George Rose

Golden State Vintners Inc. said Monday that it planned to sell to a management group led by Chief Executive Jeffrey O'Neill for $96 million in the latest transaction to signal that California's $14-billion wine industry is rebounding. In the last two weeks, for example, two small Sonoma County wineries were sold to investment teams: Everett Ridge Vineyard & Winery and Topolos Winery for $2.5 million and $3.5 million, respectively. And on Monday, the U.S.

D. R. (Buzz) Elliot, the burr-headed cowboy wearing Wrangler jeans and a tan Southwest Concert Security T-shirt, stood nose to nose with Minnie Mouse. "You got a pass?" he demanded. "She's with me," answered Minnie's escort, a stocky young woman wearing a Farm Aid II T-shirt and a blue laminated plastic badge that identified her as a Farm Aid backstage staff member. But that didn't cut it with Buzz. Thirty minutes earlier, he had denied photographer George Rose and me access to a water fountain.

Michael McMillen, whose room-size installations have re-created a musty garage, a chunk of the inner city and a desert rat's retreat, says he doesn't want to talk too much about what his latest work looks like. "I like to create surprises for the audience, so I generally don't say too much, descriptive-wise." He did, however, toss out a few revealing details about "The Pavilion of Rain," a shrine-like work that will fill the entire Cal State Northridge art gallery beginning Tuesday.

The museum door swung open and the curator welcomed the guest inside, where he gouged the visitor's eyes, picked him up by the neck and crotch and slammed him onto the lobby carpet. Climbing onto his desk, he plunged, knees first, onto the stunned man's midsection and then hoisted a folding chair and . . . . OK, OK. None of that stuff really happened. But maybe it should have. Because this is a visit to the World Wrestling Museum and Hall of Fame.

Los Angeles' most notorious slumlord, Vijaynand Sharma, a fugitive for three years, has been traced to Scotland, where he says he is living the life of a lonely innkeeper. Sharma, 43, fled after his conviction in the largest criminal case ever brought by the city against a landlord--112 counts of housing violations at five Los Angeles buildings. He faced a 20-month jail sentence and a $153,000 fine.

The Pasadena Playhouse will produce a new play by Rupert Holmes of "Drood" fame and four West Coast premieres in its 1988-89 season. In announcing the season, artistic director Susan Dietz also served notice that she's now in undisputed command of artistic matters at the historic old theater. Her former co-director, Stephen Rothman, will not be replaced, she said.

Elusive slumlord Vijaynand Sharma, one of Los Angeles' most notorious fugitives, has slipped through the fingers of the law again, even though he has been living in luxury in Rancho Palos Verdes for the last six months virtually under the noses of his would-be captors.

Just as the credits are about to roll on Arnold Schwarzenegger's tenure as governor, Pepperdine University constitutional law professor Barry P. McDonald granted him an 11th-hour pardon for having gotten there by being so good at making ultraviolent action films. McDonald seemingly absolves the Governator for his on-screen murders, assaults and mayhem because he helped push to the U.S. Supreme Court an appeal defending an ambiguous law punishing sales of so-called violent video games to minors.

Read the final score and know it was no fluke. North Carolina played great basketball for three minutes. George Mason played it for 37. Tyler Hansbrough, the Tar Heels' center and national freshman of the year, was effective only occasionally. He was more often controlled and outperformed by Patriot big men Will Thomas and Jai Lewis. The third-seeded and defending NCAA champion Tar Heels settled for jumpers, which is usually the fate of the less-powerful team in a meeting like this.

Los Angeles Police Officer George A. Rose, hospitalized on life support Monday after a fellow officer accidentally shot him in the head, may inadvertently have run into the line of fire while trying to assist his colleagues, police said. Rose, 30, was shot once in the parking lot of the Southwest Division station Saturday afternoon as officers opened fire on a man allegedly shooting at his estranged wife in front of the station's main entrance. Those officers, Sgt.