Lights! Camera! Action! Arrest!

Two of Los Angeles’ most venerable institutions--the Police Department and the movie industry--squared off this week in what, by all accounts, was a battle of dueling spotlights.

One of the department’s helicopters was on routine patrol over Hollywood on Wednesday night, checking out activities on the ground with its powerful Nightsun searchlight, when it passed over an unidentified film crew shooting a scene, said Sgt. Jim Heintzman of the LAPD’s Air Support Division.

Lt. Tommy Tatreau, watch commander of the Hollywood Division, said he was told that the light from the helicopter and the sound of its rotor blades were interfering with the shoot and that Benjamin Giacometti, 28, a grip manning one of the film crew’s spotlights, decided to respond in kind.

“Someone on the ground began to follow the chopper with a very high-intensity light,” Heintzman said.

“We were blinded for a good 50 seconds, couldn’t see anything,” LAPD pilot Frank King said. “We had to put down.”

Heintzman said the two-man chopper crew directed Hollywood Division police to the film location in the 1500 block of Blue Jay Way, where Giacometti was placed under arrest. Booked on a misdemeanor count of interfering with a police officer, Giacometti was released on his own recognizance.