Seeking a Cure

Is Sony Pictures Entertainment on the mend?

The company, whose ills lately have included too many big box-office disappointments and too few films released, has invited a renowned healing specialist to the studio this week to speak to its employees.

Dr. Deepak Chopra, a best-selling author and authority on the ancient Indian healing science of ayurveda, is scheduled to lecture at the Culver City studio’s Cary Grant Theatre Thursday night. Sony Pictures Chairman Peter Guber is expected to introduce the physician, whose books include “Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.”

Sony would no doubt prefer to be cured by decent box-office returns the next few weeks from “Wolf,” starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Lecture Still in Gear

The Learning Annex calls it “your chance to hear the brilliant strategies and proven techniques” of a “turnaround czar.”

What is it? A lecture next month by Mark Goldston, who resigned last Wednesday as president of sneaker manufacturer L.A. Gear amid mixed reviews about his three-year tenure there. The lecture, scheduled well before the resignation, is in Learning Annex’s latest catalogue.

The Santa Monica-based sneaker maker has suffered a slide in market share during Goldston’s tenure. It also lost money, with the red ink expected to total nearly $18 million for the first six months of this year. There has been only one profitable quarter since Goldston was hired in 1991.

Still, some analysts and executives credit Goldston with keeping the company afloat, adding that he helped position it for a turnaround.

98 Great Things?

One of the most visible local morale-boosting ad campaigns of the past couple of years came from the folks at Santa Monica-based First Federal Bank. The theme was a list of “One Hundred Great Things About Living in L.A.”

A look at the reasons now suggests that should the campaign even be revived, it might need some updating because of recent developments.

Listed as No. 32 was the Los Angeles Rams, who appear serious about moving to another city. No. 74 was the Los Angeles Raiders, who also have flirted with the idea of leaving.

Then again, fans frustrated with the two teams’ performances the past few years might look at their departure as another good reason to live here.

Briefly. . .

The Trends Journal, a Rhinebeck, N.Y., publication that monitors business and social developments, lists among its “trends in decline” bartenders, chemical lawn-care services, department stores, 9-to-5 jobs and movie theaters. . . . Among “dying trends,” it lists furs, home sewing, the Industrial Age, nuclear energy, typewriters and video stores. . . . Chicago-based Beltone Electronics is marketing a “designer hearing aid” that it says it designed “with enlightened advice” from Los Angeles-based artist David Hockney.