Davidson

Columbia University Film School student Adam Davidson had only meant his short film, "The Lunch Date," to be a practice run for his upcoming thesis project. So the 25-year-old was still reeling with surprise Thursday from learning that "The Lunch Date" had won the first-place Palme d'Or for short films at the Cannes Film Festival this week. Davidson said he was not sure how to explain the success of the film, which won a Student Academy Award for short films this week in Los Angeles.

From the time they were old enough to chew bubble gum, Matt Fisher, Matt Cassel and Conor Jackson have been called baseball wonders. Every step of the way, from T-ball through senior league, they've stood out as all-stars. In youth drafts, they were certain No. 1 picks. If only they had agent Dennis Gilbert to negotiate their pizza deals. Time has flown by. They're now sophomores in high school, Fisher and Cassel at Chatsworth, Jackson at El Camino Real.

The richest of the rich in America is worth $2.8 billion, while the poorest of the rich checks in at a mere $150 million. But who's counting? Forbes magazine, that's who, and its 1985 list of the nation's 400 richest people is topped by Sam Moore Walton of Bentonville, Ark., who has made $2.8 billion through his Wal-Mart discount stores. Walton, who danced a hula on Wall Street last year when profit goals were met, replaced Gordon Getty, the front-runner for the past two years.

Southern California is famous for being ahead of the national curve -- in styles, fads and unenviable crises. And right now, the region's largest institutional theaters are serving as a crystal ball for leadership concerns affecting nonprofit theaters throughout the country. I'm referring, of course, to Center Theatre Group, the Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe, all of which are at crucial crossroads. The founders or guiding spirits of these prestigious theaters have left, are on the verge of leaving or are in a quandary about whether to make an exit at such a precarious historical moment.

Motorcycles represent a lot of things: freedom, power, fearlessness. With Harley-Davidson's new Softail Slim, unveiled Wednesday, "exposure" would also be appropriate. The Milwaukee manufacturer has stripped its classic Softail to its skivvies with a retro bobber that highlights the brute force of the machine. Starting at $15,499, the new-for-2012 Softail Slim represents a sort of Harley-style spring cleaning, for which every bit of bling was removed to showcase the bike's essentials.

The "girl" bike has long been a put-down for motorcycles so diminutive and underpowered that no "real" bikers would be caught riding them. But a number of niche motorcycle makers that produce lightweight, low-to-the-ground models say they are experiencing unusually high sales these days, particularly among women. Just 11% of motorcyclists are women, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council in Irvine, but Taiwanese manufacturer SYM says 80% of its 266-pound Wolf Classic buyers are women.

The extraordinary Bel-Air Kirkeby Mansion, the beloved home of the late Carlotta and Arnold Kirkeby, is getting every bit of the attention it deserves. Next Thursday the CHIPS (Colleague Helpers in Philanthropic Service) lead off with a major fund-raiser "Inside the Gates," giving benefactors a chance to thrill at the vistas and the mansion, restored to all its grandeur by Los Angeles' top designers. Offspring Carla Kirkeby and her brother Arnold C. Kirkeby are the generous instigators.

The news accounts, now 70 years old, offer only fragments of the "ghastly drama" that surrounded the marriage of Mary Kenan Flagler Bingham, "the richest woman in America." She was the widow of Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler and her estate was worth between $60 million and $100 million. Her bridegroom was Judge Robert Worth Bingham, a Kentucky lawyer without independent means. Their wedding in 1916 made headlines, even in New York. And so did her mysterious death eight months later.

Travelers leaving this beach resort pass under a sign on U.S. 50 that reads "Sacramento CA 3,073." Some drivers never have noticed. Others think it's a joke. The reality is that Ocean City is the end of the road for Highway 50, as it's affectionately known by those who study it, those who seriously travel it and those who just plain love it. At the other end, or exactly 3,038 miles later, according to the Federal Highway Administration (hey, signs can be wrong), is Sacramento.