Bullocks

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's . . . Spiderman? A mammoth parade balloon of the Marvel Comics' famed web-slinger--not to be confused with a certain other hero who also wears red and blue--will hover above Northridge Fashion Center today to mark the official reopening of Bullock's. The 198,400-square-foot store has been closed since it sustained severe damage during the Northridge earthquake.

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy's buddy cop comedy "The Heat" will be screened in advance for Boston police officers and FBI agents. The city was stunned Monday after twin bombings at the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured scores more. Bullock, who plays an uptight "Miss Congeniality"-esque FBI agent sent to work on a case in Boston in the film, thought the screening was a small token of appreciation. "It's been an amazing tightknit community before this happened, and it just bonded a community even more," Bullock told CNN at tge CinemaCon gathering in Las Vegas.

Gussie Moran had legs that went on forever. She walked, the late designer Ted Tinling said, as if she were tiptoeing across tennis balls. She was a California girl with a California tan. She was a jock, she was beautiful, it was 1949 and Gussie Moran showed her lace panties at Wimbledon. "Gussie was," says Jack Kramer, part of Los Angeles tennis royalty, "the Anna Kournikova of her time. Gussie was a beautiful woman with a beautiful body.

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" is a handsomely polished, thoughtfully wrapped Hollywood production about the national tragedy of 9/11 that seems to have forever redefined words like unthinkable, unforgivable, catastrophic. It has also redefined our expectations of filmmakers who try to examine the still aching wound — and perhaps explains why most films about 9/11 haven't resonated with audiences. Mindful of that, director Stephen Daldry has taken great care in looking at it through the eyes of a precocious New York City boy in a film filled with both sentiment and substance.

If you're old enough to have midriff bulge, the fashion stories emanating from television can be a major turnoff. There's no denying the spandex-and-denim set dominates the tube's style waves, from "Melrose Place" to MTV. But a few stylish, mature role models--for whom black leather motorcycle jackets are not the be-all and end-all--do exist.

In response to "Closures by Macy Include Former Bullocks Wilshire," March 2: The severely disabled patient called the city of Los Angeles suffered another stroke with the announced closure of its landmark store, Bullocks Wilshire/I. Magnin. With this move, Macy's has dealt a severe blow to not only a historic institution but one that brought citizens together in a beautiful setting. Bullocks Wilshire brought sequestered suburbanites in from sterile malls and provided an important anchor for this community.

Sport Chalet Inc., a longtime Southern California sporting goods retailer, has agreed to open a store in downtown Los Angeles. The La Canada Flintridge company will put an outlet in Figat7th, a mall at the intersection of Figueroa and Seventh streets undergoing a $40-million makeover by landlord Brookfield Office Properties. Sports Chalet will join Target as anchors in the mall, which is set to reopen in the fall. Target Inc. announced in 2010 that it would take over space formerly occupied by Macy's and Bullock's department stores.

Terry Lundgren, a 35-year-old vice president and general merchandise manager at Bullock's, will succeed Jerome M. Nemiro as president of Bullocks Wilshire on Aug. 1. Lundgren started at Los Angeles-based Bullock's in 1975 as manager of college recruiting and served as a buyer and general store manager before being named regional vice president for stores in 1982 and vice president for stores in 1983.

Soon after Bullock's was bought by Federated Department Stores in 1964, Federated President Ralph Lazarus told executives of the venerable Southern California chain to think hard about tearing out the decorative fountain inside the Pasadena store. "He asked us, 'If you're such great merchants, why isn't there merchandise there?' " said Frank Rice, a retired Bullock's vice president.

Talk about a winning combo in: "Whatever Works" Woody Allen directs Larry David in a movie about a near Nobel Prize winner and world-class grouch who wreaks terror on the small children who study chess with him. Need I say more?

