Darth Vader

WASHINGTON - Hollywood and Washington came together this weekend for two star-studded days that honored five performing arts legends, their careers and their contributions to American culture. The achievements of conductor James Levine, actress and dancer Chita Rivera, singer and songwriter Paul Simon, actress Elizabeth Taylor and actor James Earl Jones were celebrated at the 25th annual Kennedy Center Honors. "Each one of you is known to the American people in a way that runs deeper than fame," President Bush told the honorees at a White House reception Sunday.

WASHINGTON -- Ah, justice! How wondrously do its wheels spin! On one hand, a president gets acquitted by the Senate after lying to a grand jury and being found in contempt of court for giving a false deposition. On the other, a common citizen who complains about senatorial foot-dragging in the trial against that president faces six months in the slammer and a $500 fine.This strange confluence of events culminated the other day with the federal judge in the Paula Jones case ordering President Clinton to reimburse her lawyers and others for about $90,000 in expenses, and then a jury convicting a man of disrupting Congress by shouting from the Senate gallery.

It has invaded Toys R Us, fast-food chains like Taco Bell, and book giant Barnes & Noble, so it's no shocker that the Star Wars merchandising monster has swooped into your local CompUSA, too.Enter "Star Wars: Episode I -- Racer" and "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," two new Lucas Arts games based on elements of the movie. Even if you haven't seen the film, or don't plan to, these two games can entertain.Based on the pod-racing scene in the movie, "Racer" is a rarity in the PC gaming world these days: You can play it right out of the box with nary a glance at the instruction book.

IT'S COMING! PUT YOUR ear to the page and listen ... Bom-bom! Bom bom bom bom-bom! Bom bom bom bom bom! Bom bom bom bom ... That's right: It's the theme from "Star Wars," the movie series that gave the world a whole new lexicon, including such phrases as "the Force," "Death Star," "light saber," "lexicon" and "licensed merchandise.""Star Wars" has become an important and cherished part of our shared cultural heritage, like Starbucks and Pez. And soon another chapter will be added to the "Star Wars" legend with the release of the long-awaited new installment in the series, "Episode I: The Empire Gets a Building Permit."

Los Angeles -- The guard at the front gate of the 20th Century Fox studio lot here is giving directions to the offices of television producer Steven Bochco, but they also lead straight to the heart of American popular culture."

WASHINGTON -- Forget standing on line for eight hours or camping out overnight. Members of Congress and their aides got to see the re-release of "Return of the Jedi" the old-fashioned way.Free tickets.Dozens of lawmakers, Capitol Hill staffers and their families enjoyed a little intergalactic perk last night as they filed past the spotlights and into a free private screening at the Uptown Theater -- a preview of the "Jedi" re-release sponsored by Twentieth Century Fox.For the rest of the earthly population, the movie opens Friday.

You can almost picture the advertising executives in a huddle, plotting their crucial play. The sponsor signals from the sidelines, the creative team snaps the ball and the agency runs with it. And after 30 seconds their time is up. Shocked, everyone asks: "THAT cost a million dollars?"Whether the mind-boggling barrage of mostly mundane Super Bowl commercials is worth what advertisers pay, they are, to many viewers, a spectator sport more interesting than the game. And, as always, it's not the most expensive ads people will be talking about today around the water cooler.

TO MANY SUBURBAN residents, developers are the 1990s equivalent of Darth Vader -- an evil farmland-gobbling, road-clogging, neighborhood-ruining, money-grubbing, politician-bribing force. In fact, developers are merely business people, out to make a profit by providing a product that meets a great private need and causes great public concerns.There are good developers and bad ones. Tied to their fate are thousands of people in the building trades and real estate industry, as well as money for the government services people desire.

Washington -- The National Cathedral offers European tradition with a New World twist. From stained glass embedded with a moon rock to a gargoyle of Darth Vader, there's no question the church in northwest Washington is as American as apple pie.But with flying buttresses and soaring towers, it just happens to look as Old World as Notre Dame.Cathedrals sometimes elicit yawns from tourists, but this one has so many intriguing details even children will be fascinated.There's the corner dedicated to Abraham Lincoln, with shiny pennies embedded in the floor.

You're Bud Selig, and Peter Angelos says on Page 1A of today's Sun that your role in trying to forge a labor settlement is "beyond my comprehension."You add it to your little list.The list is long, and getting longer. And when major-league baseball gets the chance to put a team in Northern Virginia, it might come in handy.Selig can use it to remind the owners of the time Angelos said a salary cap was only an "interim" solution.The time he rewrote their resolution canceling the season.The time he refused to attend an antitrust hearing in Washington, then found time to do lunch with Darth Vader -- er, Donald Fehr -- two days later.