By James Lomuscio

A plan to move the Westport Arts Center (WAC) to the 22-acre town-owned Baron’s South property received a resounding show of disapproval from the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) tonight.

The “Golden Shadows” mansion on the town-owned Baron’s South. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com

And this was only a pre-application hearing.

“I don’t think it’s going to fly, so go back to the drawing board,” P&Z Chairwoman Catherine Walsh told the plans supporters. “That would be my recommendation.”

The plan, months in the making and presented by Selectwoman Helen Garten and architect William Achilles on behalf of the WAC, is to make the four empty buildings of the former estate of the late Baron Walter Langer von Langendorf, the founder of Evyan Perfumes, into “a community arts campus,” Garten said.

The Westport Library said today that its BOOKED for the Evening Monday, June 5 event honoring award-winning actor, director, screenwriter and author Alan Alan Alda is sold out.

Alan Alda: to be honored June 5. Photo courtesy of Alan Alda

The sell-out is only the second in the 19-year history of the event, said Rachel E. Reese, director of communications and marketing. Last year’s event honoring author Ron Chernow was also sold out.

She said while no more tickets are available for the 7 p.m. event, the library is still accepting donations toward the event with all proceeds benefitting library programs.

Alda, 81, has won six Emmy Awards, received three Tony nominations, is an inductee of the Television Hall of Fame and was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Senator Ralph Owen Brewster in Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” (2004).

By Susan Granger

Disneynature’s “Born in China” focuses exclusively on animal species unique to China: pandas, golden snub-nosed monkeys, snow leopards, Chiru antelope and red-crowned cranes.

Educational, it’s filled with spectacular landscapes and extraordinary close-ups of animal activity, centering on three specific families over the span of a year.

In Sichuan Province’s Wolong National Nature Reserve, attentive Ya Ya is a first-time mother, raising her curious cub Mei Mei in a forest habitat, where solitary adult pandas consume 40 pounds of bamboo each day. Until Mei Mei can climb a tree, making her safe from predators, Ya Ya must watch over her.

Nearby, there’s a mischievous troop of golden snub-nosed monkeys. Tao Tao is an adolescent male being forced out of his family fold to fend for himself.

A view of the new artwork installed today at Bedford Square in the alley leading from Main Street to the Bedford Square courtyard. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Helen Klisser During for WestportNow.com