Bruce Robertson

When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art launched a search for a chief curator of American art, Bruce Robertson was on the short list of potential contenders, but he wasn't interested. He was happily ensconced at UC Santa Barbara, where he has taught art history since 1991. What's more, he says, as a member of the art faculty, "I got to do the shows I wanted without dealing with the hassles at a museum."

"Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women," proclaims a poster issued by an art collective called the Guerrilla Girls in 1989, "but 85% of the nudes are female." A healthy corrective to the plight of women in the art world, however, can be found in "Art/Women/California," an impressive and illuminating survey of art by women in California during the last half of the 20th century.

During the course of his narration, Bruce Robertson, whose voice carries "Filth," Irvine Welsh's third novel, provides a running account of the music he listens to, mostly while driving his Volvo about Edinburgh, less frequently while at home. A sampling of the Robertson playlist looks like this: Deep Purple's "In Rock"; Ozzy Osborne's "Ultimate Sin"; Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy"; and the Michael Shenker Group's "Assault Attack," "Rock Will Never Die" and "Built to Destroy."

When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art launched a search for a chief curator of American art, Bruce Robertson was on the short list of potential contenders, but he wasn't interested. He was happily ensconced at UC Santa Barbara, where he has taught art history since 1991. What's more, he says, as a member of the art faculty, "I got to do the shows I wanted without dealing with the hassles at a museum."

"Less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections are women," proclaims a poster issued by an art collective called the Guerrilla Girls in 1989, "but 85% of the nudes are female." A healthy corrective to the plight of women in the art world, however, can be found in "Art/Women/California," an impressive and illuminating survey of art by women in California during the last half of the 20th century.

AIDS Project Los Angeles has settled a $10-million lawsuit that the organization filed against the founder of one of its major fund-raising events. The suit was filed over a magazine story that appeared last year by Michael Anketell in which he offered a gossipy behind-the-scenes account of the organization's 1993 fashion fund-raiser.

Jerry Heidenreich, who won two gold medals swimming for the United States at the 1972 Olympics, has died. He was 52. Heidenreich died Thursday at his home in Paris, Texas, in an apparent suicide, according to a police spokesman. Heidenreich had suffered a stroke last summer and never seemed to regain his health. Heidenreich won four medals--two gold, one silver and one bronze--at the 1972 Games in Munich.

1 OLIVIA by Ian Falconer (Atheneum: $16) The marvelous and mischievous black, white and red adventures of a girl pig. (Ages 3 to 7) 2 HARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS by J.K. Rowling (Scholastic: $6.99) Harry risks his life to solve a mystery at Hogwarts School. (Ages 9 to 12) 3 FANTASTIC BEASTS & WHERE TO FIND THEM by Newt Scamander (Scholastic: $3.99) An A to Z listing of magical beasts from the "Harry Potter" realm. (Ages 9 to 12) 4 HARRY POTTER & THE SORCERER'S STONE by J.K.

A small group of protesters wearing gags gathered Friday in Westchester to picket a leadership forum on the DreamWorks development proposal for the environmentally controversial area just north of Playa del Rey.

A 25-year-old man staging a hunger strike to protest the development of Playa Vista broke his 15-day fast Monday, then delivered a written plea to city officials to halt construction on the site, supporters said. Paul King, a former petition canvasser for the Sierra Club, began a water-only fast Aug. 31 at the corner of Jefferson and Lincoln boulevards to protest what he said was the destruction of wildlife habitat in a wetlands area.

During the course of his narration, Bruce Robertson, whose voice carries "Filth," Irvine Welsh's third novel, provides a running account of the music he listens to, mostly while driving his Volvo about Edinburgh, less frequently while at home. A sampling of the Robertson playlist looks like this: Deep Purple's "In Rock"; Ozzy Osborne's "Ultimate Sin"; Led Zeppelin's "Houses of the Holy"; and the Michael Shenker Group's "Assault Attack," "Rock Will Never Die" and "Built to Destroy."

In the museum world, there are any number of ways to spend $1 million. That's nearly as much as Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, will earn this year in salary, deferred compensation and benefits. That also happens to be how much LACMA's film program lost over the last decade -- a big part of the reason that Govan recently laid off the program's director and cut the weekend screening series, provoking an outcry from hundreds of cinéastes . In good times, eyebrows might be raised over whether $1 million a year is a fair wage for a director of a nonprofit museum.

The shotgun shooting of two California condors has prompted a large reward -- as well as a spat between federal wildlife investigators and a private detective hired by an environmental group. A private detective from Culver City, Bruce Robertson, should "stay out of my way," said Dan Crum, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's resident agent for Northern California and lead investigator into the recent shootings in Monterey County, near Big Sur.