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‘Lost’ balks
at isle prices

Several sources tell us ABC/Touchstone executives may move the hit TV show "Lost" out of Hawaii because they're losing as much as $500,000 an episode. The production has spent more than $48 million in Hawaii, about 75 percent of its budget.

Studio execs don't want to relocate, so are working with state officials to brainstorm ways to cut expenses here, which run about 35 percent higher than in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Australia is courting the production. Expect a decision no later than March ...

"Lost" producer Jean Higgins and Brenda Kyle, ABC-Touchstone VP of production, have nothing but praise for Honolulu film Commissioner Walea Constantinau.

"I worship the ground that woman walks on," says Kyle. "She's so production knowledgeable. If the city didn't snatch her up, I would have." Adds Higgins: "Lost" is "filming in Hawaii because of Walea."

J.J. Abrams, the drama's creator and executive producer, will direct Universal Pictures' "The Good Sailor," a drama that revolves around the sinking of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis. The ship's captain, Charles McVay III (father of late Hawaii entrepreneur Kimo McVay), was court-martialed for the incident but later exonerated ...

Fans of FoxTV's drama "North Shore" have a petition at www.petitiononline.com/KNSOA100/petition.html to try to save the show. Hollywood sources say, however, that both it and John Stockwell's "Rocky Point" series are dead ...

Director/producer Brian Trenchard-Smith, who filmed the TV movie "Tides of War" on Oahu last year, may produce two more dramas here ...

Dreamworks' scouts have been checking out Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island for a jungle-based movie ...

The University of Hawaii's Academy for Creative Media Special Summer Internship program on the set of the "Superman" movie, set to roll in Sydney, Australia, will be administered through the UHM Study Abroad Center ...

"Everybody Loves Raymond" creator and executive producer Phil Rosenthal and its nine writers have formed the act, "Secrets of the Writers' Room of 'Everybody Loves Raymond'," in which they tell their stories and show film. Hawaii is on the tour schedule ...