FIRST OFF . . .

Push finally came to shove in Orange County over the controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ” late Friday when a scuffle broke out at the Main Place mall in Santa Ana between security guards and Christians protesting the film’s exhibition. One man, Michael Sanders, was detained for a while for allegedly assaulting a guard, but the struggle was mostly ideological rather than physical, security personnel said, and Sanders was freed. Christian talk-show host John Stewart charged that the protesters’ civil rights were violated by security’s refusal to let protesters into the mall to pass out leaflets. But security personnel said demonstrators ignored repeated requests to leave their picket signs outside the mall and then walked to the AMC theaters and marched around the lobby, singing hymns and refusing requests to leave. Theater manager Monica Dashwood said she asked for help from security because the picketers were disrupting business. Lawyers from the Rutherford Institute, a Christian civil rights group, will try to negotiate a workable policy for “Temptation” protests with mall management, Santa Ana attorney David Llewellyn said.