Jean

Extraordinary French film director Jean Renoir found the inspiration for one of his seminal early talkies, 1932's "Boudu Saved From Drowning," from an unlikely source -- the family pooch. "Boudu," which Paul Mazursky remade in 1986 as "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," revolves around an anarchic Parisian hobo who takes a suicidal leap into the Seine River but is saved by a well-heeled Parisian bookseller. The family takes in Boudu (played by one of Renoir's favorite actors, Michel Simon)

Jean Bach first laid eyes on the astonishing photograph more than a decade after its 57 subjects - all illustrious figures from jazz's golden age - posed on the steps of a Harlem brownstone in the summer of 1958. The photo eventually became Bach's obsession and the inspiration for "A Great Day in Harlem," a prize-winning, Oscar-nominated 1994 documentary that explains, through interviews and archival footage, how the magical convergence of dozens of New York jazz legends came to be. "Only Jean could have put that film together because she knew everyone," Johnny Mandel, an arranger-composer for such artists as Count Basie, Frank Sinatra and Natalie Cole who helped choose the music for the project, told The Times last week.

Jean Simmons, a radiant British actress who as a teenager appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in "Hamlet" and emerged a star whose career flourished in the 1950s and 1960s in such films as "Guys and Dolls, "Elmer Gantry" and "Spartacus," has died. She was 80. Simmons, who won an Emmy Award for her role in the 1980s miniseries "The Thorn Birds," died Friday evening at her home in Santa Monica, said Judy Page, her agent. She had lung cancer. "Jean Simmons' jaw-dropping beauty often obscured a formidable acting talent," Alan K. Rode, a writer and film historian, told The Times in an e-mail.

A pair of pants worn by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the 1977 movie "Star Wars" are up for bid through Nate D. Sanders Auctions, which expects them to fetch somewhere between $70,000 and $100,000. The auction house's description reads, in part: "Hamill donned these iconic pants as the Jedi Knight of all Jedi Knights, wearing the costume pants throughout much of the film. Sand-colored 'cotton drill' Levi's pants are purposely distressed to display wear, with dirt to back right pocket and in spots to front of pant legs.

The inevitable death and taxes are OK, as long as they come in that order. JEAN CROSS Laguna Beach

We Only Know So Much A Novel Elizabeth Crane Harper Perennial: 280 pp., $14.99 paper Dysfunctional small-town families are the low-hanging fruit of American literature. You just reach out and grab a ready cast of familiar figures, give them a few meaningful quirks, then let them wrestle with the dour commonalities of modern life, from romance-less marriages to dead-end jobs to dreams that dissipate far short of a near horizon. They are books of a type, and Elizabeth Crane has delivered one here with her debut novel, "We Only Know So Much," about an extended family living in a small Midwestern town.

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied, said Jesus. But other hungers are not as easily satiated, said Eugene Ionesco. A man who's always ravenous for something new, for something better, will consume his own innards, his very identity. And end up in hell. That's what happens to Jean, the restless spirit who travels through Ionesco's "Hunger and Thirst."

The perfect frothy fantasy for the obscene wealth gap era, "Priceless" (Hors de Prix) stars a gorgeous, cellophane-thin Audrey Tautou as Irene, a dedicated gold digger who finds herself accidentally mixed up with a penniless bartender. Irene's rather arduous profession involves nabbing, milking and holding onto very rich (and usually very old) men for as long as she can. Jean (Gad Elmaleh) is a sad-eyed service serf with the dejected air of a Fellini hero, whom she mistakes for a patron, an error that puts her right back in the poorhouse.

When a friend told Jean and Joseph Krause that a grand ballroom was up for sale on the top floor of a downtown Long Beach high-rise, they decided almost on a whim to take a look. At the time, the Krauses were happily ensconced in their home in the secluded Mount Washington section of Los Angeles. Joseph, 62, commuted to work each day at Cal State Long Beach, where he is an art history professor. Jean worked out of their home as a free-lance advertising design artist.

We regularly hear that progress entails loss. We come across it ourselves every time smog blurs the skyline or the computers we don't really command crash -- something typewriters never did unless tossed out a window. Canadian writer Anne Michaels has spent the last decade or so honing this generality into a particular of penetrating point and poetic reflection.

