Imelda Marcos

A Manila film distributor on Thursday appealed a local court's temporary ban on a documentary film that Imelda Marcos, widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has said portrays her in a bad light. Distributor Unitel Pictures Inc. is appealing the ban in the Supreme Court, saying it involves crucial democratic issues.

The late Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos so skillfully squirreled away billions in national wealth that, even 26 years after his ouster, those pursuing recovery of the ill-gotten bounty have little inkling of its true value. There may be more than $60 billion salted away in offshore accounts or secret jungle hideouts. Stories have circulated for decades,  some documented in court proceedings,  of Marcos seizing a 2,000-pound golden Buddha from a treasure hunter in 1971 and hiding away other priceless spoils of the Japanese Imperial Army's World War II sacking of Southeast Asia.

I suppose that if Imelda Marcos gets elected as president of the Philippines, her first official words will be "pardon me." DAVID STOUGHTON Santa Monica

Surrounded by paintings by Picasso and Gauguin, an impeccably coiffed Imelda Marcos perched regally on the Louis XIV couch in her high-rise flat, discussing her topics of expertise: beauty, fashion and -- of course -- shoes. "For me, beauty has always been a religion. Plato said beauty is God made real," said the former Philippine first lady, wearing a green chiffon pantsuit and matching lime sandals. "I'm a magpie for beauty. But what God doesn't give, you have to make yourself."

Imelda Marcos announced her candidacy for president Tuesday after pleading innocent in a Philippine court to graft charges filed by the government of President Corazon Aquino. The widow of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos called her decision to run in the May 11 elections the result of "months of direct consultations with our poor and oppressed citizens."

A literary agent for Imelda Marcos has sent publishers a proposal for her autobiography with a working title of "My Hidden Wealth," according to New York magazine. But there is little in the eight-page proposal to suggest that the former Philippine first lady, wife of deposed President Ferdinand E. Marcos, really plans to answer the question raised by her title. The proposal says that "the wealth, in Imelda's view, may be very different from what we think it is or should be."

Former First Lady Imelda Marcos bowed to the government Friday and agreed to bury her husband's remains in his home province instead of Manila. President Fidel V. Ramos' government has agreed to a homeland funeral for late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos but stipulated that it be in Ilocos Norte province, 250 miles north of Manila. Imelda Marcos has said her husband's dying wish was to be buried near Manila. The government fears a Manila funeral might provoke violence.

COMPOSER Nathan Wang's day is divided into a pie chart of four-hour chunks. For four hours, he scores a "Tom and Jerry" animated movie. Then it's four hours on an aviation documentary. Later, four hours for a new Jackie Chan film, "The Myth." Spread throughout the day are four hours for meals and family time. Finally, four hours of sleep. For those keeping count, the missing four hours belong to "Imelda," a musical Wang has been writing for more than a year.

Former First Lady Imelda Marcos bowed out of the Philippines presidential race Friday, saying that she had put up a good fight but that her votes had not been properly counted. "Deep in our hearts we know we won, although subsequent events indicate that many of the ballots were not properly credited to me," the widow of dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos said in a statement. "It was a good and clean fight we conducted," she said. "I had no money to spend on a sustained campaign."

It's almost shoe time--Imelda R. Marcos is coming home. The former First Lady of the Philippines, onetime owner of 6,900 dresses and 1,220 pairs of shoes, says she will return here Nov. 4 for the first time since she and her late husband, Ferdinand E. Marcos, fled to America almost six years ago with crates stuffed with cash, gems and gold. But first there are some matters to clear up.

He doesn't look like he could cause much trouble anymore, flat on his back in an airtight glass box, toes up, eyes waxed shut. Dead. But almost 16 years after dying in exile and infamy, deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos -- or at least his reputation -- is being resurrected in the Philippines. And it's causing a commotion.

"Imelda," the world premiere musical at East West Players, is one of those committee-designed endeavors that launches off into so many directions that it goes hopelessly astray. Although handsomely produced and competently directed by East West's producing artistic director, Tim Dang, it is otherwise misbegotten, blurring the line between camp and bathos until we don't know whether to laugh, cry or simply yawn.

COMPOSER Nathan Wang's day is divided into a pie chart of four-hour chunks. For four hours, he scores a "Tom and Jerry" animated movie. Then it's four hours on an aviation documentary. Later, four hours for a new Jackie Chan film, "The Myth." Spread throughout the day are four hours for meals and family time. Finally, four hours of sleep. For those keeping count, the missing four hours belong to "Imelda," a musical Wang has been writing for more than a year.

"I've been very misunderstood," says a pouty, wide-eyed Imelda Marcos at the outset of Ramona S. Diaz's documentary "Imelda." She's decked out like a Braniff stewardess, touring the Philippine countryside in a chauffeured RV and distributing autographed photos of herself to the adoring crowd that gathers around her wherever she goes -- a plutocratic Celine Dion charged with human rights abuses.

Somewhere in the steamy northern Philippines, the elaborately embalmed body of notorious former dictator Ferdinand Marcos lies on view in a glass casket. He's been dead since 1989, but his widow, Imelda Marcos -- now a favorite model for drag queen impersonations in Manila nightclubs -- is waiting for him to be buried with full state honors.

Former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos lost her battle to stop a film about her colorful life being shown in the Philippines. On Monday, a regional court lifted an injunction against its screening. Lawyers for the film distributors said the court's ruling was issued before the widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos released a statement saying said she would give up the case in recognition of the Philippine people's right of freedom.

The woman who made a documentary about Imelda Marcos said Wednesday she was "in disbelief" that the flamboyant former first lady of the Philippines won a court order temporarily halting the movie's Manila premiere by claiming it mocked her.

A Manila film distributor on Thursday appealed a local court's temporary ban on a documentary film that Imelda Marcos, widow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has said portrays her in a bad light. Distributor Unitel Pictures Inc. is appealing the ban in the Supreme Court, saying it involves crucial democratic issues.