Cassidy Oak Chytraus, male model movie star, stabbed to death in front of Ocean Beach café

San Diego — Supermodel Liz Hurley is said to be inconsolable over the loss of Cassidy Oak Chytraus, a hunky male model and budding movie star who was stabbed to death last month in front of an Ocean Beach café. Hurley and Chytraus, Cosmopolitan magazine's male model of the year, had just filmed what was supposed to be the first of a series of glitzy TV spots for perfume giant Estée Lauder. The 28-year-old muscular Vogue swimsuit model and Baywatch extra and his mother, Kay Dean Chytraus of Salt Lake City, were having birthday dinner for Chytraus's 30-year-old brother Cody, a San Diego construction worker, when they noticed another patron peering at them from across the room. When they left the restaurant at about 12:45 in the morning, the man reportedly followed them into the parking lot and began making lewd remarks about Kay Dean, causing Cody to step forward and say, "That's my mother you're talking about." The assailant then took out a knife and "sliced him up the middle," according to an account by Kenneth Chytraus, father of the boys. When Cassidy intervened, the stranger stabbed him in the heart, killing him almost instantly. Forty-three-year-old Daniel Zolezzi of San Diego was apprehended about 15 minutes later in a nearby field and was arrested in connection with the murder. Meanwhile, Hurley has told a Scottish newspaper that she was "devastated" by the slaying. "He was just so enchanting. He was really, really good looking and had everything going for him. We spent two days together making the commercial. We danced, we sat at a table looking at each other and had only finished filming two weeks ago. I cannot really take it in that he has gone."

Czech mate

That controversial Rancho Santa Fe-based heiress to the Dow Jones fortune is back in the news, this time paying a reported $2 million for a minority stake in Stillking Films, a Czech film company. Elizabeth Goth, 33, inherited a big chunk of Dow Jones when her mother, a member of the Dow-founding Bancroft family, died here two years ago. Goth, who also raises and shows saddlebred horses, made waves last year when she and a cousin challenged the way Dow Jones was being run ... The American Urological Association, holding its convention here this month, is likely to generate big hype when Dr. Harin Padma-Nathan unveils the results of his research on the effects of Viagra, the impotency drug.

Haley's million

A San Diego man is one of just two dozen people who hope to make a killing from a lawsuit against the national Republican Party for not paying off a million-dollar bet. Back in 1995, the GOP's then-national chairman Haley Barbour promised in a full-page newspaper advertisement that the party would pay a million dollars to anyone who could prove that the GOP-sponsored budget would boost Medicare more than 50 percent. The dare generated more than 80 replies from folks who claimed Barbour was wrong -- and that they deserved the million-dollar prize. The Republicans disagreed, and no money was handed out, but it didn't end there. Twenty people, including two members of Congress (Democrats, of course), a Navy cook, and a convicted burglar, brought suit against the GOP, claiming that the Barbour ad was just plain wrong. The complaint is wending its way through the federal courts, but the GOP set off a buzz among the plaintiffs when it agreed to settle out of court with one of them: White House staffer Robert Shireman, the original plaintiff. According to a report in the Washington Post, the Republicans agreed to pick up Shireman's attorneys fees for the three-year-old court battle but paid him nothing else. Meanwhile, the newspaper says, Ralph Valle of San Diego has "taunted" Barbour with a note saying, "Courts will decide." Even if it never has to pay off, observers say the contest will cost the GOP millions in legal fees.

Enjoy the sun

San Diego is high on the "worst case" list of poverty-stricken families, worst case being they can't afford decent housing or spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent. Nationwide, Philadelphia had the highest "worst case" percentage -- 49 percent. Los Angeles, San Diego, and Tampa, Florida, were second with 48 percent.

Contributor: Matt Potter