The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 65

Rebecca De Momay, now appearing in "Closer" at the Mark Taper Forum, also stars in a new TV movie tonight, "Range of Motion" (Lifetime, 9 p.m.). She'll be able to watch: The theater is dark on Mondays. Cos Angelas iimea MONDAY DECEMBER 4, 2000 WWW.CALENDARLIVE.COM ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT HIS SCHNEIDER LA. Times II I II '-Mi I i 'I i tkJ 1L i MA ,1 1 i 1st V-1f ijlviIUuii si A Mountain Looms in the Distance Movies The 1996 Mt. Everest tragedy informs some aspects of the rescue adventure 'Vertical By JORDAN RAPHAEL TIMES STAFF WRITER A ft A Y7 v.v-v.v I v.v.-.v v.v.vv 1 In May 1996, eight climbers died on the harsh slopes of Mt.

Everest when a ferocious storm blew in without warning. The events captivated the world in numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and several books, most notably Jon Krakauer's best-selling "Into Thin Air." All that coverage, and still no Hollywood blockbuster. Given the drama and magnitude of the Everest disaster the worst in the mountain's history that's somewhat surprising. Along comes Columbia Pictures' "Vertical Limit," a fictionalized tale about a mountain-climbing expedition that is ravaged by a vicious blizzard near the top of K2, the world's second-highest peak. In the movie, which hits theaters Friday, climber Peter Garrett (Chris O'Donnell) must trek his way up K2 to rescue his sister, Annie (Robin Tunney), and two of her teammates (Bill Paxton, Nicholas Lea), who are trapped in a crevasse.

Although the filmmakers take pains to point out that their story is fictitious, "Vertical Limit" contains some striking connections to the incidents on Everest and may be the closest moviegoers will get to seeing the dangers and emotions of that calamitous climb. To date, "Into Thin Air," Krakauer's first-person account of the disastrous Everest expedition, has been the most popular version of what took place up there in 1996, selling more than 4 million copies in Please see F10 GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times After years of persistence, Eduardo Quezada landed a job at Los Angeles' KMEX in 1975. Now he anchors the weeknight newscasts. ByDANACALVO TIMES STAFF WRITER ABC commentator Peter Jennings grows weary of fans hounding him for autographs, he could take a stroll through the neighborhood streets of Syl- An Anchor at KMEX Over the past 25 years, Eduardo Quezada has become an institution at the Spanish-language TV station, with a huge audience any anchorman would envy. migration attorney in South Pasadena who went to the town hall meeting.

"Quezada asked him if he favored amnesty, and Bush said, But Quezada really put him on the Quezada just seems honest, Arevalo added. "In terms of substance, he comes across as someone who can be trusted." That trust has translated into ratings. More Latinos live in Los Angeles than in any other U.S. city, and the 6 p.m. newscast on KMEX has drawn more local adult viewers than any other Spanish or English newscast in L.A.

since May 1993, according to Nielsen Media Research. Advertisers seek out those viewers, ages 18-34, but what is more telling about the newscast's viewers is that they represent a cross-section of the community, from professionals to immigrants just recently arrived. The newscast's ability to attract such a range of viewers has made it one of the country's longest-running, most popular local newscasts among adults in any language. In some neighborhoods where the majority are not only Latino but foreign-born, the names of commentators like Jennings, Walter Cronkite or Katie Couric might not provoke even a vague expression of recognition. Many, however, can pick Quezada out of a crowd and do.

At a Fox Hills Mall coffee stand two weeks ago, a stone's throw from the KMEX newsroom, Quezada whose Please see Quezada, Fll fi i -Jmk: i 4 i mar, East LA or Pacoima in complete anonymity. That's not true for Eduardo Quezada, whom everyone seems to know by virtue of his anchoring one of the most-watched local newscasts in the country for the past 25 years. Each weeknight at 6 p.m., nearly half a million people sit down to watch his familiar face and listen to his gravelly voice as he brings them the day's newsin Spanish. With his hair brushed off his face, Quezada resembles magician David Copperfield. As lean as a greyhound and as formal as an ambassador, he sits ramrod straight in front of the KMEX-TV cameras and trots through the news lineup in an almost dated style.

And over the past three weeks, Los Angeles viewers have looked to him and co-anchor Andrea Kutyas to explain this bizarre process of naming a president-elect. "My responsibility is to tell my audience that here, in this country, the vote counts," said Quezada, who has brought news of several controversial elections from the homeland of his viewers, many of them immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America. "U.S. elections cannot be manipulated like it can be in other countries." The U.S. presidential election placed the Latino population into one of the prominent "swing vote" categories.

