BRIEFLY . . .

Milton Fredman, an attorney who has served as a port commissioner and bankruptcy trustee, has been picked by Mayor Maureen O’Connor to head the new Commission for Arts and Culture. Fredman, who has held a number of civic leadership posts, once represented the United States on a committee that oversaw an international arts festival as part of the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal. The commission is charged with developing a municipal arts plan and distributing about $5 million of city money to the arts. The nomination of Fredman and 14 other unannounced arts commission members must be approved by the City Council.

Author and lecturer John Bradshaw, host of the 10-part series “Bradshaw On: The Family” now airing Sundays and Wednesdays on KPBS-TV (Channel 15), will host workshops tonight and Saturday at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. Today’s lecture, “Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families,” scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., will deal with the destructive behavioral traits that are fostered in problem families. “Healing the Precious Child Within Us” is the title of the Saturday workshop, scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. The workshops benefit KPBS.

Gloria Swanson was the Meryl Streep of her time, the most popular and glamorous film star of the silent-film generation. The California Theater will show two of her biggest films, “Sadie Thompson” (accompanied by Robert Israel playing “The Mighty Wurlitzer Organ”) and “Sunset Boulevard,” 7:30 p.m., Saturday. The double bill opens the theater’s “Silver Screen Film Series,” a monthly screening of old movies. Call 233-1781 for information.

Fans of subtitled movies will love the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art’s new series, “A Tribute to New Argentine Cinema,” a series of Spanish-language films beginning at 7:30 p.m., Saturday with “Darse Cuenta (Becoming Aware).” Directed by Alejandro Doria, the film is based on the true story of a Buenos Aires doctor who stubbornly fought for a patient’s life.