THE LAST WORD:Surprised, confused by DVD choices

We’re still trying to get a read on the typical Costa Mesa and Newport Beach movie fan. According to a story in Sept. 2’s Pilot, the top online DVD rentals in Costa Mesa are “Gettysburg,” “Being John Malkovich,” “13 Conversations About One Thing,” “Equilibrium” and “Entourage” season two. In Newport, the top five are “De-Lovely,” “The Importance of Being Earnest,” “Wimbledon,” “Nowhere in Africa” and “Entourage” season two.

OK, so people like the TV show “Entourage.” But how to reconcile “Gettysburg” and “Being John Malkovich”? And “The Importance of Being Earnest” easily could be seen as a send-up of Newport stereotypes. What gives?

The obvious road to figuring this out is to watch all 10 of these DVDs, probably in a single sitting, and absorb the commonalities and the Newport-Mesa connections. There’s just one problem with that, and it also was talked about in the Pilot story.

Like people on the Balboa Peninsula, we’re too busy watching surf flicks and hoping the fall will bring us some much-needed swell.