When those votes were tallied in California, Vice President Al Gore had collected 77 of Latino votes, according to exit polls by the William C. Veldsquez Institute, a nonprofit agency that studies Latino voting trends. Republican nominee George W. Bush was selected by just 23 of Latino voters. It's uncertain what percentage of Latino voters rely on Spanish-language newscasts for political coverage, but by virtue of being the first- ever Spanish-language station in the market, and its longtime dominance here, KMEX and its senior news anchor are easily the leaders in this regard.

In February, Quezada hosted the first televised Spanish-language town hall with a presidential candidate. In this case, Gore's staffers were unable to schedule the vice president, and Bush was alone in the hot seat, aided by a translator. The event at Loyola Marymount University was carried live statewide. "When Bush was in town, Eduardo really asked him some tough questions," said Enrique Arevalo, an im KEN GEORGE "Vertical Limit" tells of a dangerous mountain rescue on K2, the world's second-highest peak. Toch Still Has Trouble Fitting In Challenges that his works present are clear in a tribute program.

fa' Music Review An Emigre With a Case of Unrequited Love of U.S. First Person By LAWRENCE WESCHLER SPECIAL TO THE TIMES During his first tour of the western United States, in 1932, my grandfather, the eminent Weimar-era Austrian-Jewish composer Ernst Toch, used to convene news conferences before his concerts to urge his interlocutors, and through them a wider American public, to open their ears to new sounds. Don't always be trying to force contemporary music into the old established mental compartments (classical, Baroque, Romantic and the like), he'd tell them; such insistence only ends up mangling the music and hurting your ears. Instead, patiently, attentively, allow the new music to build up its own organic compartments inside you, thereby adding immeasurably to the entire auditory experience. Following one such passionate soliloquy, in Seattle, Toch Please see First Person, F3 Even with a small revival of interest in the composer on the East Coast and in Europe now beginning, forget about finding one of the recently released Toch CDs in the classical department of the large Virgin Records on Sunset Boulevard; all that could be discovered in the store with Toch's music on a recent day was a video of the 1940s horror film "Dr.

Cyclops." However, the Villa Aurora where the popular German writer Lion Feuchtwanger once lived and where German and Austrian Emigre's, including Toch, often met has made a small and important effort to recall the composer who never quite seemed to fit in. On Thursday night, a concert of cello and piano music celebrated the installation of the composer's 1924 Bliithner baby grand piano in the Villa's library (and lovely performing space). On Saturday afternoon, the Villa in the Pacific Palisades and now home to a foundation for European American relations sponsored by the German Foreign Office continued the theme with a discussion about the dmigre' Please see Toch, F3 By MARK SWED TIMES MUSIC CRITIC Poor Ernst Toch. Among the major European composers to immigrate to Los Angeles in the 1930s, he seems to be the most forgotten. His music appears nowhere in the concerts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in conjunction with its "Made in California" exhibition, nor is he part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's or the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's related California programming.

File photo Ernst Toch, pictured in 1954, turned occasionally to films, winning three Oscar nominations. In the Know F2 Liz Smith F2 Box Office F4 TV logs Fll-12 Two Miramax executives say the company did what it could to back "The Yards" and is not abandoning indies. F3 Cedar Walton's tried and true program is musically demanding and melodically familiar. F4 Cellist Mstislav Rostropovlchs light and natural attitude also extends to his playing. F5 Estimated weekend grosses: Jon Bon Jovl plays a 1.

"Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas" $27.1 million. modem version of his 2. "Unbreakable" $15 million old sound without any 3. "102 Dalmatians" $8.5 million desperate pandering 4.

"Rugrats in Paris" $6.5 million to nostalgia. F6 5. "Charlie's Angels" $5.2 million 6. "Bounce" $4.4 million Erykah Badu delivers a 7. "Men of Honor" $4.2 million Casual yet urgent 8.

"The Sixth Day" $4 million blend of jazz 9. "Meet the Parents" $3.8 million and hip-hop at public 10. "Little Nicky" $2.3 million video shoot. F6 See story, F4 The Calendar section: Phone: (213) 237-7770 E-mail: calendar.letterslatlmes.com U.S. mail: Calendar Letters Los Angeles Times, 202 W.

1st Los Angeles, CA 90012 The future of the collection at the Museum of Miniatures, closing Jan. 1, is unresolved. F2.