Create Your Own Courtroom Drama
Don Schilling spotted it in UCLA’s spring extension catalog: a seminar titled “Enhancing Your Performance in the Courtroom: An Acting Workshop for Lawyers” (see accompanying).
I’m shocked that a seminar like this would be needed. I mean, isn’t it already taught at law school?
OTHER LEGAL STRATEGEMS: A dozen UCLA law students were arrested Thursday after they took over the school’s records office to demand a return to affirmative action admissions policies. Being law students, they took some precautions.
The first thing they did when they took over the office was call an attorney for advice. The attorney counseled them to make certain they didn’t have any outstanding warrants before letting campus police take them into custody.
One protester realized he had a traffic warrant outstanding, so he became the “spokesman” for the group to avoid arrest. The arrested students were immediately released after being booked.
DANCES WITH RAZZIES: Well, the nominees for moviedom’s big awards show were announced the other day, so I thought you’d like to know the latest odds for the various categories. I’m talking, of course, about the Golden Raspberry Foundation Awards, better known as the Razzies, which dishonor the worst performances of the year.
A repeat worst actor nominee is Kevin Costner, who struck out in the 1999 baseball movie “For Love of the Game.”
Several critics termed the plot lame. And one anonymous freelance reviewer in Newport Beach made that judgment even before it opened, altering an ad that was spotted by Kevin Rockwood and Angela Wiley (see photo).
MORE FLOPS: The Razzies winners (or losers, depending on your point of view) will be announced March 25, one day before the show’s lesser known rival, the Oscars. The leading contenders, according to TheOddz.com Web site.
Worst Picture: “Wild, Wild West,” a 3-2 favorite; “Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace,” 15-2; “Blair Witch Project,” 15-1; “The Haunting” 15-1; “Big Daddy,” 30-1.
Worst Actor: (tie) Costner, Robin Williams (“Jakob the Liar,” “Bicentennial Man”), Arnold Schwarzenegger (“End of Days”), all at 4-1).
Worst Actress: (tie) Melanie Griffith (“Crazy in Alabama”), Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Entrapment,” “The Haunting”), both 7-2.
Worst Screen Couple: Kevin Kline and Will Smith (“Wild, Wild West”), 5-2.
NOT A THIRD-STRIKE-TYPE CRIME: The police log in the Los Alamitos News-Enterprise reports this citizen’s complaint out of La Palma:
“Arroyo Circle and El Rancho Verde, 12:59 p.m.: Some children had put up a sawhorse with sign, ‘Kids Playing,’ while they were in the street playing.”
THE PITFALLS OF POLITICS: Orange County Supervisor Charles Smith wrenched his knee the other day as he stepped up on stage to participate in the ceremonial opening of a keg of sake for the Orange County Japanese American Assn. “I hadn’t touched the sake,” quipped Smith.
miscelLAny:
Jackson Sleet of L.A. noticed a scary car insurance sign in San Jose (see photo). After seeing that I don’t want to know the way to San Jose.
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Steve Harvey can be reached at (800) LATIMES Ext. 77083, by fax at (213) 237-4712, by mail at Metro, L.A. Times, Times Mirror Square, L.A. 90053 and by e-mail at steve.harvey@latimes.com.