Francesco Vezzoli

When it comes to extracting free labor from famous cinematic figures, it would be hard to top Francesco Vezzoli. The Italian video artist's output over the last 12 years reflects his ability to get highly paid cinematic talent to work without pay. Vezzoli's enlistees so far have included Helen Mirren, Sharon Stone, Courtney Love, Benicio del Toro, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Sonia Braga, Marianne Faithfull, Natalie Portman, Roman Polanski, Michelle...

When it comes to extracting free labor from famous cinematic figures, it would be hard to top Francesco Vezzoli. The Italian video artist's output over the last 12 years reflects his ability to get highly paid cinematic talent to work without pay. Vezzoli's enlistees so far have included Helen Mirren, Sharon Stone, Courtney Love, Benicio del Toro, Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Sonia Braga, Marianne Faithfull, Natalie Portman, Roman Polanski, Michelle...

It was not your usual audition process, not even by modern dance standards. There were no age or gender restrictions. There were no particular body types sought. And instead of taking turns on a stage, the assorted dancers, actors, artists, yogis and athletes trying out for a role in performance artist Marina Abramovic's new project — taking place Saturday at the MOCA gala — were each asked to kneel under a cramped dinner table set for eight. The audition? Poke your head up through a hole in the center of the table and spin around extremely slowly on a Lazy Susan and quietly gaze with intention but no particular emotion at the seated dinner guests — a strangely zen version of Linda Blair's famous head-turning performance in " The Exorcist.

A Museum of Contemporary Art trustee who left the board last year amid revelations of the museum's dire financial problems said that his confidence in the leadership of philanthropist Eli Broad, whose Broad Foundation offered the museum a bailout gift of $30 million in December, has led to his decision to rejoin the board. On Thursday the museum announced it has raised nearly $60 million, including Broad's gift, since December. Included in that announcement was news that former music industry executive Gilbert B. Friesen and art collector and restaurateur Peter Morton, co-founder of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, have rejoined the board.

THE year 2005 was the best of art times, and it was the worst of art times. * The UCLA Hammer Museum offered an invigorating survey of new art that crystallized an emerging sensibility among younger artists, braced against the feeling of dissolution so prevalent now. "Thing: New Sculpture From Los Angeles" was a rarity -- a fresh and meaningful overview.

FRIDAY MUSIC The Zappa legacy Featuring former members of Frank Zappa's band the Mothers of Invention, the Grande Mothers Re:Invented were asked in 2002 to reunite for a one-time performance in Leipzig, Germany, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Zappa's death. A year later, the group members took to the stage and have been performing ever since.

"CALIGULA," the notorious toga epic that scandalized audiences in 1980, is not one of cinema's finest moments, but it is one of its most fascinating monuments to excess. In keeping with that spirit of indulgence, this tale of the depraved boy emperor and the sexual appetites and torture techniques of 1st century Rome is being reissued on DVD this week in a curiously comprehensive (if wholly unnecessary) three-disc "imperial edition."

These days the Whitney Museum of American Art is lodged firmly between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the Whitney Biennial, the periodic survey of recent art that was launched during the depths of the Great Depression, in 1932, and grew into the museum's most prominent exhibition. The hard place is the sheer irrelevance of the show today, a fact again on painful display in the museum's Madison Avenue galleries. The need for a national art survey disappeared long ago.

"A truck crashes into the house of the Rivero Delgado family. Mexico City, 8 May 1953." "45-year-old dry cleaner Manuel Ramirez Atilano dies whilst trying to connect illegally to the national grid. Mexico City, 9 October 1971." "Dressmaker Bertha Ibarra Garcia hangs herself from the tallest tree in Chapultepec Park, unable to bear the fact that her estranged husband has taken their daughter to live with him and his lover.

"The Unmasking" of the new Renzo Piano-designed Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion should prove to be more than a glamorous evening for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Venetian-themed gala brought in $4.7 million even before the first bejeweled guests were due to arrive at the Sept. 25 event. And more blockbuster events await on L.A.'s fall social horizon, including the Oct. 7 "Celebración Gala Phil" with Gustavo Dudamel and acclaimed Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez; the star-studded Oct. 23 "Carousel of Hope"; and the Nov. 13 "Artist's Museum Happening" at the Museum of Contemporary Art, among others.

It's hard to believe it was only nine years ago when Uma Thurman floated into the Oscars in that ethereal lavender gown, the moment that bought Prada to the public consciousness in a way only the red carpet can. Since then, Miuccia Prada has become the most-watched designer working in fashion today. The nylon status backpack, the bowling bag, the luxe fur-trimmed parka, the postcard-print circle skirt and the jeweled moccasin are just a few of the trends she has created over the years.