Marble

The tourists think big. Arriving in Southern California, they expect to conquer Disneyland and Hollywood, perhaps on the same day, in between the surfing and snowboarding. Then they get stuck in traffic. Then come the recriminations, the tears, the vows to visit an island next time. The locals think small. Tracing tight little loops between home and work, they dodge freeways and alien neighborhoods. There are Los Feliz people who haven't set foot in Venice since the latter Bush administration (I'm one)

Rita Rudner is applying her comedic talent to the sale of her Dana Point beach house, and the result is a spot-on parody of a home marketing video. Her husband, director-writer Martin Bergman , featured the Monarch Bay home in the 2011 film "Thanks," in which Rudner acted. Now Rudner may have her own hit on her hands with the YouTube parody . In the farcical four-plus minutes, she promises to include one free facial tissue with the purchase of the five-bedroom, five-bathroom house, which is priced at $8.975 million.

The Celine store opened on Rodeo Drive last weekend not with a shout, but with a whisper, which is appropriate for the LVMH-owned fashion brand that helped usher minimalism back into fashion under the direction of press-shy designer Phoebe Philo. There was no Champagne-soaked, celebrity-studded opening bash to celebrate the new arrival at 319 N. Rodeo Drive, and no press release blasted to the four corners. Just a few discreet advertisements and billboards around town announcing the new store would be coming in March.

In the predawn darkness, the floodlit cathedral looms like a snow-covered mountain over this poor neighborhood. Inside, 15,000 faithful have been waiting for two hours, but they show no sign of fatigue. They are expecting their Moses. Suddenly, a pudgy preacher in a brown suit strides up the marble stairs to the altar, a golden tree trunk. Thousands of worshipers break into chest-heaving sobs. Others furiously wave white handkerchiefs and cry "Glory to Christ!" Samuel Joaquin has arrived.

Samsung Electronics Co. has added three new color options to its standard marble white and pebble blue Galaxy S III smartphones, which aren't affected by last Friday's patent infringement verdict against the South Korean company. Samsung said it's adding amber brown, sapphire black and titanium gray as color options for its flagship phone, which is offered by each of the four major mobile phone carriers. AT&T Inc. has had the exclusive rights to a garnet red Galaxy S III phone since late last month, but Samsung said it has added that as a color option for other carriers as well.

The first time I experienced a Korean spa, I was a youngster, visiting my grandparents in Taegu, South Korea. The shallowness of the oval tub reminded me of our local kiddie pool, except everyone was female, not a bathing suit was in sight and there wasn't an ice cream stand. In recent months, I have started visiting the mogyoktang , or Korean spa, in Los Angeles' Koreatown. Korean is the preferred language at the spa, but I don't speak it, despite my Korean roots.

BEIJING — The Chinese tycoon Wang Jianlin proudly pointed to the sweeping abstract painting of the Great Wall hanging in his marble-walled office. "It cost more than you can imagine," said the 57-year-old head of Dalian Wanda Group, China's largest private company. Already a massive collector of Chinese art, Wang, who counts an executive jet and an 80-foot yacht among his personal prizes, is China's 11 t h -richest man and poised to acquire his biggest trophy yet. Wanda is awaiting U.S. regulatory approval to finalize a $2.6-billion deal to purchase AMC Entertainment Holdings, the second-largest U.S. cinema chain.

The Art Deco-inspired Century City condominium tower expected to be the home of wealthy widow Candy Spelling and many other moneyed residents has been completed after nearly six years of planning, demolition and construction. With high-rise living still rarer in Los Angeles than in other international cities, the dramatic 41-story Century on Avenue of the Stars is targeted at a sliver of home buyers willing to spend as much for a condo as they would for a sumptuous home in an exclusive neighborhood such as Beverly Hills or Malibu.