Year party menus to wing away from "health" rations and fly back to red meats and mashed potatoes. The party world is overdue for a nostalgic return to comfort (read: fattening ) food. The new motto: Eat now, aerobicize later. As for movie premieres, the trend that began in '94 will continue full steam into '95, moving away from blockbuster tented parties and back toward the more cozy gatherings of 10 and 20 years ago. Most films will debut with mid-size affairs on studio lots or at the retro-fashionable Motion Picture Academy.

Movie ad blurbs are out of control. Ads for the movie "54" proclaimed, at the top, "The Los Angeles Times Raves: 'MIKE MYERS COULD GET AN OSCAR NOMINATION FOR HIS BRILLIANTLY NUANCED PORTRAYAL OF CLUB OWNER STEVE RUBELL!' " Does this quote come from Kenneth Turan's review? No, it does not. It comes from the RSVP column in the Life & Style section. Bill Higgins was not writing a review of the movie, he was reporting on the scene of the premiere. This was the "buzz" overheard that night, not a rave by The Times.

In "A Carnival of a Party--Hollywood Style" (June 12), writer Bill Higgins mentions that there were five film crews from Japan there, emphasizing five. I am wondering if you know why there were so many crews from Japan. Sure, Arnold Schwarzenegger is very popular in Japan and his new film, "Eraser," is highly anticipated as a summer blockbuster there. But the main reason for the film crews was that a Japanese actress, Rie Miyazawa, who once appeared in a Japanese television commercial with Schwarzenegger, went to the "Eraser" premiere.

The gated community in Hemet doesn't seem like the best place for Eddie and Maria Lopez to raise their family anymore. Vandals knocked out the streetlight in front of the Lopezes' five-bedroom home and then took advantage of the darkness to try to steal a van. Cars are parked four deep in the driveway next door, where a handful of men rent rooms. And up and down their block of handsome single-family homes are padlocked doors, orange "no trespassing signs" and broken front windows.

What kind of music do you like to listen to when you operate? Dr. Lawrence Schwartz, ophthalmologist: "Based on patient preference, we play everything from Thai folk music to Mozart. The only music I don't allow is heavy metal and rap--it's just not very soothing for relaxing patients for cataract surgery. My personal favorite is Neil Diamond, but we're at the mercy of anesthesiologists. They're the ones who supply the cassettes.

Remember when people went "looking for America?" It was a 1960s phenomenon that usually occurred in Neil Diamond songs or films starring Peter Fonda. A '90s version of this is Stringfellows. It's where people come looking for Beverly Hills. Nestled in the elbow corner on Via Rodeo (that's the new shopping street with the Disney-gone-Gucci proportions across from the Regent Beverly Wilshire) is the restaurant/disco that Peter Stringfellow opened six months ago.

The Scene: Party Thursday night after the MTV Video Music Awards in Universal Studio Tour's Streets of the World section. These are the adolescent's Oscars. To be 15, to be there and, more importantly, to let your high school friends know you were there, was to die for. Of course, there's no justice in the world: Most of the crowd was over 30. Who Was There: Among the 3,000 guests packing the streets were Lisa Marie Presley, Kim Basinger, M.C.

Agreeing that reducing speed limits in the Hollywood Beach and Silver Strandneighborhoods would make the streets safer for residents and visiting beach goers, officials have approved a plan to post new road signs and equip sheriff's patrol cars with radar devices.