Xanadu

Cash-strapped mall developer Mills Corp., owner of Ontario Mills mall in San Bernardino County, announced plans Monday to sell its interest in three malls in foreign countries. The Arlington, Va.-based company will get $981 million from buyer Ivanhoe Cambridge for its stake in Vaughan Mills in Ontario, Canada; St. Enoch Centre in Glasgow, Scotland; and Madrid Xanadu in Madrid. But the company expects to net only about $500 million from the sale after paying project costs and relieving some debt.

Our item on the seemingly-shelved Pia Zadora film, "When the Rain Begins to Fall" (formerly "Voyage of the Rock Aliens") brought a response from Gary D. Tucker, assistant director of the Seattle International Film Festival: "A bizarre blend of 'Beach Blanket Bingo' and 'Xanadu,' the film was part of our 'Desperately Seeking Shock' midnight series during the opening weekend of our festival (in May).

Richard E. Lyons, 67, producer of many Western films and several movies of the week for television. Lyons began as an office boy for Metro Goldwyn Mayer and then attended Dartmouth College before Navy service during World War II. He worked in the MGM record division after the war before coming to Hollywood, where he was a story editor before moving to production.

"Marco Polo: Return to Xanadu," is the first animated feature from the new Tooniversal Studio and the last film to qualify for the Academy Award for best animated feature. An outstanding film from a promising new studio would be welcome, especially in a year when drawn animation has been overshadowed by the commercial and critical success of the computer-generated "Shrek" and "Monsters, Inc."

The Hollywood Bowl has long been a favorite place to shoot movie and TV scenes. One of the first major films to shoot at the Bowl was 1937's iconic tale of Hollywood, "A Star Is Born" — that's where fledgling actress Janet Gaynor encounters drunk superstar Norman Maine (Fredric March). Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly sneak into the Bowl in 1945's "Anchors Aweigh. " Other films using the Cahuenga Pass landmark are 1944's "Double Indemnity" and 1980's "Xanadu. " TV series that have filmed there include "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Seinfeld" and "Melrose Place.

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed has listed his mountainside retreat in Santa Barbara for $4.95 million. The 25-acre ocean-view estate, which includes a swimming pool, fruit trees and a guesthouse, was designed as a creative environment. The custom house features an art studio and a screening room where Breathed worked for the last 12 years on Hollywood projects including "Mars Needs Moms" (2011) and "Secondhand Lions" (2003). There are five bedrooms, five bathrooms and 5,241 square feet of living space.

They might have suspected there would be trouble when the Thousand Oaks-based Xanadu Theatre Company put out a notice of a casting call for two shows simultaneously--Anthony Shaffer's "Sleuth" and John Bishop's "Musical Comedy Murders of 1940," now appearing in repertory at Cal Lutheran University. They were trying to save paper, the troupe's artistic director, Naomi Monroe, later explained, when they distributed a press release that read the "call is for males and females ages 25-60 . . .