A CHRONICLE OF THE PASSING SCENE : And if a Movie Takes a Dive. . .

It’s pretty disconcerting being in line for movie tickets at the West Hills Fallbrook Mall when creatures seemingly from the Black Lagoon are spotted frolicking nearby in a glassed-in indoor pool.

Actually, they are human creatures with scuba gear taking diving lessons in the pool in the back of the Sport Chalet outlet. The odd view is provided by long glass windows that give the impression of looking into an aquarium of sorts.

“People sometimes look pretty startled, even frightened. They can’t believe they’re seeing what it is they’re seeing,” says Dave Satterberg, the head diving instructor for this unusual sporting goods adjunct.

Satterberg says the pool has been there since the store opened about two years ago, but people never seem to notice it unless classes are in session.

“When it’s night and we turn on the lights, it’s really noticeable from the outside. During the daytime, you don’t really notice the pool at all,” he says.

According to Anna Melena, another instructor, about 300 people have taken the diving courses that cost about $265 for 15 classroom, pool and ocean sessions.

Satterberg says several other Sport Chalet outlets also have indoor pools, but he doesn’t think that any other Valley store offers diving lessons in-house where people can qualify for the openwater I, openwater II, advanced and leadership SCUBA diving designations.

In 1993, class dives are set for Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Pedro, San Diego, Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Catalina, Santa Barbara and San Clemente.

Students who find that menu too tame also can sign up for Cozumel, Honduras, Costa Rica or Belize.

17-Year-Old for the Prosecution

What, you might ask, was a 17-year-old Louisville High student doing leading the prosecution team in Judge Michael Farrell’s Van Nuys Superior Court one day this past November?

The answer: Practicing to win the Nov. 12 Los Angeles County Mock Trial Championship in Downtown Los Angeles, which Nanci Echeverri and her Louisville team did. She was singled out for special honors.

The legal debating team practiced long hours before the monthlong competition against 47 other schools. Participation in the extracurricular activity at the all-girls school in Woodland Hills is by invitation only. Once the members are back from Christmas vacation, they will prepare for the state championship in Sacramento this spring.

The city championship was a tremendous victory for the girls, according to Michael Telesca, who coaches the team of 12 students. “We had so many handicaps, but we won anyhow,” he said with enthusiasm. “Some schools in the competition have camera clubs bigger than our 360-member student body. It could have put us at a tremendous disadvantage.”

Many schools in the contest, including perennial winner John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, have lawyers coach their students. “We don’t do any of that,” Telesca said.

Telesca said he’s been coaching the Louisville team for more than 10 years and pretty much knows the courtroom drill and what is expected of the competitors. “After that, it’s a matter of their intelligence, extemporaneous speaking and reasoning skills,” he said.

Solo Without the Polo

His Santa Clarita neighbors are going to see a lot more of Nino Osti. For a few weeks at least, Osti is out of a job.

For 25 years, Osti has been a legend at the Beverly Hills Hotel as maitre d’ in the Polo Lounge. Now the hotel’s owner, the Sultan of Brunei, has decided to shut down the place for two years while he pours about $100 million or so into renovations.

Osti says he will probably never go back.

During his watch, the northern Italian-born Osti came to know almost everyone in the entertainment industry and everyone in the entertainment industry seemed to want to know him.

And, while most seemed warmed by his charm and his courtly manner, many were afraid to approach him and his big black reservation book.

“There were only a few really good tables--only the three booths in the front of the room--and some people would be humiliated if they didn’t get one of them,” according to Michael Viner, a movie producer. “You could tell whose star was ascending or descending by where Nino put them in the room.”

It is said more deals have been done in the Polo Lounge over breakfast than in any of the studios in Hollywood. It is a place where Katharine Hepburn used to sip orange juice after her tennis lesson and where Frank Sinatra was threatened with arrest for punching someone out.

Candice Bergen says that as a teen-ager, she and her neighbor, Liza Minnelli, used to run down the hill to the Polo Lounge for sodas, locking their dogs in the phone booths.

Osti, now 50-something, came to the Polo Lounge as a young, European-trained charmer, by way of La Rue Restaurant in Los Angeles.

A writer for People Weekly called him the most elegant man in Hollywood. Now the elegance is going on vacation for a bit.

“I have had offers for jobs come in as far away as Florida,” he said just before Tuesday’s shutdown. “But I think I would like to just relax for a while.”

A Few Choice Words

Over the years, the University of Judaism has put together many interesting, open-to-the-public meetings featuring such national figures as Hyman Rickover, Betty Friedan, Alan Dershowitz, Abba Eban, Norman Mailer and Coretta Scott King.

This year, interest sometimes bordering on anger is running high. Jack Schechter, the university’s dean of continuing education, has put together a series of five debate/lectures at temples throughout the San Fernando Valley from January through April.

Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch and Cecil Murray, pastor of Los Angeles’ First African Methodist Episcopal Church, are the first matchup, to be held Jan. 20.

Other programs will feature Jewish historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi and political psychologist Peter Loewenberg; Catholic priest, sociologist and novelist Father Andrew M. Greeley, and author Eugene Borowitz, and Commentary magazine editor Norman Podhoretz and Martin Peretz, editor of The New Republic.

But the biggest draw is expected to be the debate/lecture pitting archconservative Phyllis Schlafly against Jane Roe attorney Sarah Weddington on March 14.

Overheard

“My New Year’s resolution is none of your business. Actually, I am going to try to be more sharing and open. Why are you laughing like that?”

--Man to date at Teru Sushi restaurant in Studio City