CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : SANTA BARBARA : Actor Gene Kelly Marries Writer, 36

Veteran actor and dancer Gene Kelly was married in a private ceremony Friday to a 36-year-old writer he met five years ago while starring in a television special, a spokeswoman said. Kelly, 77, star of “An American in Paris,” “Singin’ in the Rain” and other lavish Hollywood musicals, married Patricia Ward, said Beebe Kline, Kelly’s spokeswoman. The couple planned to honeymoon in Europe later this summer. It is the third marriage for the award-winning dancer, director and choreographer. He was first married to actress Betsy Blair and later to dancer Jeanne Coyne, who died in 1972.