Xanadu

The muse first kissed Ken Anderson 22 years ago--not a chaste little peck, either, but a big, wet Frenchy, you might say. It took place at a midnight movie screening just a few weeks after the Berkeley native had moved to Los Angeles with dreams of becoming a Hollywood filmmaker. From then on, Anderson's life would never be the same. Because there on screen, playing a modern-day Greek muse named Kira, was pop chanteuse Olivia Newton-John in all her big-haired, '80s-style Olivia glory.

Talk about a snapshot in time. For people of a certain age, the primary image conjured up by the name Patty Hearst is a single frame of film shot on a surveillance camera. It shows her at age 19, brandishing a carbine, in the act of holding up a San Francisco bank. In this iconic picture, she looks the very embodiment of radical chic--rail-thin, with a beret atop her distinctly shaggy, shoulder-length hair.

Whenever I thought about Laughlin, Nev., my synapses released a convoluted image involving a neon-clotted Gomorrah overrun by gamblers so low-brow they were welcome neither in Vegas nor Reno, and an endless asphalt bake-off of RV parks. Not that I thought about Laughlin that often. But recently, I met my Steady's aunt and uncle. During the course of conversation, they mentioned that they had been going to Laughlin for years and that they always had "a perfectly lovely time."

The American Cinematheque and UCLA Film & Television Archive are celebrating the cinematic dregs -- films so bad they're great. The Cinematheque's So Bad They're Brilliant fest commences tonight at the Egyptian with a juicy double feature: 1964's "Kitten With a Whip" -- meow -- starring Ann-Margret and John Forsythe, and 1983's "The Lonely Lady," with Pia Zadora. Friday brings the cult 1980 musical "Xanadu" with Olivia Newton-John as a muse and Gene Kelly in a pinball machine -- don't ask -- and " Staying Alive," the 1983 sequel to "Saturday Night Fever" directed by Sylvester Stallone and starring John Travolta.

Roller skating movies seemed like a passing fad of the disco era with the release of such camp classics as "Xanadu," "Roller Boogie" and "Skatetown U.S.A." But that would be skating over the truth -- movies featuring roller skating have a rich heritage that has attracted some pretty heavy star power. The latest in the genre, "Whip It," which opens today, stars Oscar nominee Ellen Page ("Juno") and marks costar Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. Here's a look at some of the famous and even infamous who have donned roller skates for the silver screen: Charlie Chaplin: In real life, the comic genius loved to play tennis, but in reel life he was a comedic skating master.

This review has been corrected. See below for details. "Flashdance the Musical" has its way over "Flashdance" the movie in at least one critical regard: The show's plucky heroine - as you'll recall: welder by day! nonstripping stripper by night! - is played by just one actress, as opposed to the constant cutting from Jennifer Beals to body double Marine Jahan that makes the 1983 film almost unwatchable as a contemporary TV rerun. Actually, the stage version would be a riot if a stand-in for the leading lady ran in every time a dance routine begins.

Mills Corp., a shopping mall developer that has lost more than half its market value this year, said Tuesday that it had secured financing for its Meadowlands Xanadu project in New Jersey, clearing the way for a possible sale of the company. Century City-based Colony Capital will provide as much as $500 million in equity financing and arrange for construction loans to fund the balance of the expected $2-billion cost of the Xanadu project, Chevy Chase, Md.-based Mills said.

Community center Ping-Pong games that interrupt rehearsals. Bustling country club kitchens that double as backstage areas. Noisy ice machines that plop during dramatic pauses on stage. This summer, for the first time since its inception in 1987, the Xanadu Theatre Company is enjoying a reprieve from the aforementioned distractions that have accompanied a company constantly on the move.

"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure dome decree." Ever since William Randolph Hearst built his own Xanadu at San Simeon, California has laid claim to some of the nation's most ostentatious expressions of wealth. From Lynn Atkinson's "House of the Golden Doorknobs" to David Geffen's self-described "act of grandiosity," Los Angeles' four great estates are all that remain of a time and a place when glamour and grandeur knew no limit. * Bellagio House, Bellagio Road, Bel-Air.