DIGITAL L.A. : `LOVELINE'S' DR. DREW GETS CAUGHT UP IN WEB.

Byline: David Bloom 

Before last week, Dr. Drew Pinsky of Pasadena was already approaching media omnipresence - given his ``Loveline'' syndicated radio and MTV shows and lecture appearances around the country - but now he's cinched the title of Mr. All Media - Medical Division with the debut of DrDrew.com (at www.drdrew.com).

Pinsky - a practicing physician and medical director of a Pasadena substance-abuse treatment center - has been dispensing thoughtful advice on love, sex and life to troubled teens and 20-somethings for 16 years on ``Loveline.''

Now, he's gone online with a site about as far as you can imagine from the other big-name medical debut of recent times, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's drkoop.com.

Pinsky's site targets younger people, not only providing forums, information and chat areas on an array of common problems (from abuse to sexually transmitted diseases), it also brings some of the same Hollywood glitz and guests that have made ``Loveline'' so much more than a standard radio call-in show.

Pinsky, who did the radio show for free during its early years on Los Angeles station KROQ-FM, said ``the original naive idea was that someone ought to talk to these kids.''

He's still talking to the kids and now is doing it in a place where a lot of his target audience can be regularly found, the Internet. So moving online is a natural progression.

``My fundamental philosophy is to have fun and do good,'' Pinsky said. ``My whole deal is to try to move the culture in a healthy direction.''

Pinsky said he now makes daily stops at the online site's headquarters, which is based in Pasadena studios built by Intervu, the company that runs his twice-weekly Webcasts with alternative bands and other young performers.

``There's such a different feel than TV or radio,'' Pinsky said of the Webcasts. ``It's intimate and real. You're sitting back and talking.''

Pinsky said he also oversees and approves all the site's medical material but leaves the entertainment-oriented content to others.

A special Bond

James Bond has proved the most durable franchise in moviedom, surviving repeated changes in leading men, creator Ian Fleming's death, the Cold War's end, feminism's rise and an array of other only slightly less daunting challenges.

Now, in conjunction with the upcoming release of the latest James Bond film, ``The World Is Not Enough,'' fans can pick up special-edition DVDs of many of the best previous titles (also available, of course, on VHS video tape with some of the same goodies).

A $200 gift box of seven of the films - ``Thunderball,'' ``Tomorrow Never Dies,'' ``GoldenEye,'' ``Goldfinger,'' ``For Your Eyes Only,'' ``License to Kill'' and ``Live and Let Die'' - was released Monday also.

The DVDs come loaded with an array of goodies appropriate for the iconic nature of the subject matter.

What's on each varies some from title to title, but all come with some combination of audio commentary tracks from directors, writers, soundtrack composers, or cast and crew; ``making of'' booklets and documentaries; music videos; original trailers and radio spots; still-photo galleries and special-effects reels.

And if the discs aren't enough for you, Amazon.com has a special Bond site (www.amazon.com/jamesbond), with streaming video versions of the trailers from the older films plus the trailer of the newest one. It also has a ``Live and Let Die'' outtake, which the company says has never been released before, and related books, toys and other memorabilia.

And finally, if you want to watch all these discs on a device worthy of Bond, check out Panasonic's $999 DVD-L50 PalmTheater, a provident update of last year's DVD-L10. The 5-inch LCD screen is a tad small and low-res, but it comes with a great remote control, good quality playback and all the high-end audio and video outputs you need to use it with your existing home-theater system. Panasonic claims it's the world's smallest and lightest DVD player; at around 2 pounds, Bond's gadget master, Q, would most strongly approve.

Diamond on the Net

You can make money singing in New York subways, or selling records with a label. Daniel Cartier has done both. But for right now, the newly minted Angeleno just loves selling his music on the Internet.

``I've only been up for a little while, but it's been great to know there are people buying my CDs in Georgia and Maine and all these weird, random places,'' said Cartier, who wraps up a series of Viper Room performances tonight on the Sunset Strip.

``In the past, the artist was, what's the expression, at the beck and call of these big corporations, waiting for them to give the green light to do anything,'' said Cartier, who recorded an album in 1997 for Elton John's Rocket Records and an independent release in the New York subway system. ``The great thing about MP3 is that it doesn't make an artist as desperate to get a record deal out there.''

Cartier's most recent collection of music, the terrific six-song ``Glorified Demos,'' is being sold on MP3.com (at www.mp3.com/cartier) as either downloadable tracks or as custom-burned CD that arrives a couple of days after ordering.

Cartier keeps half of each sale's proceeds, a far better deal than he would have with any label, he said.

Cartier - a slender, rather fey fellow whose shaved head is decorated with an array of striking tattos - isn't opposed to labels necessarily. In fact, he joins others who say they have an important role.

``I know I've got a lot of labels looking at me now, and if the right label gave me what I needed, I'd sign,'' Cartier said. ``But it's really not the money, it's what are they going to do to get my record out there?''

In the meantime, check out Cartier's music; his intense and thoughtful rock sounds a lot like the band Live (perhaps with better vocal range), a comparison he said he's honored to have made.