Mick Jagger

He has survived the usual travails of stardom--a drug bust, failed marriages and a paternity suit--but this may be more than an aging rocker can bear: A British magazine for seniors, Saga, has put Mick Jagger on the cover of its September issue. Granted, it is a 5-year-old, softly lit photograph of the Rolling Stones singer sans wrinkles and wearing a boyish blue and pink rugby shirt to highlight his eyes.

Fans of the Mamas & the Papas are in for a big surprise with the new solo album from group founder and songwriter John Phillips--an album released just weeks after Phillips died of heart failure at 65. In place of the gorgeously complex harmonizing and endearing folk-rock sound that were the Mamas & the Papas' hallmark, Phillips' "Pay Pack & Follow" is a raw, ragged, hard-rocking outing that sounds like a lost album by the Rolling Stones.

On most movie sets, it's the star actors who are the center of attention, the ones toward whom all eyes discreetly turn when they walk onto the set. They're usually the subject of cast and crew gossip and speculation, of whispered conversations behind hands. It's rare to find a film where a producer is the focus of such intrigue. But then, it's rare to find a film producer who's also arguably the most charismatic rock star of the last four decades.

You may recall that I mentioned discovering that the city of Los Angeles had 10 bank accounts totaling more than $4,000 on the "unclaimed property" Web site of the secretary of state's office. Well, Tammie Haller of Redondo Beach explored the site and found two unclaimed accounts for Mick Jagger, each containing small payments from Walt Disney. Wait till those right-wing religious critics of Disney learn that the company has a relationship with Mick (not to be confused with Mickey!).

With rock and youth so intertwined, folks have been speculating for two decades that each successive Stones tour could just be the last time. Such uncertainty is probably good for ticket sales, but the band's second of two nights at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim on Thursday only ratified what Tuesday's show shouted: The Stones will be viable as long as they desire to be. And that desire appears to be flowing strongly enough to carry them well into the next millennium.

Squeezing decades of rock 'n' roll into a two- or three-hour revue is one daunting task. It has become a habit, though, for music buff and college professor Paul Frizler. The chair of Chapman University's English department has been staging rock 'n' roll revues since the mid-'70s. His latest incarnation, "The Story of Rock 'n' Roll," opened last week and continues Friday through Sunday at the university in Orange.

The sounds produced by the Master Musicians of Jajouka are gripping, hypnotic, trance-like. Long, flowing, melodies played on a swarm of oboe-like ghaitas to the accompaniment of persistent, nasally drones and surging waves of rhythm from two-headed drums. It is music that moves past the intellect, directly into the emotions, music that fully justifies Mick Jagger's description of the Moroccan ensemble as "one of the most musically inspiring groups still left on the planet."

In the latest instance of entertainment industry superstars joining forces to form filmmaking ventures, rock icon Mick Jagger and "Forrest Gump" co-producer Steve Tisch have formed a production company. The leader of the World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band closed the deal with one of the key players behind the best picture nominee two weeks ago. A few days earlier, Jagger's company, Jagged Films, set up shop in Tisch's Culver City offices.