FRENCH CONNECTION: If you’re French, you’re well...

FRENCH CONNECTION: If you’re French, you’re well aware that Thursday is Bastille Day, to commemorate French independence. They’re celebrating a little early today at Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach. The first of its annual Bastille Day runs, to benefit local charities, starts at 7:45 a.m. Organizers say 4,000 runners are expected. Biggest single corporate entry: PacifiCare of Cypress, which is bringing 180 runners.

HIGHER IN HOLLYWOOD: It may not rank with the hoopla of movie openings at Mann’s Chinese Theatre, but Chapman University film students are excited about the premiere Wednesday of their four-part TV drama, “Higher Education.” It will be shown--preceded by a reception--at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Plaza Theater in North Hollywood. . . . The students wrote and directed, but they got a boost from one of their professors, Pamela Ezell: She persuaded her good friend, TV veteran Ed Asner, to star in it.

SPEEDY RISE: For years, while playing with local rock band Dexter, Mark Mancina of Huntington Beach was convinced his years studying music--two at Golden West and five at Cal State Fullerton--had been wasted. “The band was going nowhere,” he says. . . . But Mancina started writing music for movies. His latest two hits: He wrote the entire score for the critically acclaimed “Speed” and worked on some of the music for “The Lion King.” Says Mancina: “Now all those years in college are paying off.”

FOLLOWING CODE: Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) has refused to consider being a write-in candidate on the November ballot for the 70th Assembly District seat he’s giving up. Ferguson is relinquishing his seat to run for the state Senate next year. . . . The write-in is the idea of conservative Republicans, angered that moderate Marilyn C. Brewer won the party’s June primary. They may seek another candidate. But Ferguson says a write-in would break the “Republican code” to support the party’s nominee.