Producer Roger Birnbaum, whose Caravan Pictures made Powder for the Disney Co., said he found out about Salva's past halfway through shooting the movie and "key production people were told to keep an eye out for anything - just in case."
A Disney spokesman said the company wasn't aware of Salva's criminal record.
Birnbaum said he gave the job to Salva - his first mainstream movie - because he was impressed with his script. But he couldn't say for sure if all cast members were over 18.
The $10 mil, PG-13 Powder stars Mary Steenburgen and Jeff Goldblum. The title role - a teenager - is played by Sean Patrick Flanery, 29.
CELEBRITY DOCKET
* Jury selection for Snoop Doggy Dogg's L.A. murder trial will begin tomorrow. The rap star's charged with the 1993 killing of Philip Waldermariam. Dogg's lawyers say that McKinley Lee, the rapper's bodyguard, who is also charged, shot Waldermariam in self-defense when Waldermariam pulled a gun from his waistband.
Tone Loc was sentenced to three years' probation and 100 hours of community service and ordered to take a class in anger management after pleading no contest to beating a pizza worker who took too long to make the rapper's pie in L.A. He also was told to replace $80 he took from the cash register.
Robert Perlie, 32, was arrested and charged with mugging and robbing Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D., Md.) outside her D.C. home last week. Cops say he has a long rap sheet. Mikulski, 59, ended up with a dislocated finger for which she still wears a sling.
THE O.J. WEB
* Tanya Brown, Nicole Brown Simpson's youngest sis, will read what are called "shocking entries" from her murdered sib's diaries on Jenny Jones' TV show at 9 a.m. tomorrow on Channel 6. She'll render juicy parts detailing O.J. Simpson's violent side.
