Garden Party

In a typically bold/vaudeville move, New York Knicks owner James Dolan traded six players ? including all the ones over 6 feet 8 in stocking feet ? for Carmelo Anthony , who might have signed as a free agent. Yes, Jimbo I rides again! After two seasons in eclipse, Dolan ? who rose to power when his father, who ran then-corporate owner Cablevision, sat him on the throne ? emerged to pull off this blockbuster, taking the Knicks to... Well, that's not clear, but it'll be fun, if only in a Mack Sennett Model Ts running-into-each-other way. Ten years into his reign, Jimbo I remains one of the truly clueless ?

The thing about my mother's eulogy is that I used note cards. After 55 years, you'd think you could remember a mother without such prompts. But this was no regular mother. Tell me, are there any regular mothers? She could be hell in high heels, my mom - a little French, a little fussy about what other people wore on airplanes these days. She once bought a Christmas tree, hauled it home, decorated it with a thousand lights and a million ornaments, then took the whole thing down and returned it to the tree lot. "It's not quite right," she told the puzzled tree man. Hey, Mom, I said: That tree isn't the only thing that's "not quite right.

It was Santa Ana (not Savannah) and the home was a restored 1930s cottage (not a Victorian mansion), but Marc LaFont's Christmas in the Garden of Good and Evil party did have shades of Jim Williams' fabled black-tie bashes.

Now for the arrival of the 13th Knick.... Or not. "Our own Big Three" reunited last week, eight months after Chris Paul joked about forming it with Amare Stoudemire in his toast at Carmelo Anthony's wedding ? in New York, of course. That was when Denver owner Stan Kroenke stomped out, went home and told his people to trade Melo. If Paul says it was in fun, Kroenke and the entire body of psychiatry say there's no such thing as a joke. Even with Paul stuck in New Orleans, it was as if Creative Artists, the Movie Star Agency, had brought him in for the 2011-12 Team Picture of Knick Dreams.

The Scene: Smoke machines and tropical plants lent a Deep South humidity to the Warner Bros. Burbank Studios back lot Monday night for the premiere of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." The film adaptation of the John Berendt true-crime novel, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring John Cusack, Kevin Spacey and Clint's daughter, Alison Eastwood, tells a tale of murder, eccentricity, gossip and the politics of alternative sexual lifestyles in Savannah, Ga.

A trip to the Bushmills Distilleries in Ireland, a Napa Valley wine-tasting weekend and a cooking class at the California Culinary Institute are among the items to be auctioned Sunday during the KCRW Foundation's fourth annual "Summerday and International Wine, Dine and Travel Auction." Things get started at noon when auctioneer Joe Smith takes the stage at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.

Prince Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein plans to hand over many of his vast powers to his son today at a garden party for his subjects -- all 33,000 of them. Only 17 months ago, the prince won the power to dismiss governments, veto laws and cast the deciding vote in appointing judges. Soon after, he announced that he would hand power to his son Alois, 36. Hans Adam, however, says he will remain head of state, his son will only be his "representative," and the two will talk regularly.

Karl Malone reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out a few rarities. There was a sky hook a la Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a three-foot finger roll a la George Gervin, and a long jump shot as the 24-second clock expired a la Michael Jordan. "I've got those kinds of things," Malone said after leading the Utah Jazz past the New York Knicks, 88-79, Sunday at Madison Square Garden. "My teammates are always telling me: When are you going to do this and when are you going to do that?

Actress Morgan Fairchild, state Sen. Diane Watson and feminist activist Peg Yorkin will be honored by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California at its 30th annual garden party on Sunday. The event will be at 2 p.m. at the home of Sy and Maxine Gomberg in Brentwood. The honorees have been chosen for their contribution in preserving women's right to reproductive freedom. There will be entertainment and an auction of political cartoons. Ticket information: (213)

Organizers of the 103rd Orange County Fair are throwing a garden party that, in keeping with the theme, also features some night-blooming jazzmen among the diverse roster of entertainers. But the real star of the show could be a newcomer.

