LAJOLLA
VILLAGE
NEWS
Scott Appleby & Kerry ApplebyPayne A Family Tradition of Real Estate Success
858-775-2014
DRE#01197544 DRE#01071814
LA JOLLA’S LOCALLY OWNED INDEPENDENT VOICE SERVING UNIVERSITY CITY AND LA JOLLA TODAY & EVERYDAY
FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2014
SAN DIEGO COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER GROUP
LJTODAY.COM | VOLUME 18, NUMBER 15
Scripps Institute, USC abandon talks of possible merger amid opposition by faculty chairs
FILM & FASHION A vengeful wife has the last laugh in “Smoke,” depicted in this poster designed for the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival, scheduled July 23 to 26. Meanwhile, famed bassist Nik West and her band will rock audiences at the parties. COURTESY PHOTO
Fifth Fashion Film Festival is a local watershed By MARTIN JONES WESTLIN
New businesses, new faces, new trends that can fuel careers and, sometimes, alter lives: The Internet is clogged with stories about the events that spawn them, and those anecdotes rely on the visual component for their impact as never before. Simple motion is a typeface all its own these days – if a picture or a link doesn't yield at least a suggestion of video accompanying a click, you better check your connection. Homemade Internet video, after all, is how Fred Sweet, CEO at San Diego Model Management, founded the La Jolla International Fashion Film Festival. Fifteen years ago, advances in color magazine photography and page production had come into their own as part of the “branding” phenomenon, wherein models and clothiers jockeyed for readers' attentions with sensuality as the fuel behind their artistry; the wholesale development of video portals was only a matter of time. Meanwhile, as the festival gears up for its fifth year Wednesday, July 23, to Saturday, July 26, producer Sweet said that the event is a watershed for La Jolla and for filmmaking in general. Fashion film may be a niche industry, he explained, but that doesn't necessarily translate to limited appeal.
“When you talk about [France's] Cannes [International] Film Festival,” Sweet said, “you don't refer to it with the whole name. You just say 'Cannes,' and everybody knows. The La Jolla festival has the same kind of name recognition. People around the world just say 'La Jolla,' and they know what you mean.” Tough talk for a guy with a staff of maybe five, whose off-season work is off the scale amid invitations to the haute couture and cinema elite. Italy's Paolo Santambrogio will represent his film “Eliza” at the festival, centering on Belgian model Eliza Sys; Ashley Avis' “Smoke” centers on a wife whose loutish husband is on the wrong end of her powers of seduction. Some 65 fashion media professionals, 26 producers and 81 directors from the U.S. to India will ply roughly 90 very short plot-based films (selected from a total of 11,000), dressed to compete with the finest examples of technological excellence, in a neighborhood whose name recognition precedes the event. San Diego Community Newspaper Group, publisher of La Jolla Village News, is the sole print-media sponsor of the event. Fashion is a nearly $300 billion commodity in the
SEE FASHION >> PG. 20
The Scripps Research Institute and the University of Southern California have called off discussions about a possible merger that would have allowed the La Jolla-based nonprofit to receive less of its annual funding frm the National Institutes of Health and would have added to the Los Angeles university’s prestigious life-sciences institutes. Earlier, in a June 20 email to Scripps CEO Michael Marletta and trustees board chair Richard Gephardt, all ten faculty department chairs and the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies called for Marletta’s resignation amid “deepening concern for the future of our beloved institution.” In the email, faculty members reportedly said Scripps can and should remain independent. “We believe that the proposed path with USC would destroy much of what has been built and what we and others in the community value so much,” the group reportedly wrote. Marletta, a chemist by trade, took over Scripps' leadership from longtime president and CEO Richard Lerner in January of 2012. Before moving to Scripps, he served as chair of the chemistry department at the University of California, Berkeley. Scripps, a private research organi-
zation with campuses in La Jolla and Jupiter, Fla., had a 2012 operating budget of $400 million. It relies mostly on grants and, to a lesser extent, phi- MICHAEL lanthropic dona- MARLETTA tions for its funding. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded 86 percent of the institute's revenue in 2013. Meanwhile, competition for NIH funding has increased as the federal agency’s budget has hit a downturn, and Scripps hasn't established a track record of private fund solicitation. The nonprofit Scripps is projecting a $21 million deficit for the current fiscal year ending Sept. 30. Meanwhile, USC began a $6 billion general fundraising and endowment campaign a few years ago. Half that amount has reportedly been raised. Marletta said in a published report that further discussions to address the conflict are imminent. “As we move forward, representatives from the faculty, administration, and board are coming together to thoughtfully review a range of options for the institute’s future,” he said.
Latest ruling on Mt. Soledad cross By DAVE SCHWAB
The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision not to hear arguments on the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial cross means the matter returns to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has previously ruled the
cross violates the constitutional separation of church and state and must be removed. It was the second time the highest court in the nation declined to hear
SEE SOLEDAD >> PG. 20
"Pinnnicle of Pancakes" - San Diego Magazine "Breakfast 5 Best" - USA Today
NOW OPEN La Jolla 909 Prospect St. (in the heart of The Village) 858.459.8800 Downtown 520 Front St. (just south of Market St.) 619.231.7777 Open Daily from 6:30 - 2:30
richardwalkers.com
Santa Fe Omelette