Georgian

The biggest home in Los Angeles County is ready for a new nickname: The 56,500-square-foot Manor, dubbed Candyland after owner Candy Spelling, has been sold to another wealthy socialite, British heiress Petra Ecclestone, in an all-cash deal for $85 million. As steep as that price is, it's not a record or even close to what Spelling was asking. The priciest Southland home transaction was the 2000 sale of an 8-acre estate in Bel-Air to financial executive Gary Winnick in a deal that included the trade of other land, for a total value of about $94 million.

The personal photographer for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and two others were charged Saturday with spying for Russia, officials said, as a cold war between the two countries showed no signs of abating. Saakashvili photographer Irakli Gedenidze, Foreign Ministry photographer Giorgi Abdaladze and European Pressphoto Agency photographer Zurab Kurtsikidze had been arrested Thursday. Their lawyers said Saturday that the espionage trial may start as early as Sept. 1. Russia and Georgia, a former Soviet republic, fought a brief war in August 2008, and diplomatic relations between the two countries have been severed since then.

The father of the Georgian luger killed at the Olympics said Monday that his son worried the track was too dangerous, but insisted on competing because he had come to the Games to try to win. "He told me: 'I will either win or die,' " David Kumaritashvili said. "But that was youthful bravado; he couldn't be seriously talking about death." The father, in an interview at his home on the snow-covered slopes of Georgia's top ski resort, said he had spoken to his son, Nodar , shortly before the fatal training run Friday.

Fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli and his wife, actress Lori Loughlin, have sold their Bel-Air estate for $16.6 million, the Multiple Listing Service shows. The Georgian-style house, built in 1942, sits on more than 11/2 nearly flat acres with a guesthouse, sweeping lawns, a north-south tennis court, a swimming pool and a pool pavilion with a fireplace, bar and two-story-high ceiling. Interiors include a two-story living room, a gym, five bedrooms and five bathrooms. Giannulli, 47, founded the clothing company Mossimo in the '80s.

Thousands of Georgians, many carrying black flags, joined funeral processions through the Soviet republic's capital of Tbilisi on Saturday for the victims of clashes between troops and nationalist demonstrators in which 19 people were killed. Meanwhile, at a meeting in Moscow on Saturday, a writer, Galina P. Kornilova, told a group of intellectuals that authorities had told hospitals to expect casualties before they broke up the pro-independence rally in Tiblisi on April 9. She said soldiers used an unidentified chemical in the bloody clash.

Russian troops in the breakaway province of South Ossetia have been put on increased combat readiness as tension rises along the de facto border with Georgia, officials said. Andrei Nesterenko, the spokesman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, said the move was a response to Georgian "provocations" and was aimed at preventing more violence. The situation near South Ossetia has become increasingly tense as the first anniversary of the Russian-Georgian war approaches Friday, with the two nations accusing each other of provocations.

Forces from Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia shot down two unmanned Georgian spy planes over the territory, an Abkhazian official said. Georgia denied the claim and traded accusations with Russia, which is struggling with the West for influence in the country. Strained relations between Georgia and Russia, which has close ties with Abkhazia, have worsened since Georgia accused Moscow of shooting down another pilotless Georgian plane over the breakaway region two weeks ago. Russia denied involvement, and Abkhazian officials said their forces shot it down.

Russia has not fully complied with a cease-fire in Georgia, France's foreign minister said. Moscow pulled troops out of buffer zones near two separatist regions this week before a Friday deadline set out in the France-brokered cease-fire. But Russian troops have remained in other areas that had been under Georgian control before the war. Asked whether Russia had honored the cease-fire deal, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, in the Georgian town of Gori, near South Ossetia, told reporters, "I think so, but partly."

Soviet soldiers planned to massacre people during a pro-independence rally April 9 in the Georgian republic and used clubs to beat the injured and the elderly, an official report said. The report, issued by a Georgian commission that looked into the clash that left at least 20 dead, was circulated among deputies to the new Congress of People's Deputies, which met in Moscow over the weekend. The report said soldiers "blocked crossings, surrounded citizens and beat them with clubs and shovels.

