How would you like to spend Christmas in Palm Springs with staunchly Reaganite Republican parents, two liberal adult children and an even more liberal, recently sober aunt? Sound ideal? It is. “It really is so timely with the political environment,” said Suzanne Avalon, Idyllwild Actors Theatre founder, who plays the superbly coiffed Republican mother Polly…

Rebekah Louisa Smith, Ph.D., “The Film Festival Doctor,” could have used her doctorate from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, to teach. Instead she carved a niche career as a matchmaker – marrying films to particular international film festivals. She recommended three films for screening at the sixth year of Stephen Savage’s Idyllwild International Festival of…