Moments in the Arts : 1982

Jan. 16: Smoked salmon and caviar pizza anyone? Spago, Wolfgang Puck’s Hollywood celebrity hangout, enters the culinary spotlight to great fanfare and mediocre reviews.

March 5: The Killer Bee and Samurai Chef, comic actor John Belushi, dies of a drug overdose in Hollywood at 33. Police arrest singer Cathy Smith for administering the fatal mixture of cocaine and heroine.

March 14: Actress Theresa Saldana, best remembered as Jake LaMotta’s sister in the film “Raging Bull,” is saved from a knife-wielding attacker by West Hollywood Sparkletts delivery man Jeffrey Fenn.

March 17: Jane Fonda threatens thighs across the land and revolutionizes the fitness industry by announcing plans to produce her first exercise video.

April 27: Gag me with a spoon. Frank Zappa releases “Valley Girl,” with daughter Moon Unit muttering Southern California Valspeak in the background. Like, fer sure.

April 28: Christie Hefner, 29, takes over the bunny hutch as new president of Playboy Enterprises. Her promotion follows the January cable debut of what will soon be known as the Playboy Channel.

June 9: Going, going, gone! Los Angeles auction lovers learn they will lose Sotheby’s local sale-room as part of the company’s plan to consolidate U.S. operations in New York.

June 16: Disneyland dumps its ticket book system and deprives Southern Californian’s of their universally understood colloquialism: “That’s an E ticket.”

July 1: KCET President James Loper resigns, leaving the station embroiled in financial crisis in the wake of revelations that he maintained station funds in a special bank account to cover expenses at private clubs.

July 23: Actor Vic Morrow and two child actors are killed when struck by helicopter blades during film production of “The Twilight Zone” at Indian Dunes Park. Director John Landis is later acquitted in a manslaughter trial.

Sept. 6: Ever perky Mary Hart makes her debut as the first lady of “Entertainment To night.”

Nov. 22: Michael Jackson releases “Thriller.” Hits such as the title cut, “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” plus equally hot music videos make “Thriller” the best-selling album ever.

1983 April 6: Interior Secretary James Watt, claiming Beach Boys attract “the wrong element,” bans the California icons from performing at the Washington Mall Fourth of July celebration. Loyal fans President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan object, and Watt is short-circuited the next day.

April 10: Time Inc. launches TV-Cable Week, a new weekly magazine for a burgeoning cable-television audience that will be dumped after five months and a $47-million loss.

July 31: Author Jackie Collins leaves little to the imagination with the publication of her scandalous sexpose, “Hollywood Wives,” which becomes a 10-million-copy seller.

Dec. 5: Actress Elizabeth Taylor checks herself into the Betty Ford Center at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, a hospital specializing in help for drug and alcohol dependency.