Hollywood Ca

After Playboy centerfold Melonie Haller was assaulted at Roy Radin's Southampton, N.Y., beachfront home, Radin moved to the West Coast in hopes of starting over. There he met Karen (Laney) Jacobs, an aspiring producer who offered to introduce him to a man who could make his dream of a Cotton Club musical a reality.

Decades before Paris Hilton and voracious media hordes anxiously awaited her release from County Jail, aspiring crooner Bing Crosby was quietly jailed with nary a mention in the newspapers. And after he became a star, his arrest and court records just as quietly vanished. Crosby, then 27, crashed his car in front of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in November 1929 after a night of drinking. This was during Prohibition, when liquor was illegal.

Antoine Eugene Miller, part of the mob that attacked trucker Reginald Denny in the first hours of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, died a week after being shot during an altercation outside a Hollywood nightclub, police said. Miller was shot at 2:40 a.m. Super Bowl Sunday in a parking lot across from a nightclub in the 1600 block of Schrader Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Department homicide Det. Mike Thrasher.

Once upon a time in Hollywood----three or four years ago, actually--a ferocious band of movie makers called the Independents came out of Nowhere to take the town by storm. Talk about chutzpah! For eons and eons, Hollywood--the movie capital, where the River of Bankability flowed with glitz and celluloid--had been ruled by the Major Studios. All was calm in the land between the Sea of Red Ink and the Ocean of Profit. According to legend, there were seven fearsome Majors. Or maybe there were 10.

In May, 1943, a young red-haired, freckled-faced woman walked into the office of Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and said she had a story to tell. It involved one of America's most beloved comedians, a secret love affair and, she said, a child that was on the way. In the weeks that followed, Joan Berry's accusations against Charlie Chaplin--the legendary "Little Tramp" of silent films--would explode into one of Hollywood's biggest scandals. Chaplin would issue statements to the press.

Harmony is what's eluding Hollywood's Elusive Drive. An escalating squabble between a celebrity photographer and an actor who live across from each other on the narrow hillside street has led to a flurry of city investigations, lawsuits and finger-pointing. On one side is Jim Steinfeldt, who is known for his album cover and magazine fashion and entertainment industry advertising photos. On the other is Michael Massee, a well-known character actor who portrays villains and heavies.

Moving to take advantage of Hollywood's growing office shortage, Los Angeles developer Jerry Snyder announced plans Tuesday to build a $100-million office park across from Hollywood Center Studios that is intended to cater to entertainment industry tenants. Several entertainment-related businesses are searching for offices in Hollywood, real estate brokers said, attracted by its central location, improving street life and nightclub scene.

Hollywood, which gave Southern California its glamorous image around the world, is rapidly moving from supporting player to star of the region's economy on the strength of exploding global demand for its movies, TV shows and new entertainment technologies.

The City Council on Tuesday declared Hollywood's Falcon Studios a landmark, even though the owner said any events of historical importance linked to it actually occurred elsewhere. The obscure Hollywood Boulevard studio--for years a fencing and dancing school--was purportedly frequented by such stars as Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Barrymore and Errol Flynn.

Not everyone can find it. But everybody's probably seen it. That's Bronson Canyon for you, the hidden Hollywood landmark that has a rock-solid reputation as one of the city's most reliable movie backdrops. For generations everything from blockbuster hits to lead-bottomed duds have been filmed there. Old-fashioned Saturday matinee serials, high-tech sci-fi adventures and rough-and-tumble westerns all have unfolded against its jagged backdrop.