Spielbergs’ ‘Bridge’ to Past

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Ace director Steven Spielberg turned to his own father for research assistance on his latest film.

For it turned out Arnold Spielberg, 98, had personal knowledge of events portrayed in Cold War drama “Bridge of Spies.”

Spielberg senior, then an electrical engineer, had been on a cultural exchange visit to what is now Russia in 1960 when an American U-2 spy plane was shot down while on a reconnaissance mission over Soviet airspace.

The Soviets put the remains of the plane on public display in Moscow and the elder Spielberg not only remembered seeing it at the time, he had kept photos of it, too, and showed them to his son to help his authentic re-creation of the event.

The DreamWorks Studios movie has Tom Hanks playing a lawyer who negotiates the release of that plane’s imprisoned pilot, Gary Powers, in exchange for a Russian spy captured by the Americans, Rudolf Abel.

Speaking after a Westwood screening of the film, the 68-year-old director, who lives in Pacific Palisades, said, “A soldier at the display of the plane’s remains saw my father’s American passport, took him to the head of the line and repeated really angrily to the watching crowd, ‘Look what your country is doing to us.’”

In-Flight Delivery

After spending her honeymoon biking, scuba diving and relaxing on the beach in Bali, Dr. Angelica Zen had to go straight back to work – on her plane ride home.

The UCLA internal medicine and pediatrics resident physician was sleeping her way across the Pacific Ocean on a 12-hour China Airlines flight from Taipei to Los Angeles when she was awakened by the flight crew asking for a doctor.

“I’m in residency and haven’t been in medicine that long,” said Zen, 29. “It was my first time being called on. I was a little bit nervous and excited, too.”

When she approached a pregnant passenger complaining of stomach pains, Zen realized the woman was actually in labor.

The flight crew cleared a few seats in coach, laying the woman on the floor while draping blankets around the aisle to eke out a little privacy. The flight attendants gave Zen what little equipment they had such as scissors and umbilical cord clamps, which the airline actually keeps on board.

“The only thing we had for pain was Tylenol,” Zen said.

The pilots diverted the plane to Anchorage, and about a half-hour prior to landing Zen said that the baby’s head started to crown. A mere 15 minutes later, she’d successfully delivered a girl.

“I was just grateful I had the training, especially when trying to stay calm under pressure with so many eyes on me,” Zen said of a few births she’d handled with a lot of supervision during medical school. “It was really helpful having the flight attendants there, too. They were awesome, like my nurses.”

Staff reporters Sandro Monetti and Marni Usheroff contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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