Star Treatment

When the phone rings in the Chatoff kitchen, it could be a credit-card pitch--or it could be a well-known actress with emotional problems less well-known to her fans. "Trust the process," Steven Chatoff counsels in a firm, soothing voice. "Trust it." Translation: Take your medication. The problem right now isn't the business. The problem is you. From his Thousand Oaks home, Chatoff routinely delivers such messages to entertainment figures--particularly rock musicians--on both coasts.

 In the UCLA locker room at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night,  Charles Dawson got the star treatment. A group of L.A. Windward players got to take their photo with Dawson, a walk-on freshman defensive back for the Bruins who played football and basketball at Windward. Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

 In the UCLA locker room at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night,  Charles Dawson got the star treatment. A group of L.A. Windward players got to take their photo with Dawson, a walk-on freshman defensive back for the Bruins who played football and basketball at Windward. Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

Whatever happened to "Moby-Dick"? That's what L.A. libraries want to know. The Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Public Libraries and friends are getting together to present a month-long celebration of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick. " From Twitter to a whale watch boat ride, scholarly discussions to thematic children's book readings, beach cleanups to experimental films, more than 90 events are planned that connect in one way or another to the classic 1851 novel. In an effort to bring libraries to life, the events include such unusual projects as creating scrimshaw in soap, doing ocean-themed origami, puppet shows, sidewalk astronomy, sea shanty sing-alongs and a beach cleanup.

The transit of Venus sounds like a bus stop at some extraterrestrial outpost, but it's actually what happens in the sky when the planet Venus moves across the face of the sun. What NASA calls "the rarest of planetary alignments" will begin Tuesday afternoon until sunset -- and then won't be seen again for 105 years. "In a way, you could call a solar eclipse a transit of the moon," says Tyler Nordgren , astronomer, author and associate professor of physics at the University of Redlands.

Whatever happened to "Moby-Dick"? That's what L.A. libraries want to know. The Library Foundation of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Public Libraries and friends are getting together to present a month-long celebration of Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick. " From Twitter to a whale watch boat ride, scholarly discussions to thematic children's book readings, beach cleanups to experimental films, more than 90 events are planned that connect in one way or another to the classic 1851 novel. In an effort to bring libraries to life, the events include such unusual projects as creating scrimshaw in soap, doing ocean-themed origami, puppet shows, sidewalk astronomy, sea shanty sing-alongs and a beach cleanup.

For half a century, the sprawling 110-acre aerospace complex in Redondo Beach has played host to the development of the nation's most advanced and secret spacecraft. Known as Space Park, the site was built at the height of the Cold War after the launch of Sputnik for engineers to develop a high-powered rocket that could deliver a nuclear warhead 6,000 miles away in less than an hour to virtually wipe out an entire city: the intercontinental ballistic missile. The complex's 47 buildings have served as a nerve center for the development and construction of high-powered lasers, cutting-edge electronics and sophisticated spacecraft.

Be-dimpled Jeff Probst may not be changing the face of television as we know it - though he once did, with his hosting duties on the "Survivor" franchise, and would certainly like to yet again with his new daytime talk show. But what Probst has done to burnish his TV legacy is give those attending his syndicated show a clubby pre-show gathering place. At the Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood, attendees can grab a snack, check their email or get primped and freshened by professional stylists as if they were going to be hosting the show themselves.

Players come and go in the NBA. They have their glory, get old and live later lives out of the limelight. Unless your name is Michael Jordan or a few others, you depart Earth in the company of family, a few friends and a neighbor or two. Then there is Flynn Robinson. Saturday, at noon at a church in Los Angeles, many tall men with faces and names familiar and revered in basketball will gather to say goodbye at a special memorial service. According to the record books, Robinson wasn't a superstar.

Trustees of the Laguna Art Museum not only rolled out the red carpet for benefactors Saturday night, they paved it with stars a la Hollywood Boulevard, each bearing a donor's name. And that was only the beginning of the star treatment given the 80 guests at the $500-per-person beginning of the museum's two-day fund-raiser, "Only Laguna."

Players come and go in the NBA. They have their glory, get old and live later lives out of the limelight. Unless your name is Michael Jordan or a few others, you depart Earth in the company of family, a few friends and a neighbor or two. Then there is Flynn Robinson. Saturday, at noon at a church in Los Angeles, many tall men with faces and names familiar and revered in basketball will gather to say goodbye at a special memorial service. According to the record books, Robinson wasn't a superstar.