Re the review of Francis Mason's "I Remember Balanchine" (June 30), I don't think Joan Acocella mentioned that George Balanchine was a Georgian. The review implies that he owed much of his ability to Russia, Russian dance, etc., but he owes it to his Georgian bloodlines. The Georgians are an ancient race with a deep culture, far predating Balanchine's passport. Dancing en pointe was exported from the Caucasus to Europe, not the other way around. The Europeans are neophytes.

They ordered architecture books, pored over design magazines and snapped photos of kitchens they liked, slowly piecing together bits of inspiration for their custom-built house. Three years of painstaking planning later, the Georgian Colonial estate was complete. "It didn't happen overnight," said co-owner Jamie Brown. "It's so much work. But you get exactly what you envisioned. " Brown, a public relations specialist, and her husband Matthew, an attorney, bought the Altadena property in 1999, tore down the existing house and began building the custom home in 2005.

Investment executive Louis Gonda wanted two things when he and his wife, Kelly, moved into their Beverly Hills home in 1991 ? enough room to house a family with five children and staff, and a location with resale value. "Beverly Hills remains the best international brand you can find, so we built here," says Gonda, who hired Los Angeles architect Peter Choate to design a Georgian mansion on 1.5 acres above the Beverly Hills Hotel. "I like the anonymity of the house, which is not noticed from the street.

A Georgian Revival mansion evoking a Southern plantation is the centerpiece of a gated estate in Glendora that includes a guesthouse, a chauffeur's apartment and a garden with more than 6,500 roses. The 1932 mansion, built by architect Wallace Neff, was the winter home of New York multimillionaire Arthur K. Bourne. The house, which features original marble floors, chandeliers and French doors, was built for lavish entertaining. In the aftermath of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping in March 1932, wealthy families wanted extra protection, so the mansion was designed with a panic room (now the wine cellar)

A report by the International Luge Federation has concluded that a series of events, including driver error, caused the crash that killed Republic of Georgia athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili only hours before the start of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. "Nodar did commit driving errors starting in Curve 15/16 … that resulted in him leaving the track and subsequently hitting a post causing blunt force trauma to the base of his skull," the report stated. Inspectors could not find any flaws in the ice near the bottom of the course, and technicians said his sled met all standards set by the luge federation (FIL)

The controversy surrounding the safety of the Olympic sliding track escalated even more Thursday when some of the world's best bobsledders found the track difficult to navigate, leading to at least 11 crashes over two days of training. Among those was gold-medal favorite Beat Hefti of Switzerland, the top-ranked two-man driver in the world. He was suffering from a severe headache and still needs medical clearance to participate in Saturday's two-man competition. His coach said he plans to take a practice run on Friday.

The father of the Georgian luger killed at the Olympics said Monday that his son worried the track was too dangerous, but insisted on competing because he had come to the Games to try to win. "He told me: 'I will either win or die,' " David Kumaritashvili said. "But that was youthful bravado; he couldn't be seriously talking about death." The father, in an interview at his home on the snow-covered slopes of Georgia's top ski resort, said he had spoken to his son, Nodar , shortly before the fatal training run Friday.

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in his first public statement on nationalist unrest that left 19 dead in Soviet Georgia, appealed for calm today but stressed that he would not tolerate demands for independence. In an address to the Georgian people, Gorbachev said the clashes had damaged democratization and his perestroika restructuring drive. "We stand for the consistent expansion of the rights of the republics, of all national formations, for filling them with real content," Gorbachev said, in reference to growing demands in Georgia for greater autonomy from Moscow.

Putting the brakes on the world's fastest luge track to prevent the type of crash that killed a young slider during a training run didn't do much to alter the standings Saturday among the world's elite sliders after the first two of four runs. With a light snow falling, Germany's Felix Loch, who holds the track record of 95.6 mph, was in first place with a combined time of 1 minute 36.570 seconds. Countryman David Moeller, a two-time world champion who finished fifth in the Turin Olympics, is in second, just .282 seconds back.

There was skidding, sailing, a man flying off the edge of an icy track, his body crumpling on a metal walkway, a lifeless leg dangling in the air. There was a glittering floating grizzly, a snowboarder flying under giant glowing rings, beaming athletes marching under giant wool hats. Death came to the Olympics. Life came to the Olympics . It all happened on the same day Friday, the quadrennial winter celebration sliding out of the starting gate in staggering, breathless uncertainty.