Jesse James had it all. The Hollywood A-list wife. A top-ranked cable-TV show. He'd built his Long Beach shop, West Coast Choppers, into an empire, wrenching custom $80,000-plus motorcycles for a celebrity clientele -- an endeavor he spun off into a mass-market clothing line for Wal-Mart, a glossy gearhead magazine and an eco-friendly burger joint he hoped to franchise. That was early 2010. Two months later, he'd thrown it all away with a string of extramarital affairs that made James a household name for all the wrong reasons.

Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock has purchased a Beverly Hills-area estate for $22.95 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows. Set on more than 4 park-like acres and surrounded by an expansive lawn, the stately two-story house looks more East Coast than Westside. The main house, built in 1940, has a screening room, a library, a basement, five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. Grounds include a swimming pool and a pool house, and 270-degree views run from city lights to the ocean. Among previous owners of the house is Hard Rock Cafe cofounder Peter Morton, who sold the property late last year for $15.5 million, according to public records.

Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock has purchased a Beverly Hills-area estate for $22.95 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows. Set on more than 4 park-like acres and surrounded by an expansive lawn, the stately two-story house looks more East Coast than Westside. The main house, built in 1940, has a screening room, a library, a basement, five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. Grounds include a swimming pool and a pool house, and 270-degree views run from city lights to the ocean. Among previous owners of the house is Hard Rock Cafe cofounder Peter Morton, who sold the property late last year for $15.5 million, according to public records.

Actress Sandra Bullock sent a $1-million donation to the American Red Cross this week to help with earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan, the Red Cross said Thursday. It is the largest celebrity donation to the Red Cross to be announced since the disaster struck last Friday, although the charity may have gotten large contributions that were kept confidential at the donors' request. Dozens of celebrities used their social network accounts, including Twitter, to urge fans to support the Red Cross with small donations.

Update: Motorcycle manufacturer and reality show star Jesse James, the ex-husband of actress Sandra Bullock, has sold his Sunset Beach home for $4.5 million. The Mediterranean sits along the sand in Orange County on a corner lot with ocean views. The great room features stone floors, coved ceilings and an oversized fireplace with a stone surround and mantel. A crescent-shaped island with bar seating separates the living and dining areas from the kitchen. A master suite, a media/game room, a wet bar, an office and a guest suite complete the second floor.

In 1962, the year she was nominated for an Oscar for playing a grotesque has-been in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?," 54-year-old Bette Davis placed an ad in Variety. "Thirty years experience as an actress in Motion Pictures," the ad read. "Mobile still and more affable than rumor would have it. Wants steady employment in Hollywood. (Has had Broadway). " Davis would be shocked to see what middle-aged actresses are doing in 2010. Naomi Watts spies on terrorists, Diane Lane raises a champion racehorse, Julia Roberts decamps to an ashram.

The 23-year-old Bullock's department store in Northridge Fashion Center, reduced to little more than a pile of rubble by Monday morning's earthquake, will likely be demolished, experts said Tuesday. If the store is rebuilt, construction costs could run up to $28 million, they said. The cost to replace damaged or destroyed merchandise inside the store was not known.

The MTV Movie Awards are typically an exercise in frothy Hollywood film promotion but on Sunday night they were a ritual of redemption for two of Hollywood's biggest stars, Tom Cruise and Sandra Bullock. The show was jammed pack with popcorn commercials but if you paid attention there were also surprisingly emotional moments, none more than the 21 Century survivor declarations by the stars of "Top Gun" and "Speed." Cruise opened the show in the hairy-chested, Tinseltown mercenary persona of Les Grosssman from "Tropic Thunder" and by channeling his inner Fly Girl with his dance moves.

A roundup of this morning's arts and entertainment headlines: Report claims Jesse James' kids are staying with Sandra Bullock. (TMZ) NBC.com uses the Filter to figure out users' tastes. ( Los Angeles Times) Former Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren has died. (Los Angeles Times) Is Lindsay Lohan the next person to undergo Quentin Tarantino Career Rehab? (Daily Express) The "Lost" finale pre-show gets expanded to two hours -- giving us five hours of "Lost" farewells on May 23. (The Wrap)