Howard Marks

Most small investors can't put their money with Howard Marks' Oaktree Capital (the minimum investment: $2 million), but his advice will be almost free to anyone who wants to listen this Saturday. Marks will speak to the American Assn. of Individual Investors' Los Angeles chapter at the Proud Bird restaurant's Escadrille Ballroom, 11022 Aviation Blvd. (east of Los Angeles International Airport), from 9 to 11:15 a.m. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Topping any L.A. area home sales last year, a 9.5-acre estate in Malibu owned by billionaire Howard Marks and his wife, Nancy, has sold in the $75-million range in an off-market deal. The exact sales price and sales date have not been disclosed. It can be several weeks or more before a transaction appears in the public records. The property includes a 15,000-square-foot main house of eight bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, two guesthouses, a gym, a swimming pool and more than 300 feet of beach front.

Howard Marks has met plenty of corporate junk bonds he didn't like. But as for the junk bond market as a whole, he insists there has rarely--if ever--been a bad time to buy a diversified portfolio. "Cheap as usual" has long been his standard reply when asked by institutions or individuals how he views the junk market's relative appeal.

Based on the compelling life story of international drug trafficker Howard Marks, "Mr. Nice" stars an understated Rhys Ifans as the titular kingpin. Though the film takes a while to cast its spell, writer-director-cinematographer Bernard Rose's close observation of Marks and those around him becomes increasingly involving and allows Rose to comment on the widespread failure of the war on drugs. It would seem that Marks was a born con man. A superlative student, he left behind his small-town Wales childhood to attend Oxford, where he quickly was caught up in the sex-and-drugs culture of the '60s.

Topping any L.A. area home sales last year, a 9.5-acre estate in Malibu owned by billionaire Howard Marks and his wife, Nancy, has sold in the $75-million range in an off-market deal. The exact sales price and sales date have not been disclosed. It can be several weeks or more before a transaction appears in the public records. The property includes a 15,000-square-foot main house of eight bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, two guesthouses, a gym, a swimming pool and more than 300 feet of beach front.

Based on the compelling life story of international drug trafficker Howard Marks, "Mr. Nice" stars an understated Rhys Ifans as the titular kingpin. Though the film takes a while to cast its spell, writer-director-cinematographer Bernard Rose's close observation of Marks and those around him becomes increasingly involving and allows Rose to comment on the widespread failure of the war on drugs. It would seem that Marks was a born con man. A superlative student, he left behind his small-town Wales childhood to attend Oxford, where he quickly was caught up in the sex-and-drugs culture of the '60s.

Howard S. Marks has been named a managing director of Trust Co. of the West, Los Angeles.

A Muslim woman is going to court against the state this week in a fight to wear a veil that covers most of her face for her driver's license photo. Sultaana Freeman sued the state of Florida after it revoked her license because she refused to replace the photo with one showing her face uncovered. Freeman, 35, argues the state violated her right to freedom of religion. The state contends that allowing a photo of a hidden face puts public safety at risk.

Howard Marks has met plenty of corporate junk bonds he didn't like. But as for the junk bond market as a whole, he insists there has rarely--if ever--been a bad time to buy a diversified portfolio. "Cheap as usual" has long been his standard reply when asked by institutions or individuals how he views the junk market's relative appeal.

Most small investors can't put their money with Howard Marks' Oaktree Capital (the minimum investment: $2 million), but his advice will be almost free to anyone who wants to listen this Saturday. Marks will speak to the American Assn. of Individual Investors' Los Angeles chapter at the Proud Bird restaurant's Escadrille Ballroom, 11022 Aviation Blvd. (east of Los Angeles International Airport), from 9 to 11:15 a.m. Tickets are $5 at the door.

At the first Salon by the Shore to benefit the Museum of Contemporary Art, museum director Jeffrey Deitch introduced internationally recognized artist Doug Aitken and offered some explanations for L.A.'s ability to create so many great artists. Among other considerations, he named the landscape, climate and intellectual foundation of the city. "We're so lucky to have all this," said event co-chairwoman Lilly Tartikoff Karatz. "At one end of the city we have a great contemporary art museum and then, at the other end, we have the Pacific Ocean.

Yipinet, the Marina del Rey start-up that provides professional continuing education courses over the Internet, is expected to announce today that it has acquired rival Princeton Learning Systems of Princeton, N.J., for an undisclosed sum. The purchase, which officials said won't involve layoffs, will extend Yipinet's offerings into the financial sector.