Jordan Hassay worked overtime Monday so he could leave his office early on Tuesday to watch Stephen Hawking speak at Caltech. By the time Hassay, 26, drove from Hollywood to the Pasadena campus, the line outside Caltech's Beckman Auditorium, which started forming at 8 a.m., was hundreds deep. The famed theoretical physicist wasn't scheduled to go on until 8 p.m. He eventually found himself outside the 1,100-person capacity auditorium in an overflow space to watch Hawking give a lecture on the origins of the universe and answer questions from Caltech students.

Paul J. Carter was 9 when Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974, watching the televised speech with his dad, a loyal Republican who had come home from work early for the event. "I … didn't grasp the magnitude of it," said Carter, now 47 and a lawyer in Long Beach. Nearly four decades later, the boy's puzzlement over the nation's 37th president had evolved into a grown-up project, "Native Son Richard Nixon's Southern California: My Life on a Map!" Made like a guide to Hollywood stars' homes, the fold-out map is an illustrated romp through the life of the only White House occupant born and raised in Southern California.

Be-dimpled Jeff Probst may not be changing the face of television as we know it - though he once did, with his hosting duties on the "Survivor" franchise, and would certainly like to yet again with his new daytime talk show. But what Probst has done to burnish his TV legacy is give those attending his syndicated show a clubby pre-show gathering place. At the Sunset Bronson Studios in Hollywood, attendees can grab a snack, check their email or get primped and freshened by professional stylists as if they were going to be hosting the show themselves.

The transit of Venus sounds like a bus stop at some extraterrestrial outpost, but it's actually what happens in the sky when the planet Venus moves across the face of the sun. What NASA calls "the rarest of planetary alignments" will begin Tuesday afternoon until sunset -- and then won't be seen again for 105 years. "In a way, you could call a solar eclipse a transit of the moon," says Tyler Nordgren , astronomer, author and associate professor of physics at the University of Redlands.

For half a century, the sprawling 110-acre aerospace complex in Redondo Beach has played host to the development of the nation's most advanced and secret spacecraft. Known as Space Park, the site was built at the height of the Cold War after the launch of Sputnik for engineers to develop a high-powered rocket that could deliver a nuclear warhead 6,000 miles away in less than an hour to virtually wipe out an entire city: the intercontinental ballistic missile. The complex's 47 buildings have served as a nerve center for the development and construction of high-powered lasers, cutting-edge electronics and sophisticated spacecraft.

Three thousand miles from Santa Monica, 4,000 miles from Morocco and 44 years from "Casablanca," all three elements came together here Thursday in an evening that featured couscous, political talk and a pair of blond belly dancers. The occasion was a party honoring adopted Californian Laurence Leamer and "As Time Goes By," his "fiercely honest" biography that, as publisher Harper & Row likes to tout, "unmasks the myth of Ingrid Bergman."

For a long while after Gary Hart dropped out of the presidential race, it seemed as if Hollywood might never recover. Gone were the days when Warren Beatty could be spotted leading his pal, the candidate, through chic Westside gatherings; when stars like Jack Nicholson and Debra Winger and Steve Martin rallied crowds of supporters. The popping of paparazzi cameras as Morgan Fairchild and other stars strutted into assorted fund-raisers was suddenly silent.

Baseball has made considerable strides from those seemingly lawless days of the 1990s, when the size and shape of the strike zone sometimes shifted with the reputation of the pitcher or hitter. "There's no doubt umpires are doing a better job today," said Gary DiSarcina, the former Angels shortstop who now works in the team's front office. "When I came up [in the early 1990s] some umps played the name game; superstars got a lot of leeway. "If Dennis Eckersley was on the mound, a fastball four or five inches off the plate was a strike.

It's late in the season and a Los Angeles basketball coach is calling out an opposing team's star player, needling him through the media about the special treatment he supposedly gets from game officials. Phil Jackson up to his antics? No, this time it was USC Coach Kevin O'Neill, who rattled the cages of controversy by saying this week that Arizona forward Derrick Williams was "the most protected dude I've seen since Michael Jordan. " Williams, a former La Mirada High star, averages 19.7 points and 8.1 rebounds for No. 10 Arizona (23-4, 12-2 in Pacific 10 Conference play)