January 26, 1996

DURING the run of the Sundance Film Festival, two visiting cultures coexist awkwardly in this town. "Hey, are you guys movie stars?" exclaimed a pesty skier, bothering two blond women in a restaurant the other evening. By doing this, he broke every local rule. Nobody accosts actors here. And these women were in skiers' plumage, while for movie types who turn up, life is a Gap ad. Also, these women had strolled into the room and sat down in a normal manner. Actors at Sundance perfect a casual skulk and are much more often seen darting out exits than making entrances. But the biggest difference between skiers and festivalgoers concerns their notion of Park City's most challenging sport. Spend one day trying to keep up with the festival's overloaded screening schedule and you won't think it's downhill racing, that's for sure. Sundance offers so many films that the makers of smaller, obscure entries try desperate measures to attract attention. The makers of one film handed out squirt guns. For a film about matchmaking, there were books of matches. Promotional condoms are the gambit for a short film at the upstart Slamdance festival. Nina Menkes, who has a film in the virtually overlooked avant-garde Frontier section, hands out a press release in a folder reading "Yes! I am a witch."

House Republicans and the White House agreed today on a deal that would provide 45 days of spending for parts of the Government that are still without a permanent budget and free enough money to allow most foreign aid programs to continue for the rest of the fiscal year. The House approved the temporary spending measure this evening by a vote of 371 to 42, after rejecting a Democratic effort to restore money for education.

Faced with a steep drop in public financing and rising operating costs, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the 52-acre emerald expanse in the heart of the city's most populous borough, will begin charging admission for the first time in March. The garden, a meticulously groomed triangle near Prospect Park, has become the most popular horticultural attraction in the region. Article, page B4.

To many New Yorkers and even some in the financial community, Felix G. Rohatyn, Wall Street's premier adviser on takeovers, is Lazard Freres & Company, the international investment bank. His work in helping to rescue New York City from bankruptcy in 1975, and on a range of other social and political issues, has secured him an important place in the public mind. And in New York he sometimes seems to have superimposed his name on that of the firm.

On a warm evening last July, the chairman of Daimler-Benz A.G. and two of his subordinates were stopped by the Italian police near Rome's Spanish Steps, "in an exuberant mood" and carrying a bottle of red wine. What ensued is not totally clear. But the Roman police said that a young woman in the group used "unfortunate language" with Italian officers, and that another group member grabbed an officer's wrist, causing a minor injury. The three were taken to the local precinct, where they presented their passports and were eventually let go.