Jean Nouvel, the French architect, is credited with creating "installations" for the Los Angeles Philharmonic production of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro," although "transformations" would be more accurate. Azzedine Alaïa designed the striking costumes. The result is a stunningly high style and wonderfully performed French "Figaro" that customized Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday night in more ways than one. But since when do the French have a problem with French fries? The most noticeable thing upon entering Disney on Friday night was that Nouvel has audaciously covered up Gehry's signature sculptural organ pipes, nicknamed French fries.

Suffice to say that Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte weren't thinking about Proposition 8 when they composed "The Marriage of Figaro. " The 1786 comic opera follows bullying Count Almaviva's efforts to invoke droit du seigneur to sexually conquer Susanna, bride-to-be of his right-hand man Figaro, on the couple's wedding night: a licentious sendup of European aristocracy with a simmering soupçon of class warfare to rouse the rabble....

So what will Jean Nouvel do? For the Los Angeles Philharmonic production of “Marriage of Figaro,” the second in Gustavo Dudamel's cycle of the Mozart operas with librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte, the famed French architect will design installations as a set for the Walt Disney Concert Hall stage, as Frank Gehry did with his wondrous billowing crumpled paper sculptures for “Don Giovanni” a year ago. What will the Paris-based Tunisian avant-garde...

True Religion Apparel Inc., the Southern California purveyor of pricey designer denim, may have gotten too small for its britches. More than half a year after putting itself up for sale amid growth struggles and fluctuating stock, the high-end-jeans seller said its board unanimously accepted an $835-million takeover offer from investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners. The $32-a-share deal for the Vernon label represents an 8.7% premium on Thursday's $29.44-a-share closing price and a 52% increase from the stock price Oct. 9, the day before True Religion said it would explore strategic alternatives.

I could drink a bottle of this Morgon "Côte du Py" from Jean Foillard every week with the greatest of pleasure. How beautiful is the bottle, with its red wax seal? The wine itself is soft and unctuous, tasting of prunes and dried cherries, a voluptuous cru Beaujolais made with painstaking care. The organically farmed vines from the famed "Côte du Py" range from 10 all the way up to 90 years of age. This is a very serious Gamay. It's beautiful with grilled sausages, stews, a simple roast chicken or duck.

There's a wrinkle in the outlook for expensive women's designer jeans. Europe has more than tripled a tariff on the high-end denim creations, which could snag the boom for pricey pants. Beginning Wednesday, the European Union duty on women's denim trousers manufactured in the United States jumped to 38% from 12%. The hike, if passed along to customers in the form of price increases, could put a damper on denim exports to Europe, currently a growing market for U.S. denim makers.

With "The Chateau," writer-director Jesse Peretz comes up with enough fresh twists to the ugly American vs. surly French confrontation to sustain this delightfully bittersweet culture-clash comedy. If what's funny is frequently hilarious, then what's nasty truly stings, and the film is honest enough not to tie up everything with a ribbon. Everyone by the end emerges wiser, though not necessarily friends.

Jean called the other day from her desert condo near Palm Springs. She'd been notified that the state was cutting back again on aid for the disabled and she was worried. Yep, I said, and the cut most likely will be even sharper than she was figuring. Jean isn't her real name. She didn't want it used. "I still have friends in L.A. who don't know I live this way," she said. "I'd be embarrassed if they knew. Guess it's just pride. Nobody wants to admit they're down and out." She suffers from fibromyalgia, a disease of the connective tissues.

With the shortstop position being an offensive wasteland for many fantasy teams, Times staff writer Tim Hubbard identifies three players who could provide some help: Jean Segura SS | Milwaukee The young Dominican has had no problem handling major league pitching, hitting .359 through Friday, second among all shortstops. Segura, who had a 50-steal season in the low minors, has stolen seven bases and should score plenty of runs hitting in front of Ryan Braun. Jed Lowrie SS | Oakland Staying on the field had been Lowrie's biggest issue in his first five years in the majors; he has never stayed healthy enough to log 400 at-bats in any season.

Jean-Luc Godard made his second feature film, "Le Petit Soldat," in 1960, but it was banned until 1963 because of its tough look at the then-current French-Algerian conflict and unblinking portrayal of torture. Opening Friday at the Nuart in a new 35-millimeter print with fresh translation and subtitles, the often-overlooked film provides a lens through which to view the French director's unparalleled streak of provocation and productivity in the 1960s, as well as a startlingly contemporary-feeling counterpoint to recent politically tinged war films such as "Zero Dark Thirty.