Seeing is Believing?

Searching for the next Quentin Tarantino or Ken Burns among the scores of fledging filmmakers?

They may be landing soon at a hotel near Los Angeles International Airport.

France’s Cannes has its prestigious international film festival, and Park City, Utah, has its Sundance Festival for independent movies.

Now the Los Angeles Airport Marina Hotel has the “UFO Film Festival Extravaganza.”

The festival is an added feature at UFO Expo West in June, one of the more unusual annual conventions in Southern California.

Organized by the UFO Central Home Video Organization, the festival is described in a brochure as “a two-hour plus video spectacular” of “the 40 most important UFO documentaries ever made!”

The brochure also says there is “ample free parking on the hotel grounds” for those arriving in earthbound vehicles.

No Down-and-Out Dogs Here

Beverly Hills now has its own Canine Price Index.

The new issue of Smart Money magazine compares dog supply prices in Beverly Hills and other cities. Oatmeal-based dog shampoo is only $7.99 in Beverly Hills, cheaper than the $9.99 price in Atlanta and St. Louis.

A toenail trim for a German shepherd is a mere $4, according to the magazine, well below the $15 in New York. A session with a dog psychiatrist is $150, less than New York’s $300.

On the high end, a single-occupancy kennel in Beverly Hills is $133 a week, compared to $112 in New York and $84 in Seattle. Basic obedience school is $850, more than twice the $360 in St. Louis.

But a 40-pound bag of dog food comes in at a relatively low $24.99, compared to $42.85 in St. Louis, $34.65 in New York but higher than the $22 in Seattle.

No Longer a Ramblin’ Man

What do 1970s rock stars do when they hit middle age?

Chuck Leavell, who rose to fame in the 1970s as the keyboard player in the Allman Bros. band and who has continued to play with the Rolling Stones when the band tours, is a tree farmer as well as spokesman for the Georgia Forestry Assn.

Officials with the National Arbor Day Foundation over the weekend even honored Leavell, making him the first rock star cited for his “contributions to tree planting” by the foundation.

Briefly. . .

The Learning Annex offers for $29 a class titled “The Art of Breathing” . . . Post-Oscar gig: Hans Zimmer, who won an Academy Award in the original score category for his music from “The Lion King,” composed music for a new Coca-Cola commercial called, appropriately, “Circle of Life” . . . At least he has some supporters: Economists at Minneapolis bank Norwest in a newsletter say that Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan “might be nominated for a congressional economic medal of honor” . . . An ad for eyeglasses maker Safilo Group in the trade publication 20/20 reads: “A lot of people believe O.J. was framed. Well, why on earth weren’t we consulted?”