Wolf Schmidt

The producer of a movie shooting in the Los Angeles area about a secretive Los Angeles Police Department unit believes his phone has been tapped. Some crew members feel their work is under surveillance. The film company received an unsolicited letter from an LAPD detective criticizing plot points in what supposedly had been a closely-held script. For most of the six weeks the movie has been shooting, it's had a fictitious name.

The producer of a movie shooting in the Los Angeles area about a secretive Los Angeles Police Department unit believes his phone has been tapped. Some crew members feel their work is under surveillance. The film company received an unsolicited letter from an LAPD detective criticizing plot points in what supposedly had been a closely-held script. For most of the six weeks the movie has been shooting, it's had a fictitious name.

The anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 British commitment to the establishment of a Jewish state, always stirs emotions in Israel--and cast and crew of "Riding the Edge" got a firsthand look last week. The action-adventure, directed by James Fargo ("The Enforcer") and starring Raphael Sbarge and Catherine Mary Stewart, was shooting at a Palestinian refugee camp near Jericho.

'Pocahontas' Sales Strong: In its first week in stores, Walt Disney Home Video's "Pocahontas" has done booming business, selling more than 9 million copies nationwide. While that doesn't compare to "The Lion King's" record-shattering 20 million copies sold in its first week of video release a year ago, "Pocahontas" is running 50% above the first-week sales last fall for Disney's classic "Cinderella." . . .

Dodgers Manager Grady Little makes so many lists, he makes lists of his lists. And the two on his desk this week merely stated the obvious: The Dodgers' starting rotation is superior to that of a year ago. One column had the names of this year's starters: Derek Lowe, Randy Wolf, Jason Schmidt, Brad Penny and Brett Tomko. The other column had the names of last year's early rotation, with the erratic Odalis Perez and ineffective Jae Seo instead of Wolf and Schmidt.

Trouble had stalked Lloyd Bloom for years. Accused of racketeering in a highly charged scandal involving college football players, Bloom prevailed in court, only to face later battles over alleged mail fraud and business deals gone sour. So when the sports and entertainment agent was found slain this week in his lavish Malibu home, those who knew him were less than shocked.

Writer-director James Slocum's amusing and poignant "An American Summer" (at the Monica 4-Plex) is an inspired reworking of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" transposed from the banks of the Mississippi River in the 1850s to the shores of a Southern California beach community during the summer of 1978. Why 1978? One suspects that Slocum, a USC cinema alumnus in a nifty feature debut, was that year the same age as his 14-year-old hero, Tom Travis (Michael Landes).

The American Cinematheque's John Frankenheimer Retrospective this weekend, although well done, paled in comparison with the director's first Los Angeles round-up. "I was in the Air Force in the early '50s," Frankenheimer recalled at Friday's opening-night reception at the Directors Guild. "They sent me out to do a documentary on registered cattle--what a way to keep the guys off the street!"

Jason Schmidt, speaking publicly for the first time since he had shoulder surgery in June, said Thursday that he hoped to be ready for the start of spring training. "It'll kind of dictate itself," Schmidt said. "If it's not [ready by spring training], I can't see it much longer than that." Schmidt, who was 1-4 with a 6.31 earned-run average in six starts before getting his shoulder repaired, was visiting Los Angeles from his Arizona home for a routine checkup with Dr. Neal ElAttrache.