In a typically bold/vaudeville move, New York Knicks owner James Dolan traded six players ? including all the ones over 6 feet 8 in stocking feet ? for Carmelo Anthony , who might have signed as a free agent. Yes, Jimbo I rides again! After two seasons in eclipse, Dolan ? who rose to power when his father, who ran then-corporate owner Cablevision, sat him on the throne ? emerged to pull off this blockbuster, taking the Knicks to... Well, that's not clear, but it'll be fun, if only in a Mack Sennett Model Ts running-into-each-other way. Ten years into his reign, Jimbo I remains one of the truly clueless ?

Los Angeles, like the rest of the country, may be infested with vampire culture, as evidenced by the "Twilight" juggernaut, "True Blood" and its TV spinoffs, and lots of clubs and societies for bloodsuckers, but it shows no sign of stopping. Angelenos ruing the departure of this year's high-profile Comic-Con will find this weekend ripe for a fantasy fix, with no fewer than four major opportunities welcoming woodland nymphs, drooling zombies and sexy vampires. Between Serendipity's secret garden party, two zombie walks and Vampire-Con, Los Angeles will be crawling with creatures . . . even more than usual, that is. Friday's Serendipity party focuses on the sweet and sumptuous.

Many actors embrace the challenge of playing characters they might find objectionable, but few frame it in terms of "compassion for all beings." "When you practice Buddhism you have to always self-reflect and you can't avoid your problems. That makes me understand human beings better. I feel that the more I do that in my own life, the more I can see how to play a character," says Vinessa Shaw, one of the stars of "Two Lovers," with Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow. "In 'Garden Party' or '40 Days and 40 Nights,' I played characters who people don't necessarily like; I just find some humanity in them."

There is plenty of chatter and debate about sublime basketball at the world's most famous arena this week, about how Kobe Bryant and LeBron James transformed Madison Square Garden into their personal playgrounds within 48 hours of each other, and about who made a better case for MVP on what is still one of the game's largest stages. Before we get to whose was the grandest regular season performance of all time in the building -- Bryant's scintillating 61 points Monday night, breaking Bernard King's Garden record of 60 set in 1984, or James' surreal triple-double on Wednesday (52 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in a closer-than-expected victory)

Re "A force for good again," editorial, Oct. 18 Let me see if I have this correct. I go halfway around the world in the name of my country, get shot at and bombed, have dozens of my friends killed and maimed by a force that despises liberty, help establish freedom for 30 million people who were ruthlessly oppressed by their own government -- often in ways that made Guantanamo Bay look like a garden party -- and help create one of the only functional...

It was a senior moment. Yet, during this twisting UCLA postseason, few moments have held a message so clear. From the gaggle of Bruins leaping and hugging at midcourt in the Arena on Thursday night, Cedric Bozeman and Ryan Hollins broke free. Together, like an old couple reborn, they danced dizzily around the floor. Bozeman was holding the game ball. Hollins was holding Bozeman. Both were screaming into the sky, into their past, from their heart. "Never die!" shouted Bozeman. "All those years!"

That terrible night when Ricky died, Lola Wuttke buried her face in her pillow and cried her eyes out. No matter that she was a 47-year-old woman with a husband and family, she wept like a teen-ager--the way she did the first time she heard the singer's twangy ballads. Because this was Ricky Nelson. Crooner. Guitar plucker. Golden boy. Heart swooner. Snap. Just like that, he was dead at age 45 after a fiery plane crash in Texas while en route to a New Year's Eve performance in 1985.

IT'S been more than a year in the making, and I'm not talking about the latest Russell Crowe epic. Wilshire -- the restaurant -- was supposed to open late last year, but, like so many extreme makeovers, the transformation took longer than anybody involved could have predicted. At long last, this New American restaurant, which had a website months before it had a working phone, has flung open the doors on the latest Thomas Schoos-designed extravaganza.