[OS X TeX] Beamer, columns within itemize

[Oliver Buerschaper]

>>            \begin{columns}[totalwidth=\linewidth,t]
>
> This tells beamer to use the whole width for the first column, so  
> there is no space left for the second one.

I thought that this option would apply to all columns together ...  
quoting from the manual:

totalwidth=⟨width⟩ will cause the columns to occupy not the whole  
page width, but only ⟨width⟩, all told.

Also, the problem persists even without totalwidth set :-(

Oliver