Thomas Gottschalk

YOU'VE never heard of Thomas Gottschalk? You don't recognize the tall blond with the long curls nursing a venti in a crowded Malibu Starbucks or striding alone across the Music Center plaza on opera night? That's exactly the point. Thomas Gottschalk is probably the most famous German entertainer ever.

YOU'VE never heard of Thomas Gottschalk? You don't recognize the tall blond with the long curls nursing a venti in a crowded Malibu Starbucks or striding alone across the Music Center plaza on opera night? That's exactly the point. Thomas Gottschalk is probably the most famous German entertainer ever.

Thomas Gottschalk, who plays a crackpot auto inventor in the PG-rated "Driving Me Crazy" (citywide), is a celebrity talk-show host and "personality" in Germany who, according to press notes, also appears in European ads for McDonald's and dubbed the voice of the baby in the German version of "Look Who's Talking" and its sequel. With achievements such as these, are there any worlds left to conquer? There's always Hollywood.

Thomas Gottschalk, who plays a crackpot auto inventor in the PG-rated "Driving Me Crazy" (citywide), is a celebrity talk-show host and "personality" in Germany who, according to press notes, also appears in European ads for McDonald's and dubbed the voice of the baby in the German version of "Look Who's Talking" and its sequel. With achievements such as these, are there any worlds left to conquer? There's always Hollywood.

Let Courts Decide on Pickups, GM Asks: The auto maker asked the Transportation Department to cancel a planned public meeting on the safety record of its full-size trucks and have the matter settled by the courts. General Motors Corp. Senior Vice President Thomas Gottschalk made the request in a letter to Stephen Kaplan, the department's general counsel. The company estimates there are 6 million trucks with so-called side-saddle fuel tanks still on the road.

Backdraft (Imagine). Shooting in Chicago. "Parenthood's" Ron Howard directs another top-heavy cast as Robert DeNiro, Kurt Russell, Billy Baldwin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Glenn, Rebecca DeMornay and Jason Gedrick all shine in this thriller set against an arson investigation in the Second City. Russell and Baldwin play brothers as the scenario is revealed through the point of view of a rookie firefighter. Executive producer Brian Grazer. Producers Richard B. Lewis, Pen Densham and John Watson.

General Motors Corp. filed a lawsuit Thursday to block U.S. Transportation Secretary Federico Pena from ordering a recall of pickup trucks that have sidesaddle gasoline tanks that are allegedly unsafe. The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court here, comes a month after Pena made an initial ruling that there was an "unreasonable risk" of fatal injury in side-impact crashes involving the 1973-87 Chevrolet and GMC pickups.

An Alabama jury Monday ordered General Motors Corp. to pay a record $150 million in damages to a paralyzed man who alleged that a door latch on his Chevrolet S-10 Blazer failed in a crash, allowing him to be thrown from the vehicle, lawyers said. The verdict is the largest ever against an auto maker, eclipsing a $125-million jury award against Ford Motor Co. in the early 1980s for design defects in the Pinto.

Four years ago, the body of Jean Ellen Eubanks was discovered buried in a crude grave beneath a thin layer of rocks in Matilija Canyon near Ojai. Detectives suspected from the beginning that the 34-year-old mother of three was shot to death by her traveling companion, who had promised to show her Southern California. But the man, a suspected interstate drug smuggler, disappeared, and the investigation stalled until he surfaced in Utah in 1988, arrested on suspicion of selling cocaine.

Keeping up with Boris Becker's marriage proposals takes some doing, but the former tennis star made things easier this time by announcing his latest wedding plans on a popular German variety show. Booked onto the show "You Bet . . . ?" along with former girlfriend Lilly Kerssenberg, Becker surprised nearly 10 million viewers -- and Kerssenberg -- by saying he would marry the Dutch model in June.

On StageWith Domingo The stage of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was transformed into a Spanish cabaret for L.A. Opera's "On Stage Gala: A Night of Zarzuela and Operetta With Placido Domingo and Friends." The black-tie event, which raised more than $350,000, took its theme from the musical roots that launched Domingo's career. Zarzuela--a theatrical form, which is to Spain what Gilbert & Sullivan is to England, operetta to Vienna, and the Broadway musical to America--was the Domingo family business.