NO LIGHT TRAVEL: What does it cost...

NO LIGHT TRAVEL: What does it cost to drive in Southern California? Chuck Kurz, manager of the Auto Club’s Anaheim office, has it figured out: 44 cents a mile, on average. . . . That total comes from gas, insurance, licensing fees, taxes, depreciation and financing. The national average is just under 40 cents a mile. Kurz says Auto Club research shows the difference comes mostly from higher maintenance costs and steeper insurance.

HENRY’S BOYS: It didn’t take much prodding from Henry Segerstrom, of Swedish descent, to persuade restaurateurs Bill Gustaf Magnuson and Ulf Anders Strandberg, also Swedish, to do something special for the Swedish soccer team training in Orange County. . . . Result: A dinner for the team Thursday night--you can join them at $75 per plate--at Gustaf Anders Restaurant in South Coast Village. Segerstrom’s South Coast Plaza will underwrite the cost, so all proceeds can go to the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce.

STRINGS ATTACHED: It was a black bikini that supermodel Cindy Crawford recently brought to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point. Some of her hosting scenes for MTV’s “House of Style,” running all month, were taped there. Says hotel spokeswoman Nancy Jane Parramore: “The surfers went wild when she went on the beach.” . . . . So how did the diva look off-camera? “Nothing short of stunning,” says Parramore. “That night I went to buy a swimsuit. After seeing Cindy walk around in a string bikini all day, I don’t know what I was thinking.”

DID ISHMAEL DO IT? Up the coast a bit, maybe you’ve seen that 20-foot fiberglass whale called Moe B. Dunes in the swimming area of Newport Bay, just outside the Newport Dunes Resort. Over the weekend someone swiped it and set it up on an elaborate bed of sand on campus at Corona del Mar High School. . . . Blame it on students? The apologetic school has offered to pay for damage to the whale’s neck--from the senior class party funds.