Rock’s Dynamic Trio

The three rock legends scandalized America in their heyday with risque lyrics, flamboyant stage antics and guitar licks and drumbeats deemed “primitive.” On Tuesday night, the fire that fueled Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry had dimmed only slightly. “I’m still jumpin’,” Diddley told a crowd of reporters. “Ain’t nothing get old but ideas.”

Richard, 69, wore his trademark coiffure and rhinestone-covered boots, but kept his eyes hidden with a pair of black wraparound sunglasses. He chided a crowd of photographers as if they were small children. “Come on baby!” he shouted as the flashbulbs went off. “Take it baby! Take it!” Diddley, 73, stood beside him, occasionally glancing to his right to make sure his manager, Faith Fusillo, was capturing the scene on video camera. Diddley also carried a tape recorder to catch things he missed in the midst of all the excitement. Nearby, Berry, 75, talked about his next record (12 years in the making, he said) and then paused to tease Access Hollywood’s Pat O’Brien about the anchor’s malfunctioning camera.

The men came together to be honored as icons at the BMI Pop Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills. Flushed record industry folks in tuxedos and a few nonchalant record producers and rock bands in denim and leather crowded the Regent Beverly Wilshire, craning for a glimpse of the evening’s stars. Producer Dallas Austin (who has produced songs for Madonna and Aretha Franklin) spotted Berry and wove through the crowd to tentatively approach the rock innovator. The two men shook hands and Austin just stared and smiled, seemingly star-struck.

BMI, a performing rights organization that represents about 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers, has been honoring its members annually for 50 years. At a table near the stage, a publicist pointed to three baby-faced young men sitting quietly and gawking at the man in the cowboy hat they suspected was Diddley. (Their band, Lifehouse, won for its song “Hanging by a Moment,” which was the year’s most played BMI song on college radio.)

Later, after the filet mignon and the sorbet, George Thorogood took the stage to do his rendition of “Who Do You Love?” and “I’m a Man,” as Diddley, who wrote the songs, looked on, smiling slightly at the performance. Blues guitarist Jonny Lang kept his eyes closed through his version of Berry’s 1955 hit “Maybelline,” perhaps in an attempt to shield himself from Berry’s reaction. Berry stared intently at the stage, and Little Richard smiled, tapping his rhinestone boot.

A Window on War

News reports of American military occupations rarely offer a timely view of the emotional toll war takes on soldiers. Those stories typically surface long after the fighting has ended. This month, however, VH1 introduces a staged, unscripted series, “Military Diaries,” that gives viewers a rare look at post-Sept. 11 military life. The show was created by producer R.J. Cutler, who has won acclaim for his documentaries “American High” and “The War Room.”

The series, which debuts May 27, features the perspectives of 80 men and women of varying ages, ranks, assignments and backgrounds, who were given video cameras in early January and asked to record their thoughts 15 minutes a day for about a month on a broad range of topics, from their love lives to their jobs. In the end, producers were bombarded with footage. “The average diarist filmed 90 minutes a day,” said Cutler. (The Defense Department gave producers the final word. While military officials reviewed the tapes and made suggestions, the series wasn’t subject to military censors.) The results are striking.

One woman named Kathryn, a Duke University grad who leads a construction crew in Afghanistan, weeps to the camera about her inability to help the impoverished children living on the streets there. In another episode, a serviceman admits: “I do not love my government, but I do love my country.” Aboard the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, which was stationed in the Persian Gulf, a 23-year-old Petty Officer 3rd Class named Charlie tells the camera: “I want to be able to take a 15-minute, hot, long, shower, and then I want to be able to sleep. That’s like asking for a million dollars right now.”

Others reflect on Operation Anaconda, a March mission designed to crush the last known substantial force of Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Eight Americans died. “You’re hearing from people who have just returned from the belly of the beast,” Cutler said. “One guy talks of trying to rescue an injured soldier ... and flying the helicopter faster than regulated and the man died .... [Through this series] you get a window into something that you wouldn’t possibly be able to see otherwise.”

Quote/Unquote

“I think that if acting ever didn’t work out for me, I could be a professional trampolinist,” Reese Witherspoon (in all seriousness) told Vanity Fair in the June issue.

City of Angles runs Tuesday through Friday. E-mail: angles @latimes.com