The Beach Movie

"The Beach" premiere on Wednesday evening at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood was a study in Leo-mania. Hundreds of fans, mostly young women, waited hours for a glimpse of Leonardo DiCaprio. To the delight of the crowd, the impish actor showed up dateless. For the post-screening bash, party planner Jeffrey Best transformed the nearby club called Blue into the one-night-only Reclining Buddha (the film was shot in Thailand).

"The Beach" premiere on Wednesday evening at Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood was a study in Leo-mania. Hundreds of fans, mostly young women, waited hours for a glimpse of Leonardo DiCaprio. To the delight of the crowd, the impish actor showed up dateless. For the post-screening bash, party planner Jeffrey Best transformed the nearby club called Blue into the one-night-only Reclining Buddha (the film was shot in Thailand).

Storm clouds gathered ominously over Leonardo DiCaprio. He was aboard a luxury yacht, moored off this idyllic island in the Andaman Sea, resting between scenes of a $45-million 20th Century Fox movie, "The Beach." Minutes ago the hot sun shone in a cobalt blue sky; the glass-smooth sea's clear waters were turquoise, turning to jade green in the shallows near Phi Phi Le, where they lapped at fine whitish sand. Just another day in paradise, right? Not quite.

It's that time of year again. Newport Dunes Resort in Newport Beach is hosting Family Flicks on the beach Fridays and Saturdays through Sept. 4. That means watching films on a 9-by-12-foot screen from the vantage point of a beach chair on the shore of the 100-acre waterfront resort--not to mention something you can't get at your local Edwards or AMC theater: marshmallows roasting by campfire.

It's that time of year again. Newport Dunes Resort in Newport Beach is hosting Family Flicks on the beach Fridays and Saturdays through Sept. 4. That means watching films on a 9-by-12-foot screen from the vantage point of a beach chair on the shore of the 100-acre waterfront resort--not to mention something you can't get at your local Edwards or AMC theater: marshmallows roasting by campfire.

It's a race that could give Las Vegas oddsmakers nightmares. As 1998 dwindles down to its final weeks, the only sure thing about this year's Academy Awards competition is that Steven Spielberg's World War II battle drama, "Saving Private Ryan," starring Tom Hanks, is a virtual lock for one of the five best picture nominations. But beyond that, say many who closely monitor the Oscar race, the remaining four nominations are up for grabs.

It's become an Oscar weekend ritual for film glamour to spend Saturday at the beach. The draw to the Pacific comes from two separate events that take place a hundred yards from each other: the Independent Feature Project/West's Independent Spirit Awards, which fills a massive tent in a Santa Monica shoreline parking lot, and the tea party hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles at Shutters Hotel.

Kurt Osburn pops wheelies. That's what he does; that's what he loves. Osburn, a Fullerton sandblaster, is so obsessed with riding his bike on its rear wheel that he wants to do it all the way across the country. "I'm just a showoff," he said. "That's just how I am. I have to wheelie. It's my No. 1--what I'm focusing my life on." Since he was 9, Osburn has performed wheelies on his bicycle.

From a bad dream to a good one . . . Jerry West picks up the phone, calls an old friend. Elgin Baylor: Hello? West: Hey. Baylor: Jerry? West: Yup. Baylor: Oh, this is rich. Ten minutes after Utah cleans your clock, you're calling for my office measurements. You're a real back surgeon, you are. Listen, pal, if you want my job, you're going to have to . . . West: Relax, buddy. I'm not quitting. I'm staying with the Lakers.

Storm clouds gathered ominously over Leonardo DiCaprio. He was aboard a luxury yacht, moored off this idyllic island in the Andaman Sea, resting between scenes of a $45-million 20th Century Fox movie, "The Beach." Minutes ago the hot sun shone in a cobalt blue sky; the glass-smooth sea's clear waters were turquoise, turning to jade green in the shallows near Phi Phi Le, where they lapped at fine whitish sand. Just another day in paradise, right? Not quite.

It's a race that could give Las Vegas oddsmakers nightmares. As 1998 dwindles down to its final weeks, the only sure thing about this year's Academy Awards competition is that Steven Spielberg's World War II battle drama, "Saving Private Ryan," starring Tom Hanks, is a virtual lock for one of the five best picture nominations. But beyond that, say many who closely monitor the Oscar race, the remaining four nominations are up for grabs.

It's become an Oscar weekend ritual for film glamour to spend Saturday at the beach. The draw to the Pacific comes from two separate events that take place a hundred yards from each other: the Independent Feature Project/West's Independent Spirit Awards, which fills a massive tent in a Santa Monica shoreline parking lot, and the tea party hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts/Los Angeles at Shutters Hotel.

A new nonprofit group of coastal activists has agreed to maintain a never-opened public walkway to the beach across movie and music producer David Geffen's Malibu estate and is pressuring him to open the gates. It's the first time a nonprofit group has tried to force access to the beach through one of Malibu's private enclaves. The activists say the move is born of frustration with two decades of government inaction.

Like his distant relative, Henry David Thoreau, Laguna Beach writer David Thoreau has an affinity for nature and the great outdoors. So for his first screenplay, "Side Out," this Thoreau chose as his setting a late-20th-Century Walden Pond where millions of Southern Californians head for reflection